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)

718 The birth of Athena in art

The whole scene of Athena's birth is flanked by two angle-
groups representing daybreak and nightfall1. On the left Helios
drives his team of four horses up from the sea. On the right Selene
drives hers down behind the hills2. The rising Sun thus synchronises
with the setting Moon and fixes the time as that of a full moon.
Pheidias has indicated this with subtlety and success by making

(2) Amphitrite with Kirke (Aphrodite?) on the lap of Perse (Thalassa?) (L. de Ron-
chaud Phidias sa vie et ses oirorages Paris 1861 p. 260 ff.).

(3) Pandrosos? with the Horai Thallo? and Karpo? (A. Michaelis Der Parthenon
Leipzig 1871 p. 168 f. cp. Paus. 9. 35. 2).

(4) Hestia with Aphrodite in the lap of Peitho (E. Petersen Die Kunst des Phidt"s
am Parthenon und zu Olympia Berlin 1873 p. 128 ff.).

(5) The Clouds (H. Brunn in the Sitzungsber. d. kais. bayr. Akad. d. Wiss. Phil''
hist. Classe 1874 ii. 15 ff.).

(6) Hestia with Thalassa in the lap of Gaia (C. Waldstein Essays on the Art °J
Pheidias Cambridge 1885 pp. 156 ff. pi. 8, 166 ff., Harrison Myth. Mtm. Anc. At''-
p. 438 f.).

(7) The Attic Kharites Thallo, Auxo, and Karpo (sic M. Collignon supra p. 716 n. V-

(8) Hestia with Aphrodite in the lap of Dione (H. Lechat Phidias Paris 1924 p. H7''
fig- 4*)-

(9) Artemis with Aphrodite in the lap of Peitho (Rhys Carpenter in Hesperia 1933
ii. 86 ff.).

1 The juxtaposition of these groups with Dionysos on the left and the Fates on the
right was more or less defensible on religious grounds. Dionysos had points of contact
with Helios (supra ii. 253 with n. 4), and the Fates were sometimes reckoned daughterS
of Nyx (frag. lyr. adesp. 140 Bergk4, 5 Diehl, 70 Edmonds ap. Stob. cel. 1. 5. 10—l2'
6 f. p. 76, 14 ff. Wachsmuth Ai<ro <rai> KXuBto A&x«ris r \ ciniXet/ot Nv/fris abp^)-
But the main idea was, no doubt, to provide the Olympian event with a cosmic setting-

2 A. S. Murray The Sculptures of the Parthenon London 1903 p. 32 f. 'An AtheMan
standing at dawn before the east front of the Parthenon and looking towards the pediment
might see the sun rising from the sea on his left and the moon passing on his right awW

over the hills____With equal justice to the natural phenomena the sculptor could D» _

imagined himself facing in the opposite direction. The sun would then have been on
right hand and the moon on his left, as on a beautiful vase in the British Museum at>°
contemporary with the Parthenon (E 466) [Furtwangler—Reichhold—Hauser Gr. V"se"
malerei iii. 33 ff. pi. 126] ... It is true that the Greeks generally and Pheidias in particuI
regarded the east as on their left hand. On the base of his statue of Zeus at Olymp13'
representing the birth of Aphrodite, the sun was seen rising on the extreme left, the mo°n
retiring on the right (Pausanias, v. 11, [8]), and on the base of his Athene in the Parthen^
itself the same phenomenon occurs, if we may judge from the Lenormant copy °^ '
statue.... But granting that this was a mere habit on his part, we must still regard it* ,
happy coincidence that on the Parthenon the sun rises exactly as in the sky at A''12"^
See further Schrader Reallex." i. 500 f. s.v. ' Himmelsgegenden,' T. D. Atkins011 ^
J. Hastings Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics Edinburgh 1918 x. 73b ff. s.v. 'Points
the Compass.' j

A. Michaelis Der Parthenon Leipzig 1871 p. 167, after quoting Od. 3. 1 f. 'H*t!
ivbpovae, Xiirdni 7repiKdXWa Xi/xvriv, \ ovpavov is Tro\bxa^K("'< iV dfaeaTOicn tpaeivoi 'e
(cp. II. 7. 421 ff.), adds 'Selene auf der anderen Seite versinkt in Nacht und Nebel, 0
eine Andeutung des Meeres, wie denn auch in den betreffenden Schilderungen der VlC $
das Meer keine Rolle spielt; eher kann man sie sich hinter dem Berge verschwW
denken, wie auf dem schonen Krater Blacas.'