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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#0926

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The owl of Athena 831

Hellenistic fancies are not without some warrant in Hellenic
literature and art. Apollon's swans go
back to Alkaios1, Aphrodite's sparrows
to Sappho2, and Athena herself on a
fifth-century vase has a team of snakes3.
But the Hellenic grouping of divinity
and divine animal more often figures
the former as riding on the latter—
Apollon on his swan* Artemis on her
doe5, Poseidon on a dolphin6, Dionysos
°n a bull7, Aphrodite on a goat8, and
So forth. At an earlier date Anatolian Flg' 643'

and Mesopotamian art made the god or goddess stand erect on the
back of the sacred creature—Sandas on a lion9, Adad10or Ramman11
0r lupiter Dolichenus™ on a bull, his consort on an ibex13 or a hind14.
ln such cases the anthropomorphic and theriomorphic representa-
tl0ns of the deity are simply juxtaposed.

And here a point of some interest emerges. In the foregoing
Actions I have contended that Athena was a pre-Greek mountain-
mother of the Anatolian kind, whose life was manifested in the
flora and fauna of the Akropolis-rock15. The olive16, the snake17,
the owl18 Were all alike daemonic powers instinct with the vitality of
Athena. The owl in particular was regarded as Athena herself in

la S'<pra ii. 459 f.

^ 5>apph. frag, - ff. Bergk4, i. 5 ff. Diehl, 1. 5 ff. Edmonds. Edmonds translates
Tpoidu 'thy two swans' (cp. Hor. od. 3. 28. 15 oloribus, 4. 1. 10 oloribus, Stat..re'A>. 1.2.
in2)!**65' 146 cy8ni' 3- 4' 22 cygnos> Sfl- It. 7. 441 olores, and a terracotta from Egnatia
the Museo Nazionaie at Naples (no. 6688) which represents Aphrodite drawn across
j e ^a in a shell by a pair of swans (T. Panofka in the Arch. Zeit. 1848 ii. 300,
But noulli Aphrodite Leipzig 1873 p. 409, Winter Ant. Terrakotten iii, i. 2. 196 no. 6)).
CQ see Aristoph. Lys. 723 and Athen. 391 E—F. Not improbably the swans were a later
^■non-sense substitute for the sparrows.

6 SuP*a p. 76Q f. fig. 566, 4 Supra ii. 460 n. 2 (l>) with pi. xxv and figs. 359—361;
, SuPra ii- 854 with pi. xxxviii. 0 Supra p. 627 n. o (3) with pi. xlviii.

8 r"^ran- 661 fig. 600.
iv j B°hm 'Aphrodite auf dem Bock' in the Jahrb. d. kais. deutsch. arch. Inst. 1889

pand 7' E- Bethe l89° v Arch- Anz- pp- 2~" 2g' M" C0"'^011 'APhrodite
vi. 2jem°s' in the Mon. Plot 1894 i. 143—150, O. Jessen in Pauly—Wissowa Real-Enc.
Hell* f'' R' Ganszyniec 'Aphrodite Epitragia et les chceurs tragiques' in the Bull. Corr.

„• '923 Xlvii. 43,-449.

10 sUpra >; 599 ff. figs. 462—468, ii. 560.

u J'^ra IK 769 ». o with fig. 730, n. 2 with fig. 732.

12 ~'pra 576 with fig. 446, 606, ii. 765 n. 1 with figs. 715 and 716, 766 n. 1.

13 }• 606 ff. with pi. xxxiv and figs. 478, 480, 481. 484. 487. 488, 494-
U s'Pr<l '.' 617 wilh fig- 488. Cp. i. 610 f., ii. 99 n- °-

is J**"'" '• 620 pi. xxxiv. 15 Supra pp. 214, 748 f., 764.

^Pra p. 763 f. „ Supra p .75 f is Supra p. r8, ff.
 
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