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)

722 The birth of Athena in art

E. Petersen1 and F. Studniczka2 contend that the lovely reclining
Fate of the Parthenon gable must be Aphrodite and none other.
But close to the temple of Aphrodite in the Gardens stood a herm-
like statue of Aphrodite Ourania with an inscription declaring that
she was the eldest of the so-called Fates3. And, as Furtwangler
points out, the Fates are repeatedly represented with the chiton
slipping from the shoulder—a motive manifestly Aphroditesque.

It seems probable that this principle of local significance applied
not only to the central and side-figures of Pheidias' composition,
but to the rest of it as well. Certainty is of course unattainable,
yet a few tentative suggestions may be made.

The deities between Dionysos and Hephaistos were, from left t0
right, Demeter, Persephone, Eileithyia, Herakles(P), Hebe(?), all<^
Hera(?). Demeter and Persephone represent the cult at Agra>
where the Lesser Mysteries were celebrated5. Pheidias has made
Persephone slightly larger in scale and decidedly more prominent
in pose than Demeter. Why? Because the daughter, not the
mother, was the chief goddess of Agra6. As such she appea1^'
sceptre in hand, on the painted tablet of Ninnion (fig. S31)

1 E. Petersen Die Kunst des Pheidias am Parthenon und zu Olympia Berlin i 73
p. 130 ff.

2 F. Studniczka in the Jahrb. d. kais. deutsch. arch. Inst. 1904 xix. 8 f. ^

3 Pans. i. 19. 2 es Si to x^piov 8 Krjirovs 6vofi.a^ov<ri Kal tt)s 'AcppoSir-qs tov vabv ov ^
heyo/j.ei'ds o~<pio~iv €<xn \6yos- ov fity ovdt h ti\v 'A<j>po5lry)v rj rou vaov tt\rjffiov ^
TaiiTijs yap o-xy/J-a pi* Tetp&ywvov Kara Taira Kal rois 'Ep/iats (cp. supra ii. 854)' r°
tiriypaufxa o-qfiaivei tt\v Ovpaviav 'AtppoUrijv twv KaXovfiivwv Moipwv elvai irpe<>PuT

to de aya\fia TTjs'A<ppod'iT7]s <r??s (ins. Dindorf) > h [rots (om. Schubart)] ICi;""015 "
iffrlv 'AXuafitvovs Kal twv ' AdrjvrjO'iv iv oMyots 84as a^iov.

For the association of Aphrodite with the Fates cp. Epimen. _/?-«»•. 19 Diels af- s ^
Soph. 0. C. 42 and ap. Tzetz. in Lyk. At. 406 £k tov (sc. Kp&vov) KaWko/xos yevero
' AtppolWt] I Moipai t aOdvaTOL Kal 'Epivves alo\65wpoi, and also Inscr. Gr. Arc. Lac- - ;
i no. 602, 8 f. (near Sparta) Kal Moipwv Aaxtaewv x[ai] | 'AcppodeiTrjs "EvoirX'ioy in a
tion assigned to the beginning of s. iii a.d. r jr0.

4 Furtwangler Masterpieces of Gk. Sculpt, p. 466, citing A. Milchhofer in the J

d. kais. deutsch. arch. Inst. 1892 vii. 206 f. Atht"2

6 Mommsen Feste d. Stadt Athen p. 40s ff., W. Judeich 'Jbpographie von
Munchen 1931 p. 420 f., L. Deubner Attische Feste Berlin 1932 p. 70.

6 Famell Cults of Gk. States iii. 169, 242 f. the
~ A. N. Skias in the 'Erf>. 'Apx- 1901 pp. r-39, 163 ff. pi. t, J. N. Sv*wo»«
four/i. Intern. d'Arch. Num. 1901 iv. 169 ff., 233 ff. pi. 10, Harrison Proleg- ajs0
P- 557 fT- fig. 158, L. Deubner Attische Feste Berlin 1932 p.. 74 pi- 5, *; jrc/iii"'
Collignon—Couve Cat. Vases d'Athenes p. 653 f. no. 1968, H. G. Pringsheim
logische Beitrdge zur Geschichte des eleusinischen Kults Mllnchen 1905 p- 64 ff» g];jas

This tablet of painted terra cotta (height o-3o"\ width o'i5m) was found by
1895 during his excavations at Eleusis and is now in the Museum at Athens. yjbo
edge bears, in lettering of s. iv b.c., the dedication 'NL(l)vviov toiv 9e[ot]v &l"^K(;^&rij]i°°
Ninnion was, we do not know. Svoronos tries to identify her with the heta fr j/.-
(Athen. 567 e—f Kavviov, 587 k Xawdpiov). But this—though Miss Harrison