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 833

are in relief, the lines on the palms incised1; the eyes were inlaid,
the whole body painted red, except perhaps for a darkened pubes;
the wing-feathers are picked out in red and dark colouring. The
nearest analogue to the entire figure is furnished by a similar, but
rnuch smaller, plaque in the Louvre2, which again shows a nude

(Ez ]r

• *1. 3) ')> L. Legrain in the Revue d'' Assyriologie et d' Archtologie Orientale 1933

^*x- hi ff. with pi. 1), and concludes (July 3, 1936): 'I suppose then, this Lilith holds
fell S'ym'30's °f jllstice because she is executing the orders of some high god, carrying out
e designs only on those who have sinned.'

is \r ^' ^eltman nas suggested to me (Nov. 11, 1936) that the emblem in question
£ m to the Cypriote form of ankh on coins of Salamis (e.g. Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins

bar*118 ^' ^° n0S' 23 an<^ 2^ '''' IO' 1 an^ + = my ^gs' ^44 ana' ^45)' ana tllat circle ar>d
. may have symbolised the female and male organs. Such a combination would be
, )le enough for Lilith, and there is much to be said for the view that the ankh was
^ 6n of procreation (Sir E. A. Wallis Budge Amulets and Superstitions Oxford 1930
Fli \l "' '34^i 339 £)■ Yet other interpretations are still rife (see e.g. Sir W. M.
A H613 ^etr'e -Amulets London 1914 p. 14 pi. 3 fig. 30, a—g man's girdle-tie,
viii ' ''ner in J- Hastings Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics Edinburgh 1915
0Vaj20 sar>dal-straps), and it should be noted that the ankh has almost invariably its

^ r circle resting on a vertical as well as a horizontal bar.
kin n °^ect °f curiously similar shape is the navel-string or 'twin' (mulongo) of the
an[i ° Uganda, which was wrapped in bark-cloth, decorated with cowries and beads,
^rt; . ° 'ike a person in a special house built for it (Frazer Golden Bough3: The Magic
tesernbi ' su^>ra x^' *93 n* Fig-646 is from an example in my possession. But the
jj. auce of the African relic to the Sumerian attribute is presumably quite fortuitous,
th ^Uess"wor'c were allowable, my own surmise would be that the bar-and-circle held
fnade goc'a-ess is a conventional snake, such as the Imoka Kamui or 'divine image'
tillle °Ut °f sedge by the Ainu and used by them in their snake-worship especially at the
this sh0f-lldbirth ®' BatcheIor in J- Hastings op. cit. i. 251s with fig. = my fig. 647). On
gb(J(jes Vln^ l'le Mesopotamian goddess would he a close counterpart of the ' Minoan'
and has'iMlK> ^rand'slletl a snake in either hand (supra ii. 930 n. o, cp. ii. 1221 fig. 1014)
the K S.?een already compared with Athena (supra p. 189 f.). However, from Larsa to

t gUf Islands is a far cry.
'yre-nl £ar'y 'Ionic' sculpture, e.g. the left hand of the rejoicing woman or of the

arch. /ymg yout" on tlle Boston relief (F. Studniczka in the Jahrb. d. kais. deutsch.
Catalog' 1911 xxvi P1- 1 and fig- 6l> L- D- Caskey Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
G. ]V[ ff, G''eek and Roman Sculpture Harvard Univ. Press 1925 p. 30 ff.

no. 1

Wit" fin ' hter The Sculpture and Sculptors of the Greeks Yale Univ. Press 1929 p. 31
2 p;!;.477 and 478).

"Postcards of the plaque are procurable in Paris.

53