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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#1072

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968 General Conclusions with regard to

suggests that the wooden core of the great chryselephantine figure
was pierced by tubes or channels, which conveyed the oil in all
directions and prevented the wood from being affected by changes
of temperature. A similar device was employed for Endoios' xoano 11
of Artemis at Ephesos1 and for the cult-image of Saturn at Rome2.
Such precautions notwithstanding, by the middle of the second
century B.C.3 the ivory of Zeus Olympios was cracked and had to be
refurbished by the sculptor Damophon4.

But graver dangers than slow disintegration were to follow. In
the days of Iulius Caesar the statue is said to have been struck by
lightning5, we do not know with what effect. Worse than that, in
40 A.D. Caligula actually gave orders that it should be brought to
Rome. P. Memmius Regulus, commissioned to carry out the
sacrilege, was warned by the architects that the removal of the
statue would entail its destruction, and was further deterred by
the occurrence of incredible portents. Accordingly he abandoned
the attempt and wrote to the emperor explaining his reasons. These
scruples might have cost him his life6, had it not been for the
opportune assassination of the tyrant on January 24, 41 A.D.7

1 Mucianus, the consul of 52, 70, and 75 A.D., ap. Plin. nat. hist. 16. 213 f. (supra ii.
410 n. o) states that the ancient statue of Artemis at Ephesos was made by Endoios (but
see C. Robert in Pauly—Wissowa Real. Enc. v. 2554) of vine-wood (J. Murr Die
Pftanzenwelt in der griechischen Mythologie Innsbruck 1890 p. 102 ' des Keuschlamms
would derive uitigeneum from vitex): adicit multis foraminibus nardo rigari, ut medicatus
umor alat teneatque iuncturas.

2 Plin. nat. hist. 15. 32 (quoted supra p. 967 n. 3).

3 B. Ashmole in The Cambridge Ancient History Cambridge 1930 viii. 689 f.

4 Paus. 4. 31. 6 AafjLO(pwj>Tos 8b Zpyov, 6s Kal rbv Ala <rbv {ins. H. Hitzig) > &
'0\vp.irla 8i£(ttt]k6tos ijSi] rod eXetpavros o-WTjppLoaev es rb aKpL^^trrarov, Kal oi dedo/J.e'vai
ri/j.a.1 irapk 'HArfwi' eUrl. A. Neuburger The Technical Arts and Sciences of the Ancients
trans. H. L. Brose London 1930 p. 64 f. says : ' it is now a lost art to join ivory plates
without leaving traces or [leg. of] the joins and without the differences of external
temperature giving rise to cracks owing to the resultant change of dimensions.' On
modern Museum methods of treating ancient ivory see A. Lucas Antiques: their Rt"
storation and Preservation London 1924 pp. 55—58.

5 Euseb.praep. ev. 4. 2. 8 a/upl Sb 'loi/Xiov Kaltrapa to /te'ya rCiv 'EMtjcwp Kal '0\v/i-
ttlkov &ya\[ia, rb ev avrah '0Ai;/x7r:dcn, Kepavvy irpbs rod &eod fi\t]dev avaypd<povo~i. CP*
Lucr. 6. 417 ff. with H. A. J. Munro ad loc.

6 Yet see E. Groag in Pauly—Wissowa Peal-Enc. xv. 634.

Ioseph. ant. lud. 19. 1. 1 iirel Kal rbv '0\vp7rLdaL rip.ibfj.6vov Ala virb r(ov
Kal ovtws wvofiac/xe'vov 'OXv/j-ttlov, Qeidlov rod 'Adtjvalov ireTroiyjKSros, irbXpLijcre /ceA^<rcti
els tt)v 'P(bfj.7]js fxercKpepeiv. ov /j.t\v girpa^ ye, twv apxt-t€KT6vojv (pafie'vwv irpbs M^M/Xi0''
'PrjyovXov, 6s eirertraKro rfj KLvrjo'ei rod At6s, diroXe'io'dai rodpyov KLvrjffeios avrov yey^vV
fxtvqs. Xiyerai 5e rbv Me/j-fjuov did radra, Kal ayfiefav pei^bvuv yeyevy jj.4vuv 7) ws tcv 7lv0,
iriara ijyeiffdai, v7rep[3aXe'o'dai ri)v dvaipeatv. Kal ypdepet rdde irpbs rbv Yd'Cov ^ft' diroXoy^
rod eWnreiv ddiaKbvrjrov tt)v tirio-roXyv. diroXecdai re £k rovrcov avrip Kivduvou yevofA&°v'
awferai (pdd<ravros ijdr] Tatov reXevrijaai.
 
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