Zeus : a study in ancient religion - Warburg Institute

492
ApoUon and Artemis
perhaps be ' un globe solaire, pareil a celui que les figyptiens, voisins des Cretois, placent
sur le front d'Ammon-Ra.' None of these explanations is free from doubt, and I now
incline to think that a more satisfactory result may be reached by considering the earliest
known coin of the town (E. Muret in the Rev. Nzim. iii Serie 1883 i. 65 pi. 2, 4,
F. Lenormant ib. p. 1298"., W. Wroth in the Ntiin. Chron. Third Series 1884 iv. 29
pi. 2, 5 (=niy fig. 377), Overbeck Gr. Kunstmyth. Apollon p. 307 Miinztaf. 3, 12,
J.
N. Svoronos op. at. p. 130 pi. 11, 4: obv. Apollon, nude except for a belt, stepping
left towards a height on which grows a storax-tree. The god carries a bow in his
left hand, a spherical object in his right, and is accompanied by a hound. In the
field behind him is a second storax-tree. All in a circle of dots; rev. '^BSVB '13
Artemis, in a long chiton, standing to right, shoots an arrow from her bow. She too is
accompanied by a hound (? stag A. B.C.). All in a square of dots). It is highly probable
that this coin represents Apollon l^TvpaKlrris (Steph. Byz. s.v. 'ZrvpaKioi') repairing to
Mt Styrakion in Crete (Steph. Byz. /oc. at., Eustath. tn 11. p. 281, 13) with his bow and
hound. It is an odd coincidence, but no more, that Sriypa^ {=(ja.vpri]p) was a name
recommended by Xenophon as suitable for a hound (Xen. cyn. 7. 5). Now Gruppe Gr.
Myth. Rel. p. 789 infers from Hdt. 3. 107, Plin. nat. hist. 12. 8 r that in the Levant
OTvpai, was a substitute for Xi/3ai'WT6s, 'white-incense,' and suggests that on Greek soil
XevKTi, 'white-poplar,' was a surrogate of arupa^, both having a white under-surface to
their leaves. It is therefore tempting to surmise that the storax-trees of Eleuthernai were
Fig. 378. Fig- 379- Fig. 380. Fig. 381.
analogous to the poplar-trees of the Eridanos, Apollonia (?), etc. (Steph. Byz. s.v. "AttoX-
Xijvia 23 mentions Apollonia as a later name of Eleuthernai, and notes that 6 (pvacKos
Aioy^vT}!, I.e. Diogenes 6 'ATroXXwctdriys, was a native of this town :
cp. the countermark
ATT on the copper of Eleuthernai [supra fig. 376)), and thence to conclude that the globe
on the hand of Apollon is a ball of resin from the bark of the storax-trees comparable
with the drops of amber believed to exude from the poplars. It is significant that the
balsamic juice known as ' liquid storax ' is obtained by incision from a tree, whose
botanical name is liquidambar orientalis.
The Apollon of Eleuthernai appears also on silver coins of the neighbouring town
Rhithymna, struck c. 400 B.C. (J. N. Svoronos op. cit. i. 308 pi. 30, i, Brit. Mits. Cat.
Coins Crete etc. pp. xxvii, 78 pi. 19, 8, Head Hist, niun.'^ p. 477).
At Selge in Pisidia coppers of j. ii B.C. represent the head of Herakles wreathed with
storax {Brit. Miis. Cat. Coins Lycia, etc. pp. cxvi f., 261 pi. 40, 7 f.), while coppers of
imperial date have two storax-trees fenced round as objects of worship and flanked by
club and thunderbolt, the symbols of Herakles and Zeus respectively {Brit. Mus. Cat.
Coins Lycia pp. cxvii, 264 nos. 68 f. Hadrian, 266 no. 78 pi. 41, 3 (=my fig. 378)
Severus Alexander, 267 no. 84 pi. 41, 5 (=my fig. 379) Salonina, no. 86 pi. 41, 6 (=my
%• 380) Aurelian). See further Imhoof-Blumer Momi. gr. pp. 342— 345, who cites inter
alia Strab. 570 f., and notes that the tree of Herakles is always larger than the tree of
Zeus. F. Lajard Recherches sur le ailte, les symboles, les attributs, et les tnoituvients figures
de Vinus, en oi-ient et en accident Paris 1837 pp. 136 f., 168 pi. 3, 2 ( = my fig. 381)