Zeus : a study in ancient religion - Warburg Institute

594 The double axe and Zeus Labrdy7jdos
breast-like protuberances. M. Meurer^ and A. H. Smith^ have
attempted to explain these as some sort of pectoral ornament.
But Wood's relief is really conclusive in favour of admitting them
to be female breasts ^ Zeus is flanked by two smaller figures, who
look towards him with gestures of adoration. The inscriptions,
Idrieiis and Ada, show that they are the king and queen of Karia,
who were reigning together between 351 and 344 B.C.* As son and
daughter of Hekatomnos, brother and sister of Maussollos, they
naturally adore their ancestral god Zeus Stj-dtios of Labranda. We
cannot, however, suppose that this trumpery relief was a votive
offering made by, or on behalf of, Carian royalty. Besides, how
came it to be found at Tegea? In the absence of the lower half of
the stone, which doubtless gave the circumstances of the dedication,
certainty is unattainable. But P. Foucart has put forward a very
plausible hypothesis^ Skopas, who is known to have decorated the
temple of Athena Ale'a before he worked at the Mausoleum, probably
took with him from Tegea to Halikarnassos some of his best work-
men. One of these, on returning to his native town, consecrated to
the goddess a souvetiir of his Carian journey, as like as not executed
by his own hand.
The bizarre type of a Zeus with matronal breasts must not be
taken, with E. Gerhard®, to imply an androgynous deity, nor merely,
with P. Foucart ', to betoken that 'c'est lui qui nourrit les etres
vivants, qui repand I'abondance.' It occurs again at Suzvasa in
Kappadokia, where H. Rott® discovered an arcuated rock-cut niche
' M. Meurer 'Die mammae der Artemis Ephesia' in the Rom. Mitth. 1914 xxix.
200—219 with figs. I— 10.
* A. H. Smith in Xht/otini. Hell. Stud. 1916 xxxvi. 68.
2 This is recognised by both Foucart and Kuhnert locc. citt.
* U. Kahrstedt Forschiingen zur Geschichte des ausgeheiideii fimflen und des vicrten
Jahrhundcrts Berlin 1910 pp. 11, 119, 149 f. and in Pauly—Wissowa Real-Enc. ix. 912
dates their joint reign of seven years (Diod. 16. 69) from the spring of 350 to the end of
344 B-C.
* P. Foucart in the Moii. Plot 1910 xviii. 147, A. H. Smith in Xhejourn. Hell. Stud.
1916 xxxvi. 69.