Zeus : a study in ancient religion - Warburg Institute

The double axe and Zeus Lai?rdyncios 599
Cesnola's note-book. As to the elliptical temple, it appears that
'the ellipse is truncated at one end, through the middle of which end was the
entrance. Near the other end, inside, against either wall and opposite each
other, are the pedestals (probably) of the two statues referred to.'
These statues were votive offerings by a man named Oliasas^ and
another named Demetris and may be dated between the third
and the fifth centuries A.D. Fragments of a third statue seem to
belong to the cult-image, though neither head nor double axe^ were
found. Hall saw that Zeus Labrdnios is simply the Cypriote equivalent
of Zeus Labrdyjidos^, remarking that 'this part of Cyprus was
settled by Carians or Lycians.'
Whether the I upiter Laprms mentioned by Lactantius^ is another
form of the same deity, as M. Mayer' supposes, is doubtful. O. Hofer®
would find in him a Zeus Ldphrios comparable with Apollon LdpJirios
and Artemis LapJiria. Others'' have thought of the Cretan Zeus
Elaphros. And a corruption of Zeus Lapersios^ is a further possibility.
All these and dozens of other names—Greek, Latin, Etruscan,
Iberian, and Celtic—are regarded by W. Vollgraff^ as metamorphoses
of the same Protean Idbrys.
clxx, id. A Descriptive Atlas of the Cesnola Collection of Cypriote Antiquities in the
Metropolitan Museia>i of Art, Neiv York New York 1903 iii pi. 143 nos. i, 2.
* Hall cp. Oliatos of Mylasa, one of the Ionian tyrants (Hdt. 5. 37).
^ A tetrobol struck c. 400 B.C. at some uncertain mint in Kypros has for obverse type
a panther (?) scratching his right foreleg wjth his right hind paw. Above him is the head
of a double axe and an inscription in Cypriote characters, which has been read as
?Sa-/a)-TO- o-e [Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Cyprus p. 71 pi. 13, 12, Babelon Monn.
gr. rom. ii. 2. 825 f. pi. 136, 18). Conceivably this stands for Sacirrjs, which occurs as
a title of Zeus at Thespiai (Paus. 9. 26. 7 f ), and of Dionysos at Troizen (Paus. 2. 31. 5)
and Lerne (Paus. 2. 37. 2), if not also at Thespiai (cp. Anth. Pal. 9. 603. i (Antipatros of
Sidon)—referred by O. Benndorf to the Thespiades of Praxiteles).
Zeus Labrdyndos (?) on a copper of Keramos is accompanied by a lioness (?) or
panther (?) {supra p. 575 n. 6); and it is on a lioness (?) or panther (?) that the Hittite
bearer of the double axe stands at Boghaz-Keui [supra i. 599 n. 6, 603, 605 fig. 476, ii.
552. 560).
^ I. H. Hall in the Journal of the American Oriental Society 1885 xi p. clxviii f So
also G. Karo in the Archiv f. Rel. 1904 vii. 124 f , J. Schaefer op. cit. p. 360 f, J. L. Myres
op. cit. p. 322.
'' Supra p. 588 n. I.
* M. Mayer in Roscher Lex. Myth. ii. 1506 (correcting Laprios into Labrios).
^ O. Hofer in Roscher Lex Myth. ii. 1850.
^ Ae. Forcellini ap. De Vit Onoi?iasticoti iii. 736, citing Hesych. 'E\a0p6s' fv^daraKTos,
Kov(pos. Tj Z6i)s iv KpriTTj, whcrc W. Dindorf ap. Stephanum Thes. Gr. Ling. iii. 687 D
wrongly assumes confusion with Fi\xixvb%. Cp. Scholl—Studemund anecd. i. 265 no. 39
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