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)

200

Hephaistos and Athena

belongs to the same language as the place-name Phaistdsx. Now
if—as we have argued2—the 'Minoan' earth-goddess (Rhea) had for
consort a 'Minoan' sky-god (Kronos) armed with a double axe, it
is tempting to guess that Hephaistos, whose double axe of bronze
is mentioned by Pindar as a 'holy axe3' and is often figured on sixth-
century vases4, was in the remote prehistoric past the veritable
husband of Athena. On which showing Hephaistos and Athena

Religion Giessen 1913 p. 41 f. fig. 31 (inexact), Nilsson Min.-Myc. Rel. pp.273, 386 f-)-
Bottomless vases are in the nature of funnels, and sometimes certainly, as in the Dipylon
cemetery at Athens, conveyed liquid offerings through the earth to the dead below (supra
ii. 1056). It is therefore reasonable to think that the tubular vessels used in the cult of
the 'Minoan' snake-goddess served a similar purpose and prove her to have been aJ>
origine an earth-mother (R. Zahn loc. cit. p. 34, Nilsson Min.-Myc. Rel. pp. 271 ff.>
386 f.). However, Sir A.J. Evans The Palace of Minos London 1935 iv. 1 pp. xii, 138 ff-,
having found in a ' Minoan' house at Knossos three clay tubes with cups attached to their
sides, thinks that these were receptacles for domestic snakes, derived from common
drain-pipes. He offers the same explanation of all the 'snake tubes' mentioned above,
comparing their loops with the looped variety of water-pipe. Ingenious, but far from
convincing.

(d) Hellenistic relief-ware of Graeco-Egyptian style has sometimes by way of prophy-
lactic (?) decoration an emblem or emblems of Athena. I figure three small vases in my
collection, which are made of salmon-coloured unglazed (?) clay and were found at Ephesos.
They exhibit the following designs: (1) on the one side a helmeted head of Athena, on
the other a Gorgdneion of beautiful type (fig. 119. Height 3\ inches); (2) a GorgSneion
with dishevelled hair and a large six-rayed star beneath an inverted lotos-pattern round
the rim (fig. 120. Height i-J inch); (3) two snakes with crossed tails above a single large1
snake encircling the lower part of the vase (fig. 121. Height 4J inches).

It is perhaps not too hazardous to conjecture that Trojan Gesichtsumen .and the like
point backwards to a primitive belief that earthen vessels should take the form of the
earth-mother of whose very substance they were made. Be that as it may, in view of the
varied types of these sacred or semi-sacred vases it is quite conceivable that—as Kretschrne
supposed—Athena drew her name from a clay vessel used in her service, though I shou
prefer to conclude that the vessel drew its name from the goddess.

1 I do not propose to treat '"RcpaiaTos and $aurr6s as etymologically connected, thoug
many years ago I toyed with the notion (Class. Rev. 1904 xviii. 85 n. 1). I now agree
with Farnell Cults of Gk. States v. 390 n.a: 'There is no vraisemblance'm the supPoS1'
tion.' Platon, who might be cited in its support, though a giant in philosophy, was but
a dwarf in philology (Plat. Crat. 407 C EPM. rt Se Sri rbv "Rtpaia-rov; vv N<tye'J'
2ft. r) rbv yevvaiov rbv ipaeoi laTopa. tpwTifS; EPM. loiKa. 2Q. ovKoOf ovtos fief iravrl Sy^os
<S>aicrTos &v, Tb t\Ta. Tpoae\Kvadp.evos;). Nevertheless it remains probable that the

which produced the word QaiaTbs produced also the word "H^ouotos.

2 Supra ii. 548 ff.

3 Find. 01. 7. 35 ff. avlx 'AcpaiffTov Tix""-l<nv | x^KeMTtfi ireXUei wa^pos 'Adavo.
Kopvtpav kcit iLtcpav \ dvopova-aicr' d\d\a\£ev vtrepfi&Kei /3o£ and frag. 34 Bergk4, 34 Schroe
ap. Hephaist. 15. 13 p. 51, 16 Consbruch 8s Koi rmels ayv<p ire^Kei t4kcto f*
'Affavav (quoted also, less exactly, by Marius Plotius Sacerdos de metris in H- * e
Grammatici Latini vi. 545, 5). Later writers commonly use the term ttAcws (Ap°» 0
1.3. 6, Loukian. dial. deor. 8, Philostr. mai. imagg. 1. 27. 1, Nonn. Dion, ii- 324> +
250, schol. Plat. Tim. 23 D—E p. 948 a 12), sometimes /3ou7r\ij£ in the sense of ^
for felling an ox' (Nonn. Dion. 8. 83, 27. 325, et. mag. p. 371, 41). Cp. the v^eli
presented by Hephaistos to Polytechnos of Kolophon (supra ii. 693).

* Infra §9 (h) ii (6).