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)

758

The olive of Athena

another in the Villa Carpegna1 repeat the scene with the addition of
Nike, who is drawing out the votes from the voting-urn. And
a bronze medallion of Antoninus Pius
(fig. 546)2 plays a variation on the same
triumphant theme.

Athena had indeed won her victory,
and henceforward Poseidon, abating his
claim to sole possession, must be content
with a very subordinate role, that of a
mere lodger in the ancient temple of
Athena Polids. To effect an entry into that
august abode, he had to become as like as F_ g g

possible to Erechtheus, the acknowledged
protege of the goddess. The 'strong house of Erechtheus ' seems to
have had a rock-cut cistern, which would serve as his ' sea' undei
the respectable old name Erechthe'is3. Above this 'sea,' which could
be seen and heard through an opening in the pavement, was the
west chamber of the later Erechtheion, and here stood three altai5
fortunately described by Pausanias4. ' On entering the building)
he says, 'you find three altars, one to Poseidon on which at the
bidding of a certain oracle they sacrifice also to Erechtheus, a second
to the hero Boutes, a third to Hephaistos.' Now Hephaistos we can
understand: he was the original husband of Athena5. Boutes too
had a right to be there: he was the ancestor of the

Eteoboutadai,

hereditary priests of the Erechtheion6. But Poseidon and Erechtheus

must make do with a single altar. The fact is, Poseidon had l°n^

. the
since been officially identified with Erechtheus7. As early as

lief &

from Aphrodisias in Karia, now in the Evangelical School at Smyrna. The olive, ^
duplicated for symmetry's sake, accommodates Athena's owl. The dolphin, coiled a
an anchor, betokens Poseidon's 'sea.'

1 Id. ib. p. 50 ff. pi. 2 a rough Roman relief, probably a sarcophagus-lid, in ttie ^
Carpegna (Overbeck Gr. Kunstmyth. Poseidon p. 306 fig. 8, Matz—Duhn Ant. ^l^e&e
in Rom iii. 17 f. no. 3495), which on the extreme right includes part at least of the s
more completely shown on the slab at Smyrna. ecd1'

Brit. Mus. Cat. Medallions p. 9 no. 12 (wrongly described) pi. I0j 3>

(Pan5'

Medagl. Rom. ii. 18 no. 79 (wrongly described) pis. 5.1, 1 (Bologna) and 52, 5
( = my fig. 546). 68

3 J. M. Paton The Erecktheum Harvard Univ. Press 1927 pp. 169—171 w , ^oV-1
(plan), 106 (photo) and pis. 1 (plan), 15 (sections) identifies the 'sea' with a sha ^e
o'9om square, sunk in the rock about 1 "75m, within the extreme south-west corner ^e
building, but admits that the original Erechtheis may have been a natural hollow
rock still visible below the floor of the large mediaeval or Turkish cistern.

4 Paus. I. 26. 5. 5 Supra p. 188 ff.
6 Supra p. 589. 7 Supra ii. 793.