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 813

plainly popular1. In fact, some seventy years later, in 409 B.C.,
Sophokles2 in his Philoktetes can still make Odysseus invoke the
same goddess:

1 Nike Athena Polids, saviour mine.'
On the whole, the available evidence seems to point to the following
inclusions. The worship of Athena on the Nike-bastion was of
ancient date3. The goddess as an earth-mother was represented by
a seated statue—Athena Polids4,—holding a pomegranate, symbol
°f fruitfulness or life renewed5. At some period of warlike achieve-
ment, say that of Marathon, the helmet was added and the

1 An almost identical lekythos is published by W. Frohner Burlington Fine Arts
tub: Catalogue of objects of Greek ceramic art London 1888 p. 57 f. no. 135 with pi. (no
Pomegranate visible). And J. D. Beazley locc. citt. notes a red-figured replica at Bonn.

" Soph. Phil. 134 IMkt] t '' K8-qva IloXids, rj tra'fei // dei.
H. Bulle in Roscher Lex. Myth. iii. 311 concludes with regard to this cult: 'Er ist
a s ein alteinheimischer anzusehen unci zwar gerade auch wegen des ungevvohnlichen und
. crtumlichen Attributs des Granatapfels.' This sensible conclusion is substantiated by
, e recent excavations carried out by N. Balanos beneath the temple of Athena Nike
\ ,'. ^legen in the Am. fourn. Arch. 1936 xl. 145 —147 with 4 figs.: 'The work of

,nS down the Nike bastion is continuing. The temple itself has been entirely removed
except for the foundations and lower step on the north side which it is hoped may be left
""disturbed, as well as the north face of the bastion. Just inside the north foundation
fou °^ niar^'e temP'e> blocks of an earlier, probably post-Persian, poros temple, were
het lH Slt"' This is orientated with the altar and bases found by Welter in the space
in tjVeen "le marble temple and the Propylaea. The Turkish cistern which had been cut
e centre of the bastion had destroyed most of this earlier temple and no one had been
Sure4 of its existence').

s Supra p. 574 „. Q.

^ The significance of this pomegranate has been much discussed. O. Benndorf ' Ueber
S S ^""husbild der Athena Nike' in the Festschrift zur jojdhr. Griindungsfeier des
^,!tschen archdologischen Instituts in Rom Wien 1879 pp. 17—47 conjectured that
y- "lon organized the cult and built the temple of Athena Nike after the great Athenian
godd^ °n t'le ^uryme^on (467 or B-c-)> ar,d that he introduced the art-type of the
at)tj ess from the neighbouring town of Side in Pamphylia: aiSri means 'pomegranate'
Ath C°Ins °^ ^1 from s- v onwards show a pomegranate, Athena, and Nike, though not
p. 1^ °r ^'^e actually holding a pomegranate (Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Lycia, etc.
262ff3ff' Pl' 25' 7fi'' H"»ter Cat- Coins ii. 510 ff. pi. 58, 6ff., McClean Cat. Coins ii.
pl i - P1- 317. 1 ff., Babelon Monn. gr. rom. ii. 1. 535 ff. pl. 24, 4ff., ii. 2- 931 ff.
Seriorj2' ^ ' **eatl Hist, num.* p. 703 f.). But this ingenious hypothesis has to face two
p. : US *jections: (1) An inscription published by P. Kabbadias in the 'E<p. 'Apx- 189/
n0 I3 P1- 11 (Michel Recueil d'Inscr. gr. no. (>-,\, A, Dittenberger Syll. inscr. Gr?
+g0_J' a' h'w. Gr. ed. min. i no. 24), which can be dated by its lettering to the period
record44^ B'C' and ^y tlle name [A«nr4i']ucot, sc. son of Kallias, to the year 448 B.C.,
Iu^It^ ,Proposal (Une 4 ff-) lr"] I l'A0eyaicu r?i N/*r]ei hiipeav hi &[v Si]\[a /Jio
R«XX j e*S 'A0Ei<a£oj> /;a7ra[<ro]|[c Ka.8L<STa\<idai Ka! to hupbv dvpo<7a\i, KadbTi. b.v
<j,4pai T*s X<rvyypa<po-]er diro/iiadoaai Se tos TroXeTas M r|es AcocticSoj rpvTOVtlas-
"til* , ^Peav Tej/T<5/coeTa dpaxp-as Kai \ ret <ric<?Xe, Kai to. 5ipp.o.Ta tptptv tov fe\p.baiov
Unkn0w° ICo5oMeo'IU Ka0°Ti I &f KaXXi/cpaTes x<"'77pd0o-ei kbX /Sojuoi- Udivov. (2) For some
°f the n .re.ason tne matter was long delayed. Indeed the architecture and sculpture
(Furtw.eXlstmS temple are carried out in a style which points to a date c. 425 B.C.
angler Masterpieces of Gk. Sculpt, p. 442 ff.). In that year the Athenians won