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)

662

The birth of Athena in art

had been some ritual practice of immemorial sanction; and it is
difficult to resist the conclusion that the practice concerned was
that of the Dipolieia.

The matter calls for careful investigation. Fortunately we know
that the subject of Pheidias' pediment was no new thing. Rather it
was the last term of a whole series, which, mainly by the help of
numerous extant vase-paintings, can be traced back to the early
part of the sixth century B.C. Our business therefore is to classify
the vase-paintings and, adducing any collateral evidence that is
found, to consider how far they may be based upon underlying
cults either at Athens or elsewhere.

(6>) The birth of Athena in art.

Vases representing the birth of Athena fall into five groups ,
according as they depict (i) Zeus in labour helped by the Kileithyi3-1'
(2) Athena emerging from the head of Zeus, which has been cleft
by Hephaistos; (3) a fusion of these two types—Zeus attended

1 R. Schneider Die Geburt der Athena Wien 1880 p. 8 ff. distinguishes four

(a) the moment of birth; (b) the moment before birth; lc) the moment after biP '

(3);

(d) a later moment. These correspond with my types as follows: (a) = (3> + ~2~ '
0) = (l),+ li; (4=(4); (a') = (5). Schneider's useful list of vases and Etruscan n«rr

(op. cit. pp. 9—16) is extended by P. Baur 'Eileithyia' in Philologus 1899— 19°l . ^
viii. 503 (= P. V. C. Baur ' Eileithyia' in The University of Missouri Studies W1 '

1 SupP1
902 i- *'

my tyPf

78), who adds a fine, though fragmentary, black-figured pinax belonging
(3), found on the Akropolis at Athens (F. Studniczka in the 'E0. 'Apx- 188 P' an(j a
pi. 8, 1 ( = my fig. 484), Graef Ant. Vascn Athen iv. 251 f. no. 2578 pi. ;n
black-figured vase of my type (4), now in the Museo Municipale at Orvieto (G. gf
the Journ. Hell. Stud. 1899 xix. 140 n. 3). The most important addendum to |'iepjl0£)e5
Schneider and Baur is the black-figured vase of my type (1) lately found W
(infra fig. 475). pudti&ty

See further E. Gerhard Athenens Geburt auf Vasenbildem und auf dem J a p;e
giebel Berlin 1838, P. W. Forchhammer Die Geburt der Athene Kiel 184'' <~>' -y ' in
Geburt der Athene Kiel 1841 pp. 1—18 with pi., T. Bergk 'Die Geburt der At ^
the Jahrb. f. class. Philol. i860 lxxxi. 289—319, 377—424 ( = id. Kleine ph''"A^-
Schriften Halle a.S. 1886 ii. 635—722), G. Loeschcke 'Tiber Darstellungen der ^ ^
Geburt' in the Arch. Zeit. 1876 xxxiv. 108—119, P. Stengel 'Die Sagen v_ g0)
Geburt der Athene und Aphrodite' in the Jahrb. /. class. Philol. 1885 «»>•
H. B. Walters in the Brit. Mtis. Cat. Vases ii. 11 and in his History of Ancten ;j.
London 1905 ii. 15 f., W. Deonna 'La naissance d'Athena' in the Rev. A'n '.'perrot—
350—354 ('un simple mythe iconographique'? cp. the Karlsruhe statuette^ffoB1
Chipiez Hist, de I'Art vi. 740 fig. 332), which implies primitive belief in n^sSnnCe
parent's head), id. Didale Paris 1930 p. 263 n. 5 with fig. 17, 4, G. Ancey
d'Athena' in the Rev. Arch. 1913 i. 209—211 (Athena the sneeze of Zeus !)• yast'^'

Collections of vases for comparative study are given by Gerhard Juse^{ mittots<
i pis. 1—5 and by Lenormant—de Witte £/. man. cjr. i. 174 ff. pis. 54 ^5 A'
by Gerhard Etr. Spiegel m. 67 ff. pi. 66, iv. 11 ff. pis. 284—285 A, v. 12 pi. °'