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)

Significance of the birth of Athena 737

Athena, he was ultimately identified with her protege Erechtheus,
the 'Cleaver,' and accommodated in the Erechtheion1. Last came
the Attic storm-god Zeus, introduced by the clan Kerykes from
Eleusis2, and worshipped in his festival the Dipolieia3 with rites
that go far towards explaining the pedimental design4. The divine
°x was struck with the double axe in order that he might come to
life again with vigour unimpaired and work for his people as of old.
Zeus is hit over the head for much the same purpose. The blow
releases Athena, a further manifestation of his might. Three strata:
but from the lowest to the highest it is Athena who really dominates
the scene. Zeus himself lives on in her younger, fresher life.

If this sequence be conceded, several disturbing features in the
Pediment find a ready explanation. Room must be made in the
central group for the predecessors of Zeus—Athena, Hephaistos,
and Poseidon. At the same time Athena and Hephaistos cannot
be regarded as the next occupants of the divine throne. And that
for two reasons. On the one hand, as the original divinities of the
Akropolis they were pre-Zeus and could not well be represented as
Post-Zeus. On the other hand, religious thought was beginning to
outgrow its primitive phases and had by now reached a stage in
which Zeus, as power supreme, could not conceivably be superseded
V any other deity. Nor again could Zeus be affiliated to Athena,
*ho, though originally a mother-goddess5, had long since come to
De viewed as a Virgin6. It remained for Athena, by a daring
device, to be affiliated to him. We must not, however, assume that
trje myth of Dionysos sprung from the thigh of Zeus7 here furnished
tne model; for in all probability the myth of Athena was the
older8. In any case the choice of the head rather than the thigh
0r this simulated birth involves the archaic belief that an indwelling
sPirit may be forcibly delivered by a timely crack on the crown9.

Supra ii. 793 f.

of tv, Sufra P- 59s- ^eus 'OXiVttios, however, came from Aft Olympos to the north bank
he Hissos {supra p. 236). The Zeus-cults of Athens call for careful distinction.

Supra p. 574 ff. * Supra pp. 656 {., 661 f., 720, 733.

o Supra p. 224 ff. 6 Supra p. 224 with n. 3. 7 Supra p. 79 ff.

^ Welcker Gr. Gotterl. i. 301 rightly stresses the epic epithet ofipinoirdTpr) (II. 5. 747,

Wn91' 0d' I01'3' '35'24' 54°-always at the end of a line)as imp'ymg 'Dass sie

v'e e Mutter habe, sonclern nur den Vater, aber den Gewaltigen,' and notes that Ares is
to,; m°re exPlicit {H- 5- 872 ff. ZeO TraTep...col rdyres fiaxd^da- ai yap T<?(ces &<ppo»a
y"' \ obXopAvqv, 7) t' aliv a-qavKa Ipya p.i/j.rjXei').

n the head as the seat of the soul see supra ii. 290 a, o.
Tig lr A- J- Evans in The Palace of Minos London 1935 iv. 2. 476 n. 5 remarks: 'The
the ^s tn'nk that the soul issues from the top of the head, and that the cutting off of
air there facilitated its escape on death. So, too, the Kanikars, a mountain tribe of