DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14698#0830
736 Significance of the birth of Athena
which the worshippers had passed. If the results of our somewhat
scattered enquiry may be gathered up in the form of a diagram,
ZEUS
storm-god
thunderbolt
and eagle
Attic
from Ekusis
POSEIDON
(by-form of Zeus)
god of streams,
lakes, sea
(lightning-fork)
trident
fishing-spear
Ionian
from Boiotia (?)
HEPHAISTOS
lightning-god
fire-god
ATHENA
rock-goddess
double axe
hammer
olive, snake, owl
Pelasgian
or Tyrsenian
from Asia Minor
Pelasgian
or Tyrsenian
from Asia Minor
I should maintain that the cults of the Akropolis can be arrange
chronologically in a threefold stratification1. Athena and Hephaistos
came first, being a pre-Hellenic pair, the rock-goddess and the fir^
god of an Anatolian people best called Pelasgian or Tyrsenian •
The next to arrive, perhaps via Boiotia3, was the Ionian Poseidon>
originally a lightning-god to judge from his trident4, though laj^
taken to be a sea-god with a fishing-spear5: at first in conflict W
, rest of
Minoan-Mycenaean goddess; but he cannot be her husband, since she, like the ,^gt.
her kind, has either no consort or an insignificant one; therefore he must be hel ^
But she can have no mother, for that would subordinate her to some other gocldess,^^^^
as Hera or Persephone, and she is far too important for that. Hence her ml
n early
birth, which represents, if we could but recover the details, an interesting chapter
diplomacy and ecclesiastical polity.' jfogir
1 I first put forward this scheme in a course of Lectures on The Gods of A J^' Qt&f
Significance and Stratification, which was given at Cambridge on the ]•
Foundation, Feb. 14, 21, and 28, 1936. ' thus
A curious, but of course quite fortuitous, result of my arrangement is that .^0„)
obtain deities of earth (Athena), air (Zeus), fire (Hephaistos), and water (
comparable with the personified elements of Empedokles (supra i. 31).
2 Supra pp. 189 ft, 224 ff., 236. TfBoe°ti9n
3 On Boiotia as an early centre of Poseidon-worship see supra ii. 583 n. 3- ,g^),
Adv = ' Zeus' (supra ii. 342 n. o, 344 n. o), then 7rorei-Adc=' Lord Zeus' (supr®
cp. irbTvia "Uprj = ' Lady Hera' (supra i. 444 n. 5, 456 n. 8). » F°r
"f/— "«UJ ifcia \*ujiiu. 1. 444 u. j, 4ju u. o;. ti
Poseidon, though coming from Boiotia, may still have been Ionian by de
.V01
Boiotia, as Professor Myres has recently proved, was overrun by Ionians in Pr^ .(ji
days (J. L. Myres Who were the Greeks? Univ. of California Press 1930 PP'
n. 133).
4 Supra ii. 789 ff"., 850. 6 Supra ii. 786, 790 f., 850.
ian
which the worshippers had passed. If the results of our somewhat
scattered enquiry may be gathered up in the form of a diagram,
ZEUS
storm-god
thunderbolt
and eagle
Attic
from Ekusis
POSEIDON
(by-form of Zeus)
god of streams,
lakes, sea
(lightning-fork)
trident
fishing-spear
Ionian
from Boiotia (?)
HEPHAISTOS
lightning-god
fire-god
ATHENA
rock-goddess
double axe
hammer
olive, snake, owl
Pelasgian
or Tyrsenian
from Asia Minor
Pelasgian
or Tyrsenian
from Asia Minor
I should maintain that the cults of the Akropolis can be arrange
chronologically in a threefold stratification1. Athena and Hephaistos
came first, being a pre-Hellenic pair, the rock-goddess and the fir^
god of an Anatolian people best called Pelasgian or Tyrsenian •
The next to arrive, perhaps via Boiotia3, was the Ionian Poseidon>
originally a lightning-god to judge from his trident4, though laj^
taken to be a sea-god with a fishing-spear5: at first in conflict W
, rest of
Minoan-Mycenaean goddess; but he cannot be her husband, since she, like the ,^gt.
her kind, has either no consort or an insignificant one; therefore he must be hel ^
But she can have no mother, for that would subordinate her to some other gocldess,^^^^
as Hera or Persephone, and she is far too important for that. Hence her ml
n early
birth, which represents, if we could but recover the details, an interesting chapter
diplomacy and ecclesiastical polity.' jfogir
1 I first put forward this scheme in a course of Lectures on The Gods of A J^' Qt&f
Significance and Stratification, which was given at Cambridge on the ]•
Foundation, Feb. 14, 21, and 28, 1936. ' thus
A curious, but of course quite fortuitous, result of my arrangement is that .^0„)
obtain deities of earth (Athena), air (Zeus), fire (Hephaistos), and water (
comparable with the personified elements of Empedokles (supra i. 31).
2 Supra pp. 189 ft, 224 ff., 236. TfBoe°ti9n
3 On Boiotia as an early centre of Poseidon-worship see supra ii. 583 n. 3- ,g^),
Adv = ' Zeus' (supra ii. 342 n. o, 344 n. o), then 7rorei-Adc=' Lord Zeus' (supr®
cp. irbTvia "Uprj = ' Lady Hera' (supra i. 444 n. 5, 456 n. 8). » F°r
"f/— "«UJ ifcia \*ujiiu. 1. 444 u. j, 4ju u. o;. ti
Poseidon, though coming from Boiotia, may still have been Ionian by de
.V01
Boiotia, as Professor Myres has recently proved, was overrun by Ionians in Pr^ .(ji
days (J. L. Myres Who were the Greeks? Univ. of California Press 1930 PP'
n. 133).
4 Supra ii. 789 ff"., 850. 6 Supra ii. 786, 790 f., 850.
ian