Zeus : a study in ancient religion - Warburg Institute

678 The axe and the sacred oak at Dodona
axes of Crete. A fine double axe of iron, also from Dodona
(fig. 6igy, may give us some idea of Helios' tool.
Philostratos' statement with regard to the axe left, apparently
in the sacred tree, by the forefather of the Dodonaean priests is
indeed remarkable. But still more remarkable is a folk-tale heard
by J. G. von Hahn at Jdnina, close to the site of the ancient
Dodona. For in this tale not only do we get the incident of the
Fig. 618.
Fig. 619.
priestly wood-cutter leaving his axe in the tree, but also we have
unmistakeable evidence of the axe being conceived as male and the
tree as female. If I am right in my interpretation of the tale (and
there is small room for error), it follows that here in an out-of-theway
corner of Europe survives a primitive conception which can be
traced backwards, thanks to the Cretan sarcophagus, for the best
part of four thousand years. The tale is this- :
'A priest once went with his wife into the wood to cut timber. They found
there a wood-cutter, with whom the woman went deeper into the wood. But the
priest set about felling a wild pear-tree with his axe. He hewed and hewed till
there was but a span left to cut through, and then he waited for his wife to come
before cutting the rest. The tree, however, was so thick that it no longer held
together, but collapsed of itself. No sooner had this happened than out of it
came a she-bear, who said to the priest: "You must lie with me." "Hush !"
replied the priest, " I am a holy man and dare not do so." "That's all one to
me ;
look that he was scared and, for good or ill, did what she wanted.
do what I tell you," said the she-bear, and looked at him with so fierce a
^ C. Carapanos op. cit. p. 109 pi. 57, 6 and 6 bis ( = my fig. 619). Length o"2i'".
^ Text unpublished ; German translation in J. G. von Hahn Griechische und albanes-
ische Mdrchen Leipzig 1864 il. 72 ff. no. 75 ' Das Barenkind.'