Zeus : a study in ancient religion - Warburg Institute

The double axes of Tenedos 673
(between 41 B.C. and 17 A.D.) been run into the mould of a Mdrchen
involving the popular feature of the floating coffer. Possibly, too, the
original character of the heroine as an earth-goddess persists in the
trait that she must give the hero a fig before he can work his magic.
Returning now to the coin-types, we note that J. H. Eckhel^
more than a century ago identified the Janiform head as a com-
bination of Tennes and Hemithea. His conclusion was, I believe,
substantially correct. Indeed, it might be maintained that the very
name Hemithea, the '
Half-Goddess,' ox AmphitJiea, the 'Double-God-
dess,' as Hekataios- called her, has reference to the twofold type^
Only it must, I think, be borne in mind that Tennes and Hemithea,
who bulk so big in the later myths of Tenedos, are but heroic representatives
of an earlier sky-god and earth-goddess. Behind them we
can detect the Thraco-Phrygian Dionysos and Semele, who in turn
conceal the faded forms of the 'Minoan' Kronos and Rhea. As to
the outward expression of their worship, at first a double axe or a
pair pf double axes symbolised the union of the two great powers.
Then, in the sixth century B.C., we find a Janiform image serving the
same purpose. Ultimately the divine couple appear to have had
separate effigies, and that of Tennes at least had some pretensions
to beauty. The Tenedians, says Diodoros'' in the first century B.C.,
'made a precinct of Tennes and used to honour him as a god with
sacrifices, which they kept up till modern times.' Verres, therefore,
deeply offended them when—as Cicero-' informs us—he carried off
from their midst a very handsome statue of 'Tenes himself, who in
Tenedos is deemed a god most holy.'
The 'Minoan' cult, which occasioned the Tenedian combination
of god and goddess, seems to have led to a like result elsewhere.
A scaraboid gem of striped brown sard, found in Kypros and now
forming part of a private collection in this country, shows a double
head closely resembling that on the early coins of Tenedos (fig. 607)'^.
Silver coins of the 'Philisto- Arabian' series, struck during the fifth
century B.C. at Gaza Minoa, likewise represent a bisexual Janiform
^ Eckhel Doctr. num. vet."^ ii. 489.
^ Hekataios yra^. 139 {Frag. hist. Gr. i. 9 Muller) ap. Steph. Byz. s.v. T^veSos.
^ Cp. supra T^^. 328 (yiw/'«agrus), 421 (/4w//»sthenes, AmphiV.\&%), 445 {Amphion).
* Diod. 5. 83 (supra p. 670) reXeiirTjcras S' ddavdTwv ti/xwv rj^ididT] (sc. Tivvr)i) • Kai yaf>
T^/xevos avTov KareffKevaiTav Kal dvaiais ojs ^eoi' iri/jLiav, as SieTiXovv diovres fJ^exP'- ''''»'''
vetijTepwv KaipGjv.
^ Cic. in Verr. 2. 1. 49 Tenedo...Tenem ipsum, qui apud Tenedios sanctissimus deus
habetur, qui urbem illam dicitur condidisse, cuius ex nomine Tenedus nominatur,—hunc
ipsum, inquam, Tenem, pulcherrime factum, quern quondam in comitio vidistis, abstulit
magno cum gemitu civitatis.
^ Furtwangler Ani. Gemmen i pi. 6, 65 ( = my fig. 607: scale f), ii. 31.
c. II. 43