Zeus : a study in ancient religion - Warburg Institute

690 The axes of Penelope
the carved slabs of the same age^ from the dolmen of Collorgues in
Gard, which represent a female bearing an axe-handle (fig. 629)^,
we may be disposed to allow that blade plus handle sometimes
symbolised the union of male with female—a symbol that probably
arose in neolithic times^
{y) The axes of Penelope.
If in 'Minoan' times the hafted axe thus denoted the union of
male with female, it is possible that there was some such notion
underlying the marriage-test proposed by Penelope
Behold the dawn comes, dawn of evil name
That is to take me from Odysseus' home ;
For now forthwith a contest will I make,
To wit the axes, which within his halls
My lord was wont to set, twelve in a row.
Like ship-stays, and himself far off would stand
And send a single arrow through them all.
Now on the wooers will I lay this task :
Whoso most easily shall string the bow
And shoot a shaft through the axes, twelve in all,
Him will I follow and forsake this house.
Where I was wed, so fair, so full of wealth.
That I shall mind me of it even in dreams*.
The Odyssey certainly gives no hint that the contest was anything
more than an athletic competition. Nevertheless, athletic competitions
in Greece were often religious in their origin; and it may
be that in this feature of the story, as in some others {e.g. the tree-bed
of Odysseus'), the poet is modernising materials of immemorial
antiquity.
are from C. Bicknell The Prehistoric Rock Engravings in the Italian Maritime Alps
Bordighera 190-2 pp. 41, 73 pi. "], f (Val Fontanalba), id. Further Explorations in the
Regions of the Prehistoric Rock Engravings in the Italian Alariti/ne Alps Bordighera
1903 pp. 14, 36 pi. 3, 9 (Val Fontanalba).
^ So S. Reinach in VAnthropologie 1894 v. 12, 190 1 xii. 606, 608, cp. E. d'Acy ib.
1901 xii. 608. But M. Hoernes op. cit.'^ p. 218 says: ' aus dem Ende der Steinzeit und
den friihesten Metallperioden.' And J. Dechelette op. cit. 1908 i. 587 ff. treats them as
neolithic.
- F. Herniet ' Sculptures prehistoriques dans les deux cantons de Saint-Affrique et de
Saint-Sernin' in the Mhnoires de la Sociiti des Lettres, Sciences et Arts de VAveyron 1892
xiv. I—22 with pi., E. Cartailhac ' La divinite feminine et les sculptures de I'allee couverte
d'Epone, Seine-et-Oise' in U Anthropologie 1894 v. 152 f. figs. 7 and 8 ( = my fig. 629),
J. Dechelette op. cit. 1908 i. 588 fig. 226, 7 and 8, M. Hoernes op. cit." p. 217 figs. 7
and 8.
* I.e. when the blade was hafted into the handle, not the handle into the blade. For
neolithic as opposed to bronze-age haftings see e.g. Forrer Reallex. pis. 21 and 23.
* Od. 19. 571—581.
' W. Crooke 'The Wooing of Penelope' in Folk-lore 1898 ix. 131 ('I may, perhaps,
hazard the suggestion that in the earlier form of the tale this olive tree was the marriage tree