Zeus : a study in ancient religion - Warburg Institute

5i8 The double axe in relation
trunk, coloured pink (wood?), forms as it were the handle of a double
axe, coloured yellow (gold?)^ The blades of this axe are dupli-
cated—as on the ring from Mykenai^— and marked with diagonals.
Upon them is perched a bird of black plumage, almost certainly to
be identified as a raven^ The background of the panel changes from
yellow to white and from white to blue as the eye travels from left
to right; but this change of colour is apparently due to mere love of
variety. The design as a whole puts beyond doubt the actual worship
of the double axe. That here, as on the Mycenaean ring, it was
conceived as the sky-god's weapon may be inferred partly from its
elevated position, set on the apex of a tapering pillar, partly from its
association with a raven, that prophet of the coming storm'*.
* R. Paribeni in the Mon. d. Lincei 1908 xix. 43 ' la doppia ascia d' oro,' cp. ib. p. 29
'due doppie asce d' oro o di metallo dorato.' ^ Supra p. 47
fig. 18.
* R. Paribeni in the Kendiconti d. Lined 1903 xii. 344, 348 regarded the birds repre-
sented on the axes of this sarcophagus as pigeons or ravens. But in the Moii. d. Lincei
1908 xix. 31 f., 43 he prefers ravens (' corvi ') to pigeons ('colombe'). G. Karo in the
Archiv f. Rel. 1904 vii. 130 makes them eagles ('Adier'). F. M. J. Lagrange in the
Revue Biblique inter nationale Nouvelle Serie 1907 iv. 341 f. would recognise a crow or
an eagle on one side of the sarcophagus ('on dirait d'un corbeau ou d'un aigle'), but
pigeons on the other ('la physionomie est ici celle de colombes plutot que celle de corbeaux
ou d'aigles'). A. J. Reinach in the Rev. Arch. 1908 ii. 281 i. leaves the matter undecided
('corbeau ou colombe,—colombe noire comme celles de Dodone,' ' un oiseau noir'). Sir
A. J. Evans in the Transactions of the Third International Congress for the History of
Religions Oxford 1908 ii. 195 says :
' perhaps the sacred black woodpeckers of the Cretan
Zeus.'
J. E. Harrison ib. ii. 155: 'a bird of black colour, possibly a pigeon or, as
Dr Evans suggests, a black woodpecker.' Cp. Sir A. J. Evans in Archaeologia 1914 Ixv. 54
' perhaps the sacred woodpecker, afterwards identified with the Cretan Zeus.' E. Petersen
in ihtjahrb. d. kais. deutsch. arch. Inst. 1909 xxiv. 163 argues for a cuckoo ('Kuckuck').
H. R. Hall AigcBan ArchcBology London 1915 p- 173 speaks of 'a bird which looks
very like a magpie,' but ib. p. 175 adds :
' One may wonder whether this apparent magpie
is not really intended for an eagle, the sacred bird of Zeus.' F. von Duhn in the Archivf
Rel. 1909 xii. 166 ff. states that at first he thought the bird a dove ('Taube'), but that,
after inspecting the original, he pronounced it to be a raven ('Rabe'). He reports ib.
p. 167 n. 2 the expert opinion of W. Warde Fowler : 'I have examined the birds with a
strong magnifying glass, and have no hesitation in identifying them as ravens : the one in
the upper plate to the right is quite unmistakeable to the eye of anyone accustomed to
observe birds out of doors, as I have done for the last thirty-five years and more. The
other two are not quite so convincing, but must, I think, be the same. They all have the
outline of head and beak which is peculiar to the raven (corvus corax) and which even
the crow (corvus corone) has not in quite the same degree, nor any other bird known to
me. I mean that there is only a very slight depression where the beak emerges from the
feathers of the head, so that the upper outline of the bird's head is almost an uninterrupted
curve. Perhaps I ought to mention that the raven of the southern Mediterranean is smaller
than ours and unknown to me (c. umbrinus), but I believe that it resembles the northern
bird in everything but colouration. I am certain these birds cannot be woodpeckers:
apart from the head and beak no one sees a black woodpecker perched as these are.'
This authoritative verdict may well be allowed to decide the issue.
^ Aristot.yrrt^. 241 Rose ap. Ail. dc fiat. an. 7. 7 K6pa^ Si einrpox^^ (so R. Hercher
for rax^wJ fat fTriTpox^s codd.) (/iffeyyofievoi Kai Kpoijuv ras VT^pvyas Kai Kporwv avr6.s, Sti