Universitätsbibliothek HeidelbergUniversitätsbibliothek Heidelberg
Metadaten

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

DOI Seite / Zitierlink: 
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14698#1059

DWork-Logo
Überblick
loading ...
Faksimile
0.5
1 cm
facsimile
Vollansicht
OCR-Volltext
956 General Conclusions with regard to

tected by barriers like walls1. Of these, the one that faced the door
was simply coloured blue; the rest were painted by Panainos the
brother of Pheidias with pictures of Atlas and Herakles, Theseus
and Peirithoos, Hellas and Salamis, Herakles and the Nemean
lion, Aias and Kassandra, Hippodameia and Sterope, Prometheus
and Herakles, Penthesileia and Achilles, and lastly two Hesperides.
The footstool had golden lions2 and a frieze showing Theseus

1 Paus. 5. 11. 4 f. dWxou<rt Se ovx ol TrbSes fibvoi tov dpbvov, aXKa KaX nloves tcroi rois
TToal /j.era^v ^(XTtjKores tujp irod&v. vire\deiv 5£ ovx T^ £o~tiv v7ro T0V Opbvov, wairep y£
xal iv 'A/auk\aLS es ra ivrbs tov dpbvov Trapepxb^eda ■ ev 'OXv/xiria 5£ fp^ara Tpb-wov toI%(^v
ireTTonj/neva ra [dk {del. Korais)] aTretpyovrd e<m. tovtoiv tCjv tpvp-druv offov [lev diravriKpv
tSiv Svpwv icTiv, oWrjXiirTai nvavu? jxbvov, rd 5e \onrd avrwv irapixeTaL Havofoou ypcupds.

The exact construction and decoration of the throne has long been a bone of contention
among classical archaeologists: see e.g. H. Brunn ' La nascita di Venere sulla base del
Giove fidiaco' in the Bull. d. Inst. 1849 p. 74 f. = id. Kleine Schriften Leipzig—Berlin
1905 ii. 247 f., id. 'Sul Trono del Giove di Fidia in Olimpia' in the Ann. d. Inst. 1851
xxiii. 108—117 pis. c and n (restorations by Stackelberg and Brunn) = 2aT. Kleine Schriften
ii. 248—254 figs. 28 and 29, A. S. Murray 'The barrier of the throne of Zeus at Olympic
in the Ath. Mitth. 1882 vii. 274—276, id. A History of Greek Sctdplure London 1883
(ib.- London 1890) ii. 125—127, R. Bohn in S. A. Ivanoff Architektonische Studien Berlin
1892 Heft 1, E. A. Gardner 'The Paintings by Panaenus on the Throne of the Olympian
Zeus' in the Journ. Hell. Stud. 1894 xiv. 233—241, A. Trendelenburg in the Jakrb. d-
kais. deutsch. arch. Inst. 1897 xii Arch. Anz. pp. 25—29, E. Petersen 'Die Geburt der
Aphrodite' in the Horn. Mitth. 1899 xiv. 154—162, H. BlUmner 'Die Gemalde des
Panainos am Throne des olympischen Zeus' in the Jahrb. d. kais. deutsch. arch. Inst
1900 xv. 136—144, H. G. Evelyn-White 'The Throne of Zeus at Olympia' in the Jourt'-
Hell. Stud. 1908 xxviii. 49—55, G. Pellegrini 'II trono di Giove e le pitture di Panen0
a Olimpia' in the Atti del reale Istittito veneto di scienze, lettere ed arti 1914—1915 l"xlV'
1555 ff., G. Q. Giglioli 'II trono dello Zeus di Fidia in Olympia' in the Memorie della A"
Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei Classe di scienze morali, storiche e filologiche Serie Quinta
1920 xvi. 219—374 with diagrams and 26 figs.

In my restoration (supra ii pi. xlvi) I have assumed (1) that the four bars (Kat>6fes)'
as the coins seem to show, carried small figures in the round (dydX/iara) representing
athletes or combatants; (2) that the wall-like barriers (epi/xara), which prevented peop'e
from passing under the throne, were painted screens filling the four spaces between ''ie
legs (-jro'Scs) and beneath the bars; (3) that the pillars (tclovts), equal in number to the leSs
(fo-oi tois woal), stood literally between the legs (,uera££> io-TijKoTes toiv wob~wv), connecting
the bar as stylobate with the seat as architrave (for an earlier arrangement see sup
p. 669 with fig. 480). This would not exclude the possibility that, as in the case of AtheI)3
Parthtnos (G. Fougeres VAcropole d'Athhies: Le Parthenon Paris 1910 ii. 2 pi. I34>
there was a strong central pier or mast to ensure the stability of the whole colossal nS11!^
Indeed, I suspect that a symbolic value was attached to this group of four pillars « ^
a central stem. We have already seen (supra ii. 141 ff. fig. 83) a similar quincunx ^
columns apparently serving as a Sardinian model of the sky. The tomb of Porsenn*
Clusium with its five pyramides and its superposed pelasus (supra ii. 1219) is suscep1'1
of the same interpretation. Recently L. Frobenius Kulturgeschichte Afrikas Zurich 19*^
p. 173 ff. figs. 124—139 has cited interesting parallels from Yorubaland, Egypt' ey,
(cp. supra ii. 193 n. 2 pi. xi), Etruria, etc., and in particular has shown that in Dah°nl.'e
Togoland, Yorubaland, and Assyria thrones for deities and king s often took this
form. We may therefore justifiably conclude that, if Zeus sat on a seat supported by
pillars and a central stem, he did so in his character of sky-god.

2 Lions were a traditional feature in the decoration of divine or royal thrones. ^
seat might be flanked by two lions (supra ii. 810 figs. 773 and 774, cp. i. 586 fig- 4«"
 
Annotationen