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)

734 Significance of the birth of Athena

drew near and smote him on the head with an axe. Whereupon a
divine power conceived as resident in his head flew forth1 and left
him—Athena was born.

Yet a moment's reflection will convince us that, although the
scene shown in the pediment corresponds well enough with the
requirements of a royal succession, the correspondence is by no
means absolute. Certain essentials are altogether missing. Had the
situation been true to type, Zeus ought to have been killed, and
the killer in virtue of marriage with the late king's daughter ought
to have succeeded to her father's throne. Now it might indeed be
claimed that Hephaistos mated, or attempted to mate, with Athena •
But we never hear that Zeus was killed by Hephaistos, or that
Hephaistos succeeded to the throne of Zeus. Why is this?

Swindler Ancient PaintingY ■sXz Univ. Press 1929 p. 192 f.). Previous illustrations being
inadequate (O. M. von Stackelberg Die Graeber der Hellenen Berlin 1836 p. 16 pi- 2'
Lenormant—de Witte El. num. ctr. i. 28 pi. 14, 75 ff. pi. 30), I publish it here from the
official photographs. Lenormant—de Witte op. cit. i. 75 f. comment quaintly : ' Peut-etie
Zeus figure-t-il ici comme un dieu-montagne, dont le sommet est convert de neige; c es'
ce que semblent indiquer sa chevelure et sa barbe blanches. Ainsi, Jupiter est identify
avec le mont Olympe, oil il fait sa demeure, 011 avec telle autre montagne sur laquelle il
est l'objet d'un culte particulier. Mais comme il s'agit ici d'une peinture attique, le nonl
de Jupiter Hymettius nous semble devoir etre prefere. D'un autre cote, la cheveluie
blanche (iro\i6s, blanchi par I'dge), qui, sur ce vase, distingue Jupiter, nous fait souveni
encore du surnom IloXieiJs, leprotecteur de la ville, que Jupiter portait a Athenes, et cette
particularity si rare sur les monuments antiques, de voir Jupiter avec des cheveux blancf*
puisque nous n'en connaissons pas d'autre exemple, tend egalement a faire accepter ici
dieu comme une divinite locale.' But, if justification were needed, the contrast with Hebe
would suffice.

Mr Bicknell further notes Raphael's design of a white-haired Iupiter for the frescoe
of the Villa Farnesina at Rome (A. P. Oppe Raphael London 1909 p. 173 f- p's- 12
and 123 ff.), which however was very possibly inspired by Dan. 7. 9 or Rev. I. 14-

The worried, white-haired Zeus of the phlyakes is, of course, aXXos \6yos. See t
South-Italian beW-l'ratt/r in the Vatican (M. Bieber Die Denhmdler zum

Theaterwesen

Altertum Berlin—Leipzig 1920 p. 140 no. 101 pi. 76 ( = my fig. 534), Furtwang'er^
Reichhold—Hauser Gr. Vasenmalerei iii. 182, 189 f. fig. 95. Earlier literature in
Helbig Fuhrer durch die offentlichen Sammlungen klassischer Altertiimer z» .
Leipzig 1912 i. 316 f. no. 510), which shows with considerable humour a love-adven
of the elderly but amatory god. Wearing a trumpery crownlet and carrying a 'ac'^er^|ie
advances from the left, while Hermes on the right holds up an absurd little lamp-
young woman, prinked and preened, awaits her lover at the window, and betrays
eagerness by the finger-tips already resting on its sill.

1 The owl clinging to the sceptre of Zeus on a black-figured amphora from ^af ^
{supra p. 667 n. 2 pi. liii) or perched on his wrist on a black-figured amphora at Mi'nl
(Jahn Vasensamml. Munchen p. 207 no. 64^, Lenormant—de Witte EL moil. C^1I({.
202 ff. pi. 60) is—as Miss E. M. Douglas (Mrs Van Buren) suggested [Joiirn. Hell- ^

behind

1912 xxxii. 176 f.)—perhaps significant. But we can hardly say the same of the so'
on another from Orvieto (supra p. 681 ff fig. 492), nor of the bird between Hepn
and Hera on a fourth from Vulci (supra p. 700 n. 3(1) fig. 517), nor yet of the eagle
Thalna on the mirror from Arezzo (supra ii. 709 ff. pi. xxix).
- Supra p. 2 r8 ff.