Zeus : a study in ancient religion - Warburg Institute

Lightning as a weapon 509
information which he derived from Sotakos of Karystos, a Hellenistic
writer on precious stones.
Monumental evidence for the like beliefs in the classical area is
fairly abundant. A'Minoan' grave at Phaistos yielded a small celt
of softish black stone, not steatite, pierced with a hole and doubtless
worn as an amulet (fig. 382)^ A very ancient votive deposit from
Norba in Latium includes a small celt of green stone encircled length-
wise b\' an iron band, which must once have ended in a hook for
attachment (fig. 383)-. A tomb at Narce in the Faliscan district con-
Fig. 386. Fig- 385- Fig. 387.
tained a small celt of diorite serving as pendant to a necklace of
beads made in blue vitreous paste (fig. 384)^ In the Fiihrer catacomb
at Syracuse a celt of greenish serpentine flecked with white, which
has a partially bored hole at one end, was found on the breast
of a woman (fig. 385)^—a good example of a pagan superstition
surviving into Christian times. In Spain two small celts of fibrolite
were used as prophylactic pendants (figs. 386, 387)^ At Vettersfelde
in Nieder-Lausitz, a district of Brandenburg, a remarkable hoard of
objects in gold— the complete equipment of a Scythian chief—was
^ L. Savignoni ' Scavi e scoperte nella necropoli di Phaestos ' in the Mon. d. Line.
1904 xiv. 616 with fig. 75 (on p. 6o6) = niy fig. 382, C. Blinkenberg op. cil. pp. 22 f.
fig. 10, 108. Height: 0'026.
- R. Mengarelli and R. Paribeni ' Scavi sulle terrazze sostenute da mura poligonali
presso r Abbazia di Valvisciolo ' in the Not. Scavi 1909 p. 257 fig. 23=:my fig. 383,
C. Blinkenberg op. cii. p. 108.
' A. Pasqui ' Delle torn be di Narce e dei loro corredi' in the Mon. d. Line. 1894 iv.
490, C. Blinkenberg op. cit. pp. 29 fig. 16 { = my fig. 384), ro8.
•* P. Orsi ' La catacomba di Fiihrer nel predio Adorno-Avolio in Siracusa ' in the
Roinische Quarlahchrift fiir christliche Alterthumskiinde iind fiir Kirchengeschichte 1895
ix. 476 ff- pi. 2 fig. i ( = my fig. 385).
^ L. Siret Questions de chronologie et d''ethnographie ibiriques Paris 1913
fig. 85, 3 and 4 ( = my figs. 386, 387), 276 fig. loi, 15.
i. 252 f.