Zeus : a study in ancient religion - Warburg Institute

Dios and Dios Nysos 283
two, and this break, which shows clearly in the plate, almost destroyed the fifth letter in
61'ipoi'. Dimensions as follows : Height, as now restored, 46cm. Original portion: height
34 cm. ; width at top 36 cm., at bottom 36^ cm. ; depth of recessed panel i^ cm. ; thickness
at top 6 to 4 cm. Back roughly tooled.'
The relief shows Zeus Sabdzios as a bearded god on horseback advancing towards an
ancient leafless tree. He wears a chitdn with short sleeves, a stiff chlainys over his back,
and a diadem round his head. He holds a thunderbolt in his right hand, a couple of
spears in his left. In the tree is an eagle side by side with a snake. Beneath the tree
burns a small square altar, close to which stands a wide-mouthed kratir. Thunderbolt
and eagle characterise the god as Zeus ; snake and krat^r (cp. Dem. de cor. 259 KpaTi^pi^cov),
as Sabdzios. All four attributes are found on the .Sabdzios-mormments already noted
{supra i. 391 ff. fig. 296 bronze hand, pi. xxvii bronze relief), which likewise have the
^/E: nan a IP OZA0HNOA
POYA II E A A X 1
Fis.
ni
E Y X H N
eagle and snake juxtaposed in friendly fashion. The unusual features of this stele are the
conception of the god as a rider and his connexion with a dream. Zeus Sabdzios is not
elsewhere an equestrian figure, unless it be he who on the well known but little under-
stood bronze plaque from Rome, now at Berlin (F. Lajard in the Mon. d. Inst, iv pi. 38, i,
id. Recherches siir le citlte dti cypres pyra»iidal Paris 1854 pp. 113 ff., 281 f., 360 pi. 7, 6,
E. Gerhard ' Phrygische Gcitter zu Pferd ' in the Arch. Zeit. 1854 xii. 209 ff. pi. 65, 3
(§ 3 (c) i (0)), Reinach AV/. Reliefs ii. 30 no. 3, W. Drexler in Roscher Lex. Myth. ii.
2744, T. Eisele ib. iv. 250), swings a double axe as he gallops over a prostrate human
form. But the god appears in a variety of poses (figs. 179, 180, 185) according to local
convention, and here it is not difficult to recognise the influence of Thrace [stipra fig. 175).
As to the dream, it will be remembered that in Aristoph. 7iesp. 9 ff. Sosias and Xanthias
both get dreams from Sabdzios. Xanthias sees a great eagle carry off an asp to the sky