Zeus : a study in ancient religion - Warburg Institute

The Delphic Omphalos 179
and an eagle set upon it. The mention of the eagle brings us up
against another long-standing puzzle. What are we to make of the
eagles on the omphalos'i Can they too be explained in the light
of this pillar connecting earth with heaven ? The Delphic eagles
appear in classical literature from the fifth century B.C. onwards^
Pindar, our earliest source, writing in 462 B.C. speaks of the Pythian
priestess ' who
sitteth beside the golden eagles of Zeus^,' and an
old Greek commentator on the passage tells the orthodox tale :
' A story is bruited abroad to the effect that Zeus, wanting to determine the
centre of the world, let fly eagles of equal speed from west and east. They,
winging their way in opposite directions, met at Pytho and by that very fact
marked the central point of the whole world. Later, in token of what had
befallen, he made other eagles of gold and set them up in the precinct of the
god^.'
Observe that, whenever this tale is told of Zeus, the teller uses the
verb aphienai^ 'to let fly^' We shall not be far wrong, if we surmise
that the tale was in fact aetiological and aimed at explaining the
cult-epithet Aphesios, which Zeus is known to have borne in the
Megarid' and at Argos*'. Unfortunately the meaning of that epithet
is doubtful. In modern times it has been usually taken to denote
Zeus as a rain-god'^. But 'He who lets fly' is rather, I think,
suggestive of thunderbolts*. Be that as it may, Zeus Aphesios was
1 Find. Pyth. 4. 6 ff. with schol. ad loc. Find. frag. 27 Boeckh ap. Strab. 419, Eur.
\
Ion 111, (if, with F. Studniczka in Hermes 1902 xxxvii. 269, we accept C. Robert's risky
emendation (TT€/x/xaai 7' evSvTov, dficpl de yopy < Xjouco^a^i'i'w Atos oiuivib>), Philoda.mos
paean Dion. 123 ff. in the £t///. Corr. Hell. 1895 xix. 407 (if, with O. Kern and
H. Ponitow in Philologus 1912 Ixxi. 61 n. 22, we may take the words v!x.o\y\...
(jiov xpi'ceois ri^Trots |
\
[i']e[o]xp('-
... o.pya.lvovri to describe the two golden eagles, melted down by the
Phocians but now renewed, and the words aiiroxOovL Kdcrfjup to denote the ompkalos itself),
Strab. 419, Flout, de def. or. i, Loukian. de salt. 38 with schol. ad loc. p. 188, 25 ff. Rabe,
Claud, in Fl. Mallii Theodori co?isulatu/n prol. 11 ff., schol. Bernens. in Lucan. 5. 71 ff.
p. 156, 8 ff. Usener, schol. Eur. Or. 331, schol Soph. O.T. 480.
Delphoi was haunted by eagles in the time of Euripides (Eur. Ion 153 ff.), and is so to
this day (P. Gardner in the. Jon rn. Hell. Stud. 1915 xxxv. 70). I once saw two eagles
hovering above the deep glen of the Fleistos—a sight to be remembered.
- Find. Pyth. 4. 6 ff. ivda irore xp^'^^'^^ I
Xco vos TvxovTos Upea \
XPW^" k.t.X.
* Schol. vet. Find. Pyt/i. 4. 6 p. 95, 4
Atos
aierOiv TrdpeSpos |
ft". Drachmann.
ovk
dwoddixov 'AttoX-
* Schol. vet. Find. Pyt/i. 4. 6 p. 95, 7 d.