Zeus : a study in ancient religion - Warburg Institute

540 The double axe in relation to horns
focus of life'; and (c) that the vital force of the divine beast was
gathered into its horns^ so that any object placed between them
would be quickened to the uttermost. Was not this the right
position for that dread weapon, which constituted the might of
the Almighty?
Bucraniuin and double axe were for centuries associated in the
popular mind. And the peculiar 'Minoan' combination of the two
has left traces of itself over a wide area. L. Stephani published a
pair of double axes (fig. 41 1) and eight bucrania (fig. 412) found in
1873 on the site of Olbia in Sarmatia^ They are flat lead castings
with unworked back, and were presumably affixed to some smooth
surface, perhaps that of a wooden coffin^ The bucrania are adorned
with fillets and grape-bunches, occasionally also with ivy-leaves.
Fig. 411. Fig. 412.
Between the horns in every case rises a vertical stem, which is hardly
to be explained as a mere tag due to the casting, but more probably
should be regarded as a vestige of the double axe once installed in
that position of importance. R. WiJnsch^ has recently noticed that
the Museum at Stettin possesses a large number of leaden bucrania
from Pantikapaion {Kerch): most of them have an oblong handle
between the horns, which he would complete by means of sundry
loose heads of double axes found with the bucra7iia in question.
Wiinsch conjectures that these were amulets derived from the double
axe of the ancient Cretan religion. Again, Count Albert de La
^ Sicp7'a i. 508 ff.
^ Sup7-a i. 499 ff.
3 L. Stephani in the Compte-rendu St. Pet. 1873 p. xxix, id. ib. 1874 p. 32 f. Atlas
pi. I, 18 ( = my fig. 411) and 24; 15, 16, 17, 19 ( = my fig. 412), 20, 21, 22, 23.
* See E. H. Minns Scythians and Greeks Cambridge 1913 p. 373 f. fig. 277.
5 R. Wiinsch in the Archivf. Rel. 1913 xvi. 632 f., Ain.Journ. Arch. 1914 xviii. 227.