Zeus : a study in ancient religion - Warburg Institute

6io The double axe and the labarum
of Constantine's Forum\ But it is a charred ruin^ The statue on
it was upset by a great south wind in 1 105 A.D.^ The porphyry
drums were encircled by bands of iron before 1561 A.D.* The four
marble steps then visible^ were concealed, probably after the fire of
1779 A.D., by a clumsy cloak of masonry^ Does the base yet guard
the axe of Noah as part of its 'inviolable treasure^'?
Schremmer looks to the Germanic north for an explanation of
the labarum. I should look rather to the east, where Constantine
had served under Galerius for the best part of a decade (296
306 A.D.). When we remember, on the one hand, the role played by
the double axe in the religion of Phrygian on the other, the fact
that Noah in the ark appears on coins of the Phrygian Apameia
Kibotos from the end of the second to the middle of the third century
A.D.", it does not seem extravagant to conjecture that the axe
of Noah was but the ancient Anatolian Idbrys, in a novel Jewish
disguise. Indeed, it is more than probable that in the near east the
cult of the Idhjys, under various modifications, lingered on through-
out the early centuries of the Christian era. F. Legge" has recently
drawn attention to the Ophite diagram of the supramundane region,
which included two pairs of concentric circles, the one pair inscribed
'Father' and 'Son,' the other pair coloured yellow and blue, and
between them a barrier in the form of a double axe". The original
^ J. Ebersolt Constantinople Byzantine et les Voyageurs du Levant Paris 19 19 Index
p. 271 s.v. ' Colonne de Constantin ' (elevation on p. 69 fig. 12), id. Satutuaires de
Byzance Paris 192 1 p. 71 ff. fig. 13.
'^ Hence it is called '/a Colonne Brillee.'
^ Anonymos irarpia 45 a p. 138, 13 ff. Preger with J. Ebersolt op. cit. p. 43.
* P. Gyllius De lopographia Constantinopoleos, et de illius aniiquitatibus Lugduni 1561
p. 142. Cp. E. Oberhummer loc. cit.: 'tiirkisch Dscheinberli Tasch (d.i. "Saiile mit den
Reifen").'
* J. Ebersolt Constantinople Byzantine et les Voyageurs du Levant p. 79 f.
^ Id. ib. p. 196.
' Id. Sanctuatres de Byzance p. 73 says of the axe : 'sa presence au palais est attestee
en 1157^^ ("Cf. Riant, Exuvicc, t. 11, p. 215.); niais les pelerins slaves de la derniere
epoque la mentionnent toujours dans la Colonne^- ('-'Cf. Itin. russes, p. iiq, 203, 238).'
* S7ipra p. 572.
^ For the literature of this famous type see W. Drexler in Roscher Lex. Myth. iii. 448.
some coins of Septimius Severus, Macrinus,
Good illustrations in F. W. Madden ' On
' and Philip I., struck at Apameia, in Phrygia, with the legend Nn6
in the Num. Chron.
New Series
G. F. Hill
1866 vi. 173 219 pi.
A Handbook of Greek
6, 1—3, Hunter Cat. Coins ii.
and Roman Coins London 1899
480 pi.
p. 170
56,
fig.
i6,
28,
G. Macdonald Coin Types Glasgow 1905 p. 173 f. fig- '8.
'" F. Legge Forerunnt-rs and Rivals of Christiajiity Cambridge 19 15 ii. 67.
" Orig. c. Cels. 6. 38 ovk apKeadeh 5' 6 yevvddas {sc. 6 KiXaros) tols awb toO diaypafifiaTOi
(PovK'TjOij vw^p TOO av^ijaai ras nad' T)fxOiv Karrfyoplas, tCov firiSiv ix^n'T'^v kolvov irpbs CKeTvo,
dia fiiaov aXX' 6.TTa elireip, iirava\a8wv to. eKeivwv dia-irepel €Tipwv (so P. Koetschau).
T)