Zeus : a study in ancient religion - Warburg Institute

642 The decoration of the double axe
however, led me to abandon any such view of the patterned axe or
hammer, as involving a piece of— I do not say
Fig- 559-
Wissowa Real-Enc.
impossible, but at worst improbable and at best
unproved, symbolism. I incline rather to take a
hint from my friend Dr A. C. Haddon, who points
out that patterns of the sort are often to be de-
rived from the lashing used to hold an early axe-
head in position^ The double axe, when a sacred
weapon, would tend to be decorated ; and its deco-
ration need not have a more recondite meaning.
A neolithic celt of greenstone published by
C. Blinkenberg^ has incised upon it an arborescent
design (fig. 559) resembling the Donnerbesen^ or
' thunder-besom ' marked
on the walls of old-
fashioned houses in Holstein, Vierlande, etc. as
a protection against lightning^ Now Donnerbesen
is the name popularly given in Germany and
Switzerland to the mistletoe'' or to any bushy
n. 23, O. Waser Charon, Charun, Charos p. 15 f. , id. in Pauly
iii. 2177 (' Xd/3a>v...ist eine Art Kurzform zu x''-P-'^''^^-^i
I'^'t (wild)
funkelndem Blick'). On lightning as a flash from ihe eye of a deity see supra p. 501 ff.
B. Schmidt Das Volksleben der Neiigriechen Leipzig 187 1 i. 224 f. justly compares the fiery
eyes of Charon as described by Verg. Aen. 6. 300 siau^ lumina flaniina (in ctilex 216 f.
is the reading of the better codd. B. C.H.) with the lightning
flagrantia taedis \ lumina
glance repeatedly attributed to him in modern Greek folk-song {e.g. A. Passow Popularid
carmina GrcccicE recentioris Lipsiae i860 no. 428.4 aav dcTTpaTri) V rd p\4fj./j,a tov,
no. 430.10 and no. 516.20 ttjs dcrTpairrjs to. fidna: see also N. G. Politest/, cii. ii.
254 f., J.
C. Lawson o/>. cit. p. 100).
* A. C. Haddon Evolution in Art London 1895 p. 85 f. pi. 1, i— 3.
^ C. Blinkenberg The Thunder-weapon in Religion and Folklore Cambridge 191 1 p- 98
fig- 34 ( = iriy fig- 559) a celt (o'2'° long) of unknown provenance, formerly in the Kyhn
collection, now owned by A. Petersen of Lyngby in Denmark.
^ C. Petersen Der Donnerbese^i (xxi. Bericht der Konigl. Schleswig-Holstein-Lauen-
burgischen Gesellschaft fiir Sammlung und Erhaltung vaterlandischer Alterthiimer) Kiel
1862 (extr. from \h.^ Jahrbuch fiir die Laudeskunde der Herzogthiimer SchleswigVi.s.w.
1862 V. 225 ff.).
On the folk-lore of brooms in general see F. Kunze ' Der Birkenbesen ein Symbol des
Donar' in XSxt Internationales Archiv fiir Ethnographie 1900 xiii. 81—97, 125— 162 (the
author deals with the Domierbesen on p. 145 f. , but fails to establish any special connexion
between the birch and the thunder-god), E. Samter Geburt, Hochzeit und Tod Leipzig
Berlin 1911 pp. 32 ff., 155, 170, i99f., W. L. Hildburgh 'Some Magical Applications
of Brooms in Japan ' in Folk-Lore 1919 xxx. 169— 207.
* Fraulein J. Mestorf in the Zeitschrift fiir Ethnologie 1889 xxi. (184) with figs, i—
(Holstein), Virchow ib. 1890 xxii. (77) figs. 1 and 2 (pattern in brick-work of a Saxon
smithy, Holstein), id. ib. 1890 xxii. (554) (Vierlande, on houses dated 1618 and 1626 A.D.).
^ C. L. Rochholz Schweizersagen aus dent Aargau Aarau 1856 ii. 202 cited by A. Kuhn
Die Herabkunft des Feuers tatd des Gdttertranks- Gutersloh 1886 p. 204, R. Folkard
Plant Lore, Legends, and Lyrics London 1884 p. 440, W. Schwartz Indogermanischer
Volksglaube Berlin 1885 p. 102, E. H. Meyer Germanische Mythologie Berlin 1891 pp. 86,
121, 260, S. Seligmann Der hose Blick und Verwandtes Berlin 1910 ii. 77, cp. 92.