Zeus : a study in ancient religion - Warburg Institute

The axe carried by priests and priestesses 623
god such as Sutekh. More probably it shows a priestess carrying
the crescent axe for some ritual purpose. If so, the nearest parallels
are a lentoid steatite from Knossos (fig. 523)^ and a clay sealing
from Kato Zakro (fig. 524)-, on which G. Karo^ recognised ' '
Minoan
Fig. 523-
Fig- .'^24.
priestesses bearing the double axe and the sacred robe of their
goddess. Or should we rather say 'the sacred robe of their goddess
' and the double axe of their god .''
Two stone moulds found near Palaikastro in 1899 exhibit a
whole series of designs relating to the Cretan axe-cult^ These in-
Fiy;- 525-
' Sir A. J. Evans in the Ann. Brit. Sch. Ath. 1901— 1901 viii. loi f. fig. 59 ( = niy
fig. 523, scale f ) speaks of the figure on this intaglio, found near ' the Court of the Oil
Spout ' in the Cnossian palace, as apparently a female divinity. But why ?
'•^ D. G. Hogarth in iht Journ. Hell. Sttid. 1902 xxii. 78 f. fig. 5 ( = niy fig. 524,
scale \) thinks that between the two draped figures of this impression is ' a labrys suspended
in air' (cp. supra p. 514 ff.). G. Karo in the Archiv f. Rel. 1904 vii. 148 fig. 32
gives a redrawing of the seal, in which the labrys is definitely carried by the left-hand
figure.
^ G. Karo in the Archiv f. Rel. 1904 vii. 147 figs. 31 and 32.
^ S. A. Xanthoudides in the 'E0. 'Apx- 1900 p. 26 ff. pi. 3 f. ( = my fig. 525 flF.), Milani