Cook, Arthur B.: Zeus: a study in ancient religion (Band 3,1): Zeus god of the dark sky (earthquake, clouds, wind, dew, rain, meteorits): Text and notes (Cambridge, 1940)

The birth of Erichthonios

presence of an interested god, but substitutes Hephaistos1 for Zeus.
In lieu of himdtion, wreath, and thunderbolt Hephaistos has but a
chlamysaxid along knobbed staff. Zeus2 himself is accommodated on
the other side of the vase, where he sits on a handsome folding stool,
dad in chiton and himdtion. In his left hand he holds a lotiform
sceptre; in his right, a metal phidle, which Nike standing before him
has just filled. On the tendrils that spring from the handle-palmettes
are poised four of the daintiest Erotes to be found in the whole range
°f Greek art. Their presence may be taken to indicate that obverse
and reverse form a single scene and one which has the multiplication
°f young life for its ultimate meaning.

Hephaistos is definitely established in the room of Zeus on a
red-figured kylixixova Corneto,preserved in Berlin3. This magnificent
vase (fig. 95), wfcich has been attributed to 'the Kodros-painter4,'
fortunately adds names to all the persons concerned. The external
design shows again the familiar type of Ge presenting Erichthonios
to Athena. Behind Athena stands a dignified, not to say Zeus-like,
Hephaistos wearing a bay-wreath on his head and a chlamys over
his shoulder: he holds a long staff in his right hand and rests his

work generally is, he only once shows himself a remarkable artist, and that is not on any
01 his signed vases, but on the Munich stamnos with the Birth of Erichthonios'...).

1 So most critics, including Panofka, Inghirami, Jahn, Muller—Wieseler, Hauser

together with Welcker Alt. Denkm. in. 422 n. 7, B. Sauer Das sogenannte
Thescion Leipzig 1899 p. 58 f., etc. C. Lenormant op. cit. i. 276 sees 'Neptune frappant
a te»e avec son trident' (trident-head missing!). Gerhard Auserl. Vasenb. iii. 3 n. 2
hesitates between Hephaistos and Poseidon, but id. p. 5 decides for Poseidon. A. Flasch
jn the Ann. d. Inst. 1877 xlix. 427 ff. is for Kekrops or Hephaistos, preferably the
latter; C. Robert Archacologische Macrchen aus alter und neutr Zeit Berlin 1886 p. 192
2, for Kekrops. E. Braun in the Ann. d. Inst. 1841 xiii. 92 f., bent on recognising the
Mrth of Dionysos {supra p. 183), is forced to interpret the standing god as Zeus.

2 Almost all exponents from Inghirami loc. cit. onwards have identified the seated
Personage as Zeus. Yet Panofka loc. cit. says 'Neptune,' and C. Lenormant op. cit. i.
2»5,iii. 34 ff. 'Jupiter Polieus' or 'Zeus Eleuthirius' as a deity akin to 'Neptune Erech-

Jahn loc. cit. is content with 'ein bartiger Mann.' And Muller—Wieseler loc.
ctt. suggest ' Erichthonios als Herrscher und Richter des Landes, neben ihm die Gottin
Dike' (!).

J Eurtwiingler Vasensamml. Berlin ii. 718 f. no. 2537, W. Helbig in the Bull. d. Inst.
1 76 P- 2°5 A. Flasch ' Tazza cornetana rappresentante la nascita di Erichthonios' in
he Ann. d. Inst. 1877 xlix. 418—446, Mon. d. Inst, x pi.- 39, 1—3 ( = ™y fig- 95).
^einach Hep. Vases i. 208, R. Engelmann in Roscher Lex. Myth. i. 1305 f- fig- M-
^°llignon in Daremberg— Saglio Diet. Ant. i. 986 fig. 1278, Harrison Myth. Mon. Anc.
Ath- P- xxx f. with fig. 3.

4 B. Graef 'Die Zeit der Kodrosschale' in the Jahrb. d. kais. deutsch. arch. Inst.
'«98 x.ii. 66, 7i, Hoppin Red-fig. Vases ii. i;3 no. 1 ('The artist belongs to the first
Period of the Free Stvle and may have been the teacher of Aristophanes'), J. D. Beazley
S , , Vas"'"'aler des rotfigurigen Stils Tubingen 1925 p. 426 no. 6 ('Sehr feme
c>alen mit Anklangen an Parthenonisches').