Zeus : a study in ancient religion - Warburg Institute

to columns or pillars 533
Subsequent discoveries strengthened this conjecture. In 1914
Sir Arthur was able to write :
'An interesting parallel, highly illuminating as to the cult connected with
these pillars, was supplied by a small house dating from the last Middle Minoan
Period excavated on the south-east borders of the Palace. Here in a small
chamber of fine ashlar masonry..., was a central pillar, the upper block of which
was exceptionally marked with the double-axe sign. At the foot of the pillar on
the north side, moreover, was a small limestone base of stepped pyramidal form,
with a socket above, corresponding with the stands of the sacred Double Axes
as seen on the Hagia Triada sarcophagus... The pillar cult is here clearly
brought into connexion with the divinity of the Double Axes—the great Minoan
Goddess... In the case of many of the smaller pillar-rooms with a single pillar
such as those of the South-East House and Royal Villa at Knossos, that of the
house on the hill of Gypsades, and those in the two small rooms at Phylakopi
there is no obvious structural reason for such a central support. Yet it is probable
that in all cases these stone pillars served a constructive purpose, and their
presence, even in small chambers easily spanned by beams, is accounted for in
the most natural manner by the assumption that they acted as supports of the
wooden columns of a chamber above, as seems to have been certainly the case
with pillars of the sanctuary quarter in the Knossian Palace... Of the sanctity of
such wooden columns as "Pillars of the House" there is abundant evidence
among the representations on Minoan and Mycenaean works of art 1.'
It will be observed that, where Sir Arthur spoke formerly of a
'God,' he speaks now of a 'Goddess.' In my own opinion the double
axe belongs primarily to the sky-god, secondarily to the earth-
goddess associated with him, while the tree, or column, or pillar,
belongs primarily to the earth-goddess, secondarily to the sky-god
associated with her. The combination of axe and tree, axe and
column, axe and pillar, implies the union of both^ I take it, then,
that the double axe hafted into a tree, or affixed to a wooden column,
or incised on a stone pillar, is sign and symbol of the god, whereas
1 Sir A. J. Evans in Archaeologia 1914 Ixv. 68 f.
- We should perhaps compare the tall beam pierced by an iron nail and erected in
honour of Thor (?) by the Lapps of Finmark {supra p. 423 n. 3), and also the high-seat
pillars of the old Norsemen with their sacred nails {supra p. 57 n. i). With regard to the
latter Miss N. Kershaw has kindly sent me (Nov. 9, 1920) the following references :
Eyrbyggia Saga 4 ' Thorolfr Mostrarskegg... sailed along the south coast [of Iceland]
westward past Reykjanes... Thorolfr threw overboard his high-seat pillars, which had
been standing in the temple. The image of Thor was carved on one of them. He declared
his intention of making his home in Iceland at the spot where Thor brought them ashore.
There he had a temple erected. It was a big building. There was a door in the side-wall
near one end. Inside stood the high-seat pillars, and there were pegs in them which were
called regin-naglar* ^ \*naglar, 'pegs.' The exact. meaning of 7-egin is uncertain. The
word is used of the gods in the Edda poems.], Landtiamabok 1.6, i. 7 f , 4. 5, Vatnsdala
Saga 15. See further G. Vigfusson—F. York Powell Corpus Poeticiim Boreale Oxford
1883 •• 403> 406' ii- 686, E. Mogk in the Grundriss der gertnanischen Philologie'^ Herausgegeben
von H. Paul Strassburg 1900 iii. 364, id. in Hoops Reallex. ii. 313, H. Falk ib.
ii. 538 f.