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)

670

The birth of Athena in art

be forgotten that in the Rhodian myth Zeus sent a shower of
golden snow-flakes, when his head was cleft by the bronze axe of
Hephaistos for Athena's birth1. Whether our vase-painter was
conscious of any relation between the scene he has given us and
the ritual of the Bouphonia, is questionable. But is it merely by
accident that he has placed upon Athena's shield a blazon which
it nowhere else exhibits2—an ox-head in relief with projecting
horns ?

(3) Thirdly, the type of Zeus delivered by the Eileithyiai was
fused with that of Zeus delivered by Hephaistos. This fusion was
effected in the early part of s. vi B.C.—hardly earlier3—and thence-

Fig. 481.

1Sup-a.p. 477. „-hi If at-

- On a fragmentary red-figured kylix at Paris (De Ridder Cat. Vases de la &><"■ ^
ii. 418 f. no. 559 fig. 102), attributed to Hieron (Hoppin Red-fig. Vases ii. 93 n0' c/0
or to the Brygos Painter (J. D. Beazley Attische Vasenmaler des rotfigM'tgen
Tubingen 1925 p. 186 no. 4), Athena's round shield has as its blazon an ox-head ef tj,ia»
3 H. G. G. Payne Necrocorinthia Oxford 1931 p. 142 cites an Argive-.Con^,^
relief from Delphoi (P. Perdrizet in the Fouilles de Delphes v. 2. 124 pi. 21 (Part 0 x\[est
= my fig. 481)), which he calls 'late Protocorinthian' in style, as ' by far the e< ^
representation' of the birth of Athena. But the Argive- Corinthian bronze strip^ wjtli
relief, of which this is a very characteristic example, have been hitherto assigne ^
confidence 'to the second and third quarters of the sixth century' (W. Lamb ^g^e in
Roman Bronzes London 1929 p. 120). The relief in question forms a square 1 Q(l
a ^«ajz'-architectural frame. Zeus with long hair and pointed beard sits to t * . aI1d
a throne, the back of which ends in a swan's-head (?). He is clad in a long c „ng{.)4
himdtion (?) and holds in his right hand a lotiform bolt with twisted spike (supra 1 •