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 811

Aischylos, like the painter of the Orvieto bowl, could think of her
either as winged or as wingless.

During the fifth century, when humanising tendencies were rife,
Athena ceased to be treated at will as a semi-bird. We have reached
the point at which Nike split off from Athena Nike and went her
°wn winged way, leaving the older goddess wingless. But just here
we encounter an obvious difficulty. If Nike with wings was indeed
an abstraction from Athena Nike'1, how is it that Athena Nike had
no wings, was indeed so notoriously ■'wingless' that she came to be
known as Nike Apteros%l The texts describe her cult-effigy as a
x6anon without wings, holding a pomegranate in its right hand,
a helmet in its left3. It was in all probability seated, for an Attic
oinochde of the later black-figured style, now at Altenburg and

1 So Harrison Myth. A/on. Anc. Alh. p. 366 'From Athene Polias, invoked as
Athene Polias Nike, the personality of Nike separated off and developed attributes of her
°Wr>, impossible when she was only a form of Athene. Such an attribute were her
kings' etc., A. Baudrillart Les divinitis de la Vicloire en Grece et en Italie d'apres les
te*tes et les monuments figure's Paris 1894 p. 7 'Simple don ou attribut d'Athena, elle se
detache d'elle, prend une personnalite" distincte, et apparait bien reellement comme la
sew>nde personne d'une sorte de dualite,' ib. p. 13 ' C'est done vers le commencement du
Clnquieme siecle qu'a du s'achever la separation progressive de Nike d'avec Athena et la
c°nquete de son independance, fait qui d'ailleurs n'empeche point l'antique Athena-Nike
de subsisted

E. Sikes, who does not accept this view, argues that 'if Nike is to be regarded as
abstraction from any greater deity, she must be an abstraction from Zeus' (Class. Rev.
95 ix. 282). Mr Sikes' criticism is approved by PI. Bulle in Roscher Lex. Myth. iii.
,°' see, however, Gruppe Gr. Myth. Rel. p. 1066 n. 3 (id. Myth. Lit. 1908 p. 566)

henas Beziehungen zu Nike scheinen alt, alter als die spezifisch attische Kultur:
^auf weist, dass Nike T. des Pallas und der Styx heisst, Hsd. 6 384 [383 ff. 2ti>£

6/C K(av°v Bvyar-qp ITdXXai'Ti puyeiira j ZjjXoy Kal NucijP Ka\\i<r<pvpov iv fieyapoiaiv • \
gj Kpdros BItj^ aptdetKera ydvaro riKva- \ twv ovk 1<tt atrdvevde Aids S6/ios, ovdi tis
f^i I 01)5 65<5s, OTrirrj nehots dtbs r)ye/j.oveijri, | dXX' aid Trap Zrjvl fjapvKTUTri? i5pi6on>Tai.
p^." ' But in 384 codd. d.g.H.K.l. read vuK-qv. An leg. fltimrvi Netaj is elsewhere
Jon°mfied aS the eqllivalent of "Bpis (Stephanus Thes. Gr. Ling. v. 1402c, H. Stuart
. es m the new Liddell and Scott p. 1165), cp. 782 (pa ml vdnos, and the sinister sense
Vq^^P8 more appropriate to a sister of ZtjXos, Kpdros, and Big]. Dieser Pallas wird
sod l°n' Hal" 1 33 dem Lykaonsohn gleichgestellt, der die Athena auferzogen habe,
iSctl S' ^iese Milchschwester oder Jugendgespielin der Nike wird. Hier scheinen altarkad-

a p eberlieferungen wenigstens mitbenutzt.'

3 Ha"'- K 22- 4. 2- 30. 2, 3. 15. 7, 5. 26. 6.
'5—iffl ,oros of Athens (on whom see F. Jacoby in Pauly—Wissowa Real-Enc. viii.
}I(Krit' >a^' 2 ^raS- /lisL Gr- 'v- 425 Miiller) ap. Harpokr. s.v. Nk7) 'kBi)va-...Sn Be
»(,„■ \rf Was £6avov avrepov, (x"" l» TV 5f£l? Pl5c"'> * 5* TS rf^MW updvos, irifiaTo
S°uid '?,'alo'! SeSfa<»Kei> 'H\i68uipos 6 Trepir)yr)TT)s ev a nepl aKpoir6\eus = Fhot. lex. and
I2I L*'v' N'*>7 'Afl^a, cp. Anth. Pal. 9. 576. 1 fif. (Nikarchos). Schol. Dem. c. Timocr.
^Wirlx Kaitei'~SauPPe) T"^s iS»yft»Bt' ^Ikt\s 'AtfgrSs icriv ayaXfia if rij
Kal <j Ta"Trjs 5i ras irripvyai xpvtras oSaas iTrexdprjff&i' rives KaKovpyoi d0eX<?£T0cu

Mike 01,70 aiTOi iavT&i> o' xaitovpyoi- k.t.X. is confusing Athena Nike with the
68o—6°8njthe hand of Athena Parthinos (cp. Overbeck Schriftquellen p. 123 f. nos.