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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

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https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14698#0870

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The snake of Athena

these daemonic powers drew their vitality from her? We must not,
I suppose, at this stage prematurely assert that Athena herself was
conceived as a snake at Athens, though I for one should not deny
that elsewhere such may have been the case. An Orphic hymn does
address her definitely as Drdkaina, the 'She-Snake1.' And on the
road from Sparta to Arkadia Pausanias saw standing in the open
an image of Athena Parda%. That surely can mean one thing,
and one thing only, Athena the 'Adder.'

(3) The owl of Athena.

But snakes are not the only living things that slip silently out
of holes in the Akropolis rock. Of an evening the owls come out.
I have seen them in the dusk, and I dare say my readers have too,
flitting with low undulatory flight across the roads and gardens to
the south of the Akropolis. In antiquity their number gave rise to
the proverb 'an owl to Athens3' in the sense of 'coals to Newcastle •
Another proverb, 'an owl on the citadel,' was explained as alluding
to an owl dedicated by Phaidros on the Akropolis5. Ausonius
describes it as 'that owl on the citadel painted with colours of such
magic power that it lures birds of all sorts and destroys them by lts
stare.' A colossal owl of white marble has in fact been found °n
the Akropolis (fig. 570)7 together with a couple of pillars bearing

1 Orph. h. Ath. 32. 11 atoX6p.op(pe, SpaKaiva, (piXti>8eoSt dy\a6rtp.€.

2 Paus. 3. 20. 8 T7JV 8e iir' 'ApxaS'ias iodoiv ck "Sirdprris 'Ad-nvds iaT-OKev iit<-K
Hapdas dyaXpa iv viraiOpip. ^

3 This proverb occurs in various forms: yXavic"A6r)va^e (Aristoph. av. 301, Hesy
s.v., Eustath. in II. p. 88, 1 f., Apostol. 5. 46, Arsen. p. Walz, append, prov. 3'
yXavK ds'Adrjvas (Loukian. Nigrin. praef., cp. schol. Aristoph. av. 301 rls As a
yXavK ev-qvoxev;) or yXauKa els ' Adijvas (Gregor. Kypr. 2. ii, Apostol. 5. 55> j0g$
p. 164 Walz, cp. Diogeneian. 3. 57 yXavnas els 'AO-qvas dyeis, schol. Aristoph. av\ (.;
yXavms is 'Ad-qvas), yXavKa 'Ad-qvaloLS (Apostol. 5. 46, Arsen. p. 162 Walz), ^?"(j0b.
A0r)vas (Eustath. in II. p. 87, 45, Zenob. 3. 6, Diogeneian. 3. 81, cp. Diogeneian- V'n

2. 13 yXaOf els 'Afrfjms). {g{C\

4 W. G. Smith—J. E. Heseltine The Oxford Dictionary of English Proverbs

'935 P- 503 (first in 1661 a.d.). ( j6

6 Hesych. yXav£ iv woXei- Tro.poip.la. aviiceiTo yap iiro QalSpov {append. pr0®-
$al8ov Meursius cj. $ei5tov) iv r-rj aKpoirdXei. ^c0 \

6 Anson. Mos. 308 ff. vel in arce Minervae | Ictinus, magico cui noctua P '^^W*-
adlicit omne genus volucres perimitque tuendo. The owl was tantamount to a Gorg rs0ge
1 L. Ross in the Ann. d. Inst. 1841 xiii. 2S pi. c, $=id. Archdologische A J ^_
Leipzig 1855 i. 205 pi. 14, 3, Friederichs—Wolters Gipsabgiisse p. 62 no. ll ' 0),
Svoronos in the Joum. Intern. ifArch. Num. xiv. 221 fif. pi. IE' ( = rny =' ^47

S. Casson in the Catalogue of the Acropolis Museum Cambridge 1921 ii- lb"1 \njn iS4°
fig. Svoronos loc. cit. p. 22 r states that the upper part of the bird was foun ,enoH-
on the ' Erganeterrase,' the lower part in 1889 near the north-west angle of the ^ar
Material: Pentelic marble. Height: o'9im.
 
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