Zeus : a study in ancient religion - Warburg Institute

590 The double axe and Zeus Labrdyndos
ing of ^.pronaos and cella, with a square recess at the end. The length of the cella
inside the walls is 38' 3" by a width of
33' 6". The doorway is 12' 2" in width.
Two lintel stones still stretch across
the top. The height of the doorway is
about 18'. The flanking walls consist
of twelve courses, each about i\' deep.
The thickness of this wall is 6' ^". Beyond
the doorway the side walls of the
p7-onaos extend 16' 8". At a height of
12' from the ground outside, and 2' 3"
from the floor inside, the walls are
pierced at regular intervals by windows
6' 3" by 3' 6" at the base, tapering
slightly upwards. Round these windows
is a slight sinking, as if to receive
shutters. The view from them is most
striking, embracing the plain of My-
lasa, Paitschin, Leros, Calymnos, Cos,
Budrum, and the mountains all round.
Near this building drums of fluted
marble columns were lying about ^.
The diameter of one was about 3'. A
smaller one measured 2' i"."'
Labranda in its palmy days
had other attractions besides this
many-windowed fane with its
Fig. 494. large and well-built precinct.
Here grew a fine grove of sacred
plane-trees, to which the Carian troops fled for refuge after their
disastrous defeat by the Persians under Daurises on the banks of
the Marsyas (the modern China Cliai) during the Ionian revolt^.
Here too was a spring of clear water, in which were kept tame eels
decked with earrings and chains of gold I
The Carians, being a warlike race, viewed their axe-bearing god
' Id. lb. p. 614 n.° says: ' Prokesch von Osten [A. Prokesch-Osten Denkwilrdigkeiten
iind Erinnertingen aus dem Orient ed. E. Munch Stuttgart 1837 iii. 449] describes other
ruins on tliis site. He saw a portico with twelve columns standing, now probably thrown
down ; a great number of pieces of frieze lying on the ground ; a massive wall of hewn
stone fitted without mortar, 134 paces long, connected with a row of chambers not less
than 200 paces long ; and at the end of the wall a tower. The whole area covered by the
ruins he estimates as not more than 400 paces in width :
of the Roman period.'
n. 3)
'^ Hdt. 5. 119.
he considers these remains to be
** Plin. nat. hist. 32. 16 e manu vescuntur pisces...item in Labrayndi (supra p. 585
lovis fonte anguillae et inaures additas gerunt, Ail. de nat. an. 12. 30 x^'po^^f ^^
t'X^Cs KOil inraKOVOVTes rrj /cXrjcrei Kai rpofpas d...Kal iv t(^ '