Zeus : a study in ancient religion - Warburg Institute

The duplication of the double axe 653
What are we to think of ihxs penchajtt for binary forms ? L. A.
Milani^ in a somewhat tangled passage of theogonic speculation
declares that the duplicated blades of the double axe on the gold
ring symbolise two pairs of gods, on the one hand the celestial
Kronos and Zeus, on the other the solar Zeus and Apollon, either
pair being conceived as Father and Son—an explanation which
might have claimed support from the Ophites and their supramundane
diagram (fig. 511)^. Sir Arthur Evans'', without indulging
in such subtleties, risks a similar conjecture d propos of the same
ring: 'The curious reduplication of the axe blades suggests indeed
Fig. 581. Fig. 582.
that it stands as an image of the conjunction of the divine pair—
solar and a lunar divinity.'
Personally I should contend that the double axe hafted in a
leafy stem, as at Hagia Triada (pi. xxvii, by and Knossos (fig. 396)^,
betokened the union of the Sky-father with the Earth-mother, and
that an ordinary double axe on its wooden handle came to be
received as a symbol of like significance''. Nor would I deny that
a pair of double axes, held up by a priestess (fig. 528)^ or erected
in a shrine (fig. 404)*, were reverenced as the signs of god and
goddess respectively. But I demur to regarding the duplicated
^ Milani Stud, e mat. di arch, e nwn, 1899— 1901 i. 197 f., Gruppe Myth. Lit. 1908
p. 287.
2 Supra p. 610 f.
3 Sir A. J. Evans in ihejourn. Hell. Stud. 1901 xxi. 108.
* Supra p. 520 f. ^ Supra p. 527 f. ^ Infra § 3 (c) i (it).
7 Supra p. 624. 8 Supra p. 535 ff.