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)

The owl of Athena 801

(fig. 601)1, represents a human-headed bird wearing a helmet. This
can hardly be, as G. Weicker2 supposes, the soul of a valiant
warrior; for in that case it would, according to custom3, have been
bearded. Rather, it is Athena herself, no longer a bird, not yet
a goddess.

This transitional conception lay dormant for centuries, while
Greek art was in its prime, and then—like so many other half-
forgotten ideas—awoke to a new lease of life in imperial times.
Certain rare bronze pieces of small size—whether coins {kollyboi,
ktllyba?) or counters we cannot say—were struck at Athens in the
Roman period and have as their reverse device an owl en face with
a female helmeted head (figs. 602, 603)5. The archaistic legend

Fig. 602. Fig. 603.

^©E (fig. 602) suggests that we are here concerned with the
restoration of an ancient type though, except for the aryballos
JUst mentioned, no prototype is known. Again, denarii of the^«J
Valeria, issued by L. Valerius Acisculus in the year 46—45 B.C.,
show for reverse a human-headed bird with helmet, shield, and

a Winnefeld Vasensamml. Karlsruhe-p. 16 no. 81 from Siana in Rhodes.

, G> Weicker Der Seclenvogel Leipzig 1902 p. 35 fig- >5 ( = m)' fiS- 6o1'-
4 ld- ib. p. 137 ff.

t099 f^1011 Monn- Sr- >'<""• >• 466> K- ReSlinS in Pauly—Wissowa Real-Enc. xi.

E- BeuM Les monnaies d'Athenes Paris 1858 p. 391 with figs. ( = my figs. 602, 603).
C HI. 51

s