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)

720

The birth of Athena in art

We may, then, perhaps assume that the birth of Athena, whatever
its original date, was early brought into connexion with the cult of
Zeus and celebrated at the time of the Dipolieia, i.e. on the occasion
of the last full moon in the Attic year1. But the ever-growing
importance of the Great Panathenaia would predispose men to
identify this festival rather than the obscure and old-fashioned
Dipolieia with the real birthday of the goddess. And, since the
Great Panathenaia was held on the third day from the end of
Hekatombaion2, the way was open for ingenious etymologists to
explain the title Tritoge'iieia.

The rocky summit compassed about by the Sun and Moon
is the Akropolis itself3: Athena must needs be born in Athens4.
The local setting is further shown by the personnel of the assembled
gods. The central group comprised Zeus the thunderer and Athena
his armed daughter, together with Hephaistos and Poseidon the
gods of fire and water. We think at once of Zeus Polieus, who

1 Mommsen Fesle d. Stadt Atken p. 513 'Wir entscheiden uns danach fur den 14-
[sc. of Skirophorion: supra p. 602]; die Dipolienfeier hat am letzten Vollmond des
attischen Jahres stattgefunden; im Vollmond hat man auch zu Olympia den Zeus gefeiert-

2 Prokl. in Plat. Tim. i. 26, 18 f. Diehl.

:i A. Michaelis Der Parthenon Leipzig 1871 p. 166 f., after a review of previous
opinions, concludes that the scene is laid inpoTaTy Kopv<prj voXvBeipddos OvXvpvoio (fl-
499). E. Petersen Die Kunst des Pheidias am Parthenon und zu Olympia Berlin 1^73
p. 110 ff. likewise argues for the rocky summit of the ' Gotterberg,' Mt 01ymP0S'
C. Waldstein Essays oil the Art of Pheidias Cambridge 1885 also assumes ' the sumuii
Mount Olympos.' Others are less precise and incline to make Olympos mean, not the
mountain, but the sky above it [supra i. 115). So e.g. Furtwangler Masterpieces of GU.
Sculpt, p. 465 'The whole space enclosed within the border of the pediment is in ^
Olympos' etc., Collignon Hist, de la Sculpt, gr. ii. 22 'Le lieu de la scene est le ciel des
Olympiens,' H. Lechat Phidias n.d. p. 98, ».» Paris 1924 p. 115 'alors, a ces pensees.
comme la scene s'elargit! comme grandit ce fronton de moins de 30 metres, qui contien
tout l'Olympe peuple de dieux, et a ses extremites, en bordure de l'Olympe, l'Ocean, e^
sur la divine assemblee, la courbe lumineuse du ciel entier, de l'horizon du ma'"1
l'horizon du soir!'

Dissent is expressed by that sturdy independent A. S. Murray The Sculptures of
Parthenon London 1903 p. 31 f. Urging that the western pediment admittedly portray
the gods as 'invisibly present in the atmosphere of the Acropolis' and that the easte'^e
frieze does much the same, he claims 'at least a strong presumption that the same Pnnc'^re
had applied to the central deities of the east pediment....Let us call the invisible sp e
where she was born Olympos, but define it as for the moment just over Athens.' ^

I would go even further in the same direction. If the olive-tree and the salt well W
represented in the west gable, why not the hollowed theatre and the rocky stair"'?enS
the east? Many localities could boast their own Olympos (supra i. 100) : was At
unworthy of the like honour? ft„

4 No adverse argument can be based on the authority of h. Ath. 28. 4 ff., which »^
in fact be of very recent composition (W. Schmid—O. Stahlin Geschichte der grtech'-f ^
Literatur Mtinchen [929 i. r. 243 'ob der Dichter an die Bildwerke vom Ostgie'* ^
Parthenon gedacht oder der Ktinstler das Gedicht im Sinn gehabt hat oder ob bei e
Stesichoros (fr. 62 B.) abhangen, ist nicht auszumachen').