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)

The birth of Athena in art

721

stood beneath the open sky, of Athena Polids in the neighbouring
Erechtheion, and of Poseidon and Hephaistos with whom she
shared her ancient dwelling. In a word, we have before us all the
most important deities worshipped in the eastern half of the
Akropolis.

Again, the same local significance attaches to the extreme
figures on the south and on the north. On the south Dionysos sits
at ease upon his rock spread with panther-skin and mantle, a
spectator as it were in his own theatre1. Was it not hollowed out
of the hill-side immediately below him? On the north the three
Fates are seated on rocks, which—to quote A. H. Smith's descrip-
tion—are 'levelled on the top, and...cut in step form to suit the
composition2.' This surely suggests the ancient rock-cut steps
leading down through the cave of Aglauros towards the Gardens3,
where the Fates were4, and for that matter still are5, worshipped.

1 Cp. the fourth slab inserted in the stage of Phaidros [supra i. 710 pi. xl, 4).

A. H. Smith in the Brit. Mus. Cat. Sculpture i. 113. Id. The Sculptures of the
Parthenon London 1910 p. 13 fig. 23 shows the Fates as seen from behind. So does
™- Collignon Le Parthenon Paris 1909—1912 pi. 51.

3 Not, of course, the postern-steps of the Helladic fortress (L. B. Holland in the Am.
hum. Arch. 1924 xxviii. 143 ff. with pi. 7 and figs. 2 and 3, W. Judeich Topographic
Von Atlieti1 Miinchen 1931 pp. 118, 259), for that exit had been long since blocked and
"'led in, but the underground stairway by which the Arrhcphoroi went down through the
^glaurion [supra p. 169 n. 1).

Pans. 1. 19. 2 (cited infra p. 722 n. 3). P. Weizsacfcer in Roscher Lex. Myth. ii.
3089 notes that these Moirai were associated in cult with Zeus 3lotpa767-7js (supra ii. 231
"»■ Ha)).

0 B. Schmidt Das Volksleben der Neugriechcn Leipzig 1871 i. 217 f. cites two items of
^vidence, which may refer to the same locality. (1) J. Gait Letters from the Levant
°ndon 1813 P- I09 an Athenian friar mentions that at Athens young girls, when they
coirie anxious to get husbands, on the first evening of the new moon, put a little honey,
a 'ittle salt, and a piece of bread on a plate in a certain spot on the bank of the Ilissos,
Near the Stadion, and on setting it down mutter some ancient words of forgotten meaning
which they beg Fate to send them 'a pretty young man': after this they return home
aild eagerly await the fulfilment of their charm. (2) F. C. H. L. Pouqueville Voyage de
a Grece'2 Paris 1827 v. 66 f. states that women at Athens who long to bear children and
'so those who are already pregnant come and rub themselves on a rock near Kallirhoe
and invoke the Moirai to be gracious to them, using the formula 'EXdre, Mofpai
j^"" Motpaiv, y& /lolpare k' ip.ii/a (Schmidt cj. p-vipdvere for va fioipare). See further
w' Polites MeXirri iiri tou fiiov tCiv Heioripwv "EWt/hui' Athens 1874 ii. 227 {'if rip
VtwijyaiKtp (rradiip iv Trj 6irrj rod \b<pov tov Xeyopdvov "Tpuirio fiouvd"'), J. C. Lawson
('A'* ^ree^ Folklore and Ancient Greek Religion Cambridge 1910 p. 120 with n. 4
» PParently the old subterranean passage by which competitors entered the stadium'),
is b*800 P- notes the nlotlern 'belief that the Fates invariably visit each child that
}yjj.0rn 'n or<ler to decree its lot,' adding: 'I do not wish to engage in the controversy
p Icn has raged round the identification of the figures in the east pediment of the
arthenon; but those who would recognise among them the three Fates may fairly draw
esn argument from the strength of this popular belief.'

c- HI. 46