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)

Zeus Thaulios 279

and in its turn destroyed by fire c. 200 B.C. It was approximately
26.50m long by 16-82- broad. On the east side the stylobate is
Preserved, with the two lower steps of white local marble. V he
building itself was a hexastyle peripteral temple of the Done
order. Its columns, of pSros coated with stucco, carried an entabla-
ture of which portions have come to light. Among them may be
noted a marble metope with the relief of a lion killing a bull ; also
various fragments of the cornice with carved and painted decora-
tion*. To the east of the temple are the foundations of six struc-
tures differing in date: one at least of these seems to have been
a natskos, the rest bases or altars of rectangular plan, built olporos
in massive blocks The finds comprise many pedestals and frag-
ments of statues, bronze phidlai for libation, and broken vases
ranging as late as ,. iii or s. ii B.C. Of greater moment are the
inscriptions. There are ten bronze plaques preserving the terms ot
twenty-five laws or proxeny-decrees. There is the fragment ot a
decree in the Thessalian dialect. And there are other records ot
interest^ For instance, five large and five small pieces of inscribed
ttlai, which include a fresh dedication to the Thessalian goddess
Enhodia\ Finally, in post-classical times the temple-area was used
as a Christian cemetery.

It would seem, then, that from the neolithic age down to our
own era the spot was in some sense holy ground. It is not, h™ev<~r>
quite obvious what deity or deities were here worshipped by the
Greeks. On the one hand, the prevalence of female terra-cotta
figurines in the archaic period points to the possibility that the
sanctuary was then devoted to a female divinity5. On the other
hand, A. S. Arvanitopoullos, on the strength of certain inscriptions
actually found at some distance from the temple, believes that it
was the cult-centre of Zeus ThaiUios. Perhaps it may be suggested that
at Pherai, as at Larissa6, the cult of Zeus was associated with that

. 1 A. M. Woodward in toe Journ. Hell. Stud. 1925 xlv. M4. «■ in Tl,e Year's W°rk
'« Class. Stud. i924—lg25 p. 68.

A. J. B. Wace in the Tourn. Hell. Stud. 1921 xli. 273- T„
E.g. a dedication in large letters cr6.ca.vro k.t.X., the formula dto&a ™J**Z
"W*w (Bull. Corr. Hell. ,9,4 xlviii. 482 with n. 4, A. M. Woodward m the/on™.
«««. Stud. 1925 xiv. Mg)

1 Bull. Corr. Hell. ,924 xlviii. 482, A. M. Woodward in the Journ. Hell- Stud- .925
*lv- "4 f. For 'E-oSIa as an appellation of Artemis, Hekate, and Kore see U. jes
iau}y-Wissowa Real-Ene. v. 263+f. ,lud un-

„ BuU- Corr. Hell. 1926 L 562, A. M. Woodward in the Journ. Hell. 9iu ■ j

i 57"
s«pra ii. n55 n. 4.