Zeus : a study in ancient religion - Warburg Institute

354 lanus represented as Vault or Archway
Accordingly the Greeks did not at first carve him a statue or even
construct him a temple.
Why, where's the need of Temple, when the walls
O' the world are that ?^
The Persians on their mountain heights worshipped ' the whole
circle of the sky^,' offering sacrifice to him whom they called in the
accusative case *Didn^. And in like manner the Cretans honoured
Zan on a mountain-top, expressly identifying him with the sky-god
Zeus'*. So far as we know, Zan was not figured forth by any
anthropomorphic image. At most he was represented by the divine
bull annually eaten of his worshippers ^ The tomb of Zan was
indeed, for those who could receive it, the tomb of 'a Great Ox''.'
A parallel to the Cretan sacrament may be found in a Paris papyrus
already quoted'^: 'Zeus went up into the mountain with a golden
calf and a silver knife. To all he gave a share.' The cult of this
aniconic god appealed to the Pythagoreans, Pythagoras himself
is said to have written the epitaph of Zan*, and his followers speak
of 'the tower of Zan' or 'the watch-tower of Zan' as the very centre
of the universe". It is not till Zan has been definitely ousted by
Zeus that we hear of 'bronze images of Zeus... called Zdnes^'^!
{k) lanus represented as Vault or Archway.
In the Italian area the representation of the sky-god was
developed along different lines. Since the sky itself was conceived
as resting on four pillars ^\ the primitive ^^%y of lanus, the divine
Sky, was a vault resting on four supports, in short an archway.
It needs an effort of imagination on our part to realise that the
arch of lanus was no mere attribute or emblem of a sky-god, but an
actual copy of the animate sky. And excellent scholars, like mj'
friend Mr Warde Prowler, will no doubt continue to assert that the
^ R. Browning Epilogue to Dramatis Persoiice Third Speaker ii. if.
- Supra i. 9f., 338 n. 2. •^ Supra i. 781.
^ Supra i. 158 n. 2, 64.6, ii. 341 n. 6 s.v. Zdv, 345.
^ Supra i. 650, 662 ff., 673, 695.
^ Supra p. 345.
^ Supra i. 158 n. 2, 646, ii. 341 n. 6 s.v. Zdv, 345.
^ Supra i. 303, ii. 36, 52, 341 n. 6 s.v. Zaj'6s.
" Supra 1. 581.
Possibly Zan was at one time worshipped in Sainos, the original home of Pythagoras.
The name Sd^os, which means 'height' (Strab. 346, 457), recalls at once Sd^ij or 2d,u.os
{Samo) in Kephallenia; 2d/t*os, later 2a/xta or 2ayUiK6»', in Triphylia; 2d/Ltos or 'Zaixodpq.K-q;
2d/xos in Karia ; etc. A. Fick Vorgriechische Ortsnamen Gottingen 1905 p. ^\i. (cp. //'.
pp. 65, 88 f., 113, 115 f., 135 f.) regards this whole group of names as belonging by rights
to the Leleges, who were driven eastwards by the advance of the Illyrians (ib. p. 142).
1" Supra pp. 341 n. 6 s.v. Zai/es, 349.
^' Supra p. 1 40 tf.