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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

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https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14698#0772

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The birth of Athena in art 681

raises both arms to his head. Athena is not yet born1; but owing
to the fusion, or rather confusion, of types Hephaistos with his
double axe is already making off to the extreme right of the
spectator. Left of the central scene is a group of interested deities—
Dionysos with a garland of vine-leaves, Aphrodite draped and
veiled, Ares with lance and shield, and lastly Leto. Right of the
central scene appear other deities—Poseidon leaning on his trident(?)
as he talks to Amphitrite, and a nude bearded god, perhaps meant
for Hermes, who holds a long-handled caduceus(J) with one hand
and gesticulates with the other.

(4) The fourth type, which represents Athena standing—a
half-grown maiden—on the knees of Zeus, is again but a special
application of a much older mother-and-child motif1. As applied
to Zeus and Athena, it occurs on several black-figured amphorae
and one red-figured pelike.

The earliest of the black-figured vases is an amphora in the
style of Amasis noted by G. Karo in 1899 as being then in the
Museo Municipale at Orvieto3. It seems probable that this is the
vase published by Miss E. H. Hall (Mrs Dohan) as 'excavated
from an Etruscan tomb at Orvieto in 1907 [sic] by Mr A. L.
Prothi

ngham ' and now in the University of Pennsylvania Museum
at Philadelphia (fig. 492)4. It has been to some extent repainted,
but the original parts can be well made out from the official line-
drawing. Zeus, holding a lotiform bolt, sits stiffly erect on a throne
towards the right. Its back ends in a ram's head. Its seat rests on
a Nike with spread wings and gesticulating hands. On his lap
stands Athena in her panoply. Before Zeus is Eileithyia with ex-

f ^° Pettier loc. cit. S. Reinach loc. cit. supposes that the female figure on the
stool is Athena. But F. Durrbach loc. cit. justly observes that on a black-figured
j ^ior" from Chiusi representing the same scene (Lenormant—de Witte Al. mon. cer.
f0ot'* I3'' 57) one of the Eileithyiai is carrying a wreath. Besides, the figure on the

2sto°' has no attribute distinctive of Athena.
gv gold ring from one of the later tombs at Thisbe in Boiotia, published by Sir A.
WsT 7/'e Palace °f M'"°s a* Knossos London 1930 iii. 47off. and by him assigned at
godfj l° .'a Mainlar|d-Mycenaean phase equivalent to L. M. Ilia,' shows a draped
a ess sitting on a throne with a nude bey standing on her knees. Behind the throne is
ja1 female attendant; in front of it, two armed worshippers approach with offerings.
Ath Karo in the /°"r" He!l- Stud. 1899 xix. 140 n. 3: 'Zeus with the new-born

4e"a on h's knee, between two Eileithyiae.'
(*m r H" H'"a"'' T/" Museu"' Jour»<*l 1912 iii. 68 ff. figs. 33 (photo of whole), 34
it js . 'e' 492), and 35 (drawing of reverse). The date 1907 is possibly a slip for 1897:
A. p 'n any case inconsistent with Miss Hall's statement in the same paragraph that
ma<i(!mWan2ler saw the vase at Philadelphia in 1904 and, upon his return to Europe,
bayr a rcP°rt of it to the Munich Academy of Science [see the Sitzungsber. d. kais.
■ ^-W. d. IViss. Phil.-hist. Classe 1905 p. 7*7 no. 16].
 
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