Cook, Arthur B.: Zeus: a study in ancient religion (Band 2,2): Zeus god of the dark sky (thunder and lightning): Appendixes and index (Cambridge, 1925)

Zeus Philios !205

first century, or earlier1. Kisa goes further and claims that already in Ptolemaic
times craftsmen had begun to cover glass cups with gold and silver2. How else
are we to understand Athenaios' statement that 'two glass vessels of open-work
gold' were carried in the pageant of Ptolemy ii Philadelphos3 ? After this it may
be conceded that the technique of the Antioch chalice is no bar to accepting the
first-century date suggested by its shape.

A third criterion may be sought in the style of the chalice-decoration.
Mr T. Uavies Pryce in a recent letter to me (Nov. 12, 1924) says : 'Apart from
the Christian figures, the decorative elements are undoubtedly similar to those
used by the first and second century sigillata potters.'4 The vines, though not
so purely naturalistic as those of the Augustan age5, are as yet untouched by the
incipient stylisation of the third century6 and show little, if any, trace of that
formality which as time went on became more and more marked7 till it culmi-
nated in the Coptic art of the sixth century8. Mr W. A. Watkins draws my
attention (Nov. 15, 1924) to the fact that the vines on the chalice resemble, on
the one hand, the vine in the Catacomb of Domitilla, which likewise springs
from the ground with a double stem and has birds and Cupids among its

1 A. Kisa op. cit. ii. 604 notes that its handles, inlaid with gold, resemble those of
Alexandrine silver cups found e.g. at Bosco Reale.

2 Id. ib. ii. 600.

3 Kallixenos of Rhodes wepl 'AXe^avSpeias 4 [Frag. hist. Gr.'m. 62 Muller) ap. Athen.
199 f voXiva. didxpvaa 5vo.

4 Mr Pryce's arguments include the following: (a) The vine-scroll is comparable with
that on a sherd from Wroxeter dated 90—110 or 120 a.d. (J. P. Bushe-Fox Excavations
on the Site of the Roman Town at Wroxeter Shropshire, in igi2 {Reports of the Research
Committee of the Society of Antiquaries of London No. 1) Oxford 1913 p. 38 f. no. 23
fig. 12). (b) The eagle with outspread wings and head turned to right or left was
a common stock-type with the potters of s. i and ii a.d. (F. Oswald—T. Davies Pryce
An Introduction to the study of Terra Sigillata London 1920 pis. 6, 4 ; 7, 2 ; 9, 4).

(c) The rabbit eating grapes appears in the period Domitian—Trajan [eid. ib. pi. 19, 5).

(d) The basket with outspread rim and externally concave sides occurs often on pottery
of 100—150 a.d. [eid. ib. pi. 17, 4 in a vintage scene with birds, J. Dechelette Les vases
ceramiques ornis de la Gaule Romaine Paris 1904 ii. 154 f. types 1082 and 1087). (e) The
repeated rosette frequently forms an upper bordering in Italian sigillata designs and is
sometimes copied by the later or first-century Gaulish sigillata potters.

5 A silver bowl of this period, formerly in the Blacas collection and now in the British
Museum, is covered with exquisitely natural vinedeaves and tendrils in gilded repousse-
work (Brit. Mus. Cat. Silver Plate p. 22 no. 82 pi. ri).

6 A circular mirror of about s. iii a.d., found in a woman's grave near Sofia and now
in the British Museum, has a frame of silver-gilt bronze with a somewhat schematised
vine-scroll and peacocks worked a jour on a backing of wood (ib. p. 28 no. 106 pi. 15).

7 E.g. L. von Sybel Christliche Antike Marburg 1909 ii figs. 45 (sarcophagus in the
Lateran Museum at Rome), 46 (sarcophagus in San Lorenzo at Rome), 74 (ivory throne
at Ravenna) = R. Garrucci Storia delta arte cristiana nei primi otto secoli delta chiesa
Prato 1881 v pi. 302, 2f., v pi. 306, 1—4, vi pi. 414 f.

8 Sir Martin Conway in The Burlington Magazine for Sept. 1924 (xlv. io6ff.)
compares the chalice with the sculptured semidome of a Coptic niche now in the Cairo
Museum (s. vi), with the back and front of a carved ivory fragment in the same collection
(s. v—vi), with a panel of the ivory throne at Ravenna (c. 550 a.d.), etc. Accordingly he
would date the chalice c. 550 a.d. (ib. p. no). But on all the monuments cited by him
the vines are far advanced in stylisation.