Zeus : a study in ancient religion - Warburg Institute

The double axe in the West 617
otherwise known as Zeus Ejtxeinos^ or Xe'nios-, who had a sanctuary
on the Genetaean headland adjoining the Pontic river Genes", derived
his title from geneis, ' an axe^' though that derivation would harmonise
well with the neighbourhood of the Chalybesl
On the whole, it may be predicted with assurance that the
thorough exploration of Asia Minor, which despite all drawbacks
must some day be completed, will accumulate further evidence of an
axe-bearing Zeus, successor and heir of a yet more ancient sky-god.
(X,) The double axe in the West.
It would seem, then, that over a wide area, from Doliche in
Syria to Tarentum in Calabria, the prehistoric lightning-axe passed
through the successive phases of fetish, attribute, and symbol. In
western Europe analogous causes were doubtless at work ;
but their
results are either wholly hidden from us by the darkness of bar-
barism or at best dimly discernible on the fringe of advancing
civilisation.
Double axes of copper, with the hafting hole too small to be of
use for tool or weapon, and therefore probably intended for purposes
of exchange or ceremony, make their appearance in the west as far
back as the Copper Age. A. Lissauer^ holds that they were imports
from Kypros and attempts to trace the routes by which they tra-
velled through Europe. But Sir W. M. Flinders Petrie'', arguing
that double axes with effective hafting are limited to the Mediter-
ranean area, whereas double axes with ineffective hafting belong
almost exclusively to the north, denies that Kypros was the centre
of distribution and classifies the northern axes under three local
types of separate origin. In Bronze-Age deposits ceremonial axes
^ Ap. Rhod. 2. 378 Zrjvos 'EyletVoto VevyiTairjv vir^p aKprjv with schol. Paris, ad loc.
Ii^aprivol 5^ ^ffvos "LkvOlkov. oiKodcn de Tr]v KaKovfji^vTjv Tevriraiav &Kpav otto V^vr]TOi irora-
/ioC, if 77 Atos ecTTiv Fiv^eivov iepov.
- Schol. Ap. Rhod. 2. 378 TevrjTaia aKpa Kvpiws oiirw Xeyofx^vrj dirb F^ct^to? wora/iov,
ivda Atos ^evlov iepbv iari.
' Steph. Byz. s.v. YevriT-qs- ...'ZoOK\rjs irora/xov TivriTa r]criv [frag. 1036 Jebb). See
further W. Ruge in Pauly—Wissowa Real-Enc. vii. 1132.
* Stephanus Thes. Gr. Ling. ii. 567 B.
^ Supra i. 631 f., 648.
^ A. Lissauer ' Die Doppelaxte der Kupferzeit im westlichen Europa ' in the Zeitschrift
fiir Ethnologic 1905 xxxvii. 519— 525 with figs, and a map, id. 'die Doppelaxt aus Kupfer
von Pyrmont ' ib. pp. 770— 772, id. ' eine Doppelaxt aus Kupfer von Ellierode, Kr.
Northeim, Hannover' ib. pp. 1007— 1009, R. Forrer Antigua 1885 p. 106, id. 'Die
agjyptischen, kretischen, phonikischen, etc. Gewichte und Masse der europaischen Kupfer-,
Bronze- und Eisenzeit ' in Xhtjahr-Buch der Gesellschaft fiir lothrimrische Geschichte und
AUertumskunde 1906 pp. i— 77, id. Reallex. p. 188 f., A. J.
Saglio Did. Ant. iv. 1 166 n. 8, J.
1910 ii. I. 403 ff. fig. 163, 483 n. I.
Reinach in Daremberg
Dechelette Manuel d'archeologie prc'historique Paris
^ Sir W. M. Flinders Petrie Tools and Weapons London 1917 pp. 13— 15 pi. 12.