Zeus : a study in ancient religion - Warburg Institute

sacred tree at Rhegion 68i
image in its branches, attacked by two men with double axes and
defended by two snakes (fig. 620)^ This unusual design can be
paralleled by ^?/«Jz-autonomous coppers of Aphrodisias in Karia :
here a leafless tree is attacked by two naked men, wearing Phrygian
caps, of whom one brandishes a double axe and the other kneels or
runs away (figs. 621, 622)-. On specimens struck by Saloninus
(253— 266(?) A.D.) (fig. 623)* or Valerianus (253—260 A.D.) (fig.
Fig. 620.
Fig. 621. Fig. 622. Fig. 623. Fig. 624.
624)'' a third man is present, with uplifted arms. A. Lobbecke*^ and
F. Imhoof-Blumer" interpret these coins of Myra and Aphrodisias
as representing the myth of Myrrha. The latter scholar even sup-
poses that the third person present (a grown man !) is meant for
Adonis. In my opinion it is far more probable that the coins of
both towns commemorate a local rite of threatening the sacred tree
in order to make it fruitful. Sir James Frazer collects analogous
^ Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Lycia pp. livf., 71 pi. 15, 6 ( = my fig. 620), Imhoof-Blumer
and O. Keller Tier- itnd PJlanzenbilder auf Miiiizen und Gemmen Leipzig 1889 p. 63
pi. 10, 42, P. Gardner Types of Gk. Coins p. 78 pi. 15, 6, Head Hist, nu/n.^ p. 695 f.
fig. 316. G. F. Hill in the Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Lycia p. 71 describes the goddess as
' simulacrum of Artemis Eleuthera, wearing modius and veil ' (cp. Artemid. oneirocr. 2. 35
T) \iyoij.€vr) wapa AvkIols 'EXevdepa), but ii. p. liv admits that there may be ' a contamination
of the cult of Eleuthera with the legend of Myrrha or of Myrike ' (cp. J. Murr Die
PJlanzenwelt in der griechischen. Mythologie Innsbruck 1890 pp. 76 f., 106 f.).
^ Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Caria, etc. p. 36 pi. 6, 7, Imhoof-Blumer and O. Keller
op. cit. p. 64 pi. 10, 43 ( = my fig. 621), Head Hist, num.- p. 610. Fig. 622 is from a
specimen in my collection.
* Imhoof-Blumer Gr. Miinzen p. 142 f. no. 422 pi. 9, 29 ( = my fig. 623).
• A. Lobbecke in the Zeitschr.f. Nutn. 1890 xvii. 11 f. pi. 2, i ( = my fig. 624).
^ A. Lobbecke loc. cit. * Imhoof-Blumer Gr. Miinzen p. 143.