Zeus : a study in ancient religion - Warburg Institute

The deity of the double axe 555
the rock, but no temple. J. Toutain ' Le sancluaire de Saturnus Balcaranensis ' in the
Melanges cfarcheologie et d'kistoire 1892 xii. 1— 124 figs, i—3 pis. r—4 (F. Cumont in
Pauly—Wissowa Real-Enc. ii. 2822 f., M. Mayer in Roscher Lex. Myth. ii. 1500 f.) has
published the finds made on this interesting site. They include some 60 terra-cotta lamps,
a cylindrical jar containing bones of birds (probably doves), a few other vases, some small
copper coins, and no less than 365 votive inscriptions (a selection in Dessau Inscr. Lat.
sel. nos. 4444^— ^4445)1 many of them accompanied by reliefs (e.g. pi. i, 2 = my fig. 433,
pi. I, 4 = my fig. 434, pi. I, 6 = my fig. 435). The dedication takes various forms: 6'a/7/r«o
Augusta sacrum or Saturno Domino ot' Saturno Sancto. And frequently the local epithet
is added : Saturno Augtisto Bakaranensi, Saturno Balcaranensi Augusta, Saturno Domino
Balcaratiensi Augusta ; sacerdos dei tnagni Balcaranensis. M. Mayer loc. cit. observes
that the god is always represented as a mere bust in a pediment, flanked by his bill-hook
and patera, with Sol and Luna in the spandrels, and ingeniously suggests that he is an
anthropomorphised baitylos. The 'Two Horns' recall the Egyptian hieroglyph of a desert
Fig. 433-
mountain (F. LI. Griffith A Collection 0/ Hieroglyphs London 1898 p. 31 col. pi. 3, 38),
in which P. E. Newberry 'Two Cults of the Old Kingdom' in the Ami. Arch. Anthr.
1908 i. 24 ff. figs. 1— 15 finds the prototype of the ' Minoan ' ritual horns. He has argued
his case well ; but I adhere to my view that the ' Minoan ' horns were originally bovine.
An island in the Ionian Gulf was known as K/Do^/ia and gave its name to the Kpoi'fa
Ba\a.(f