Zeus : a study in ancient religion - Warburg Institute

7o8 The spear of Z eus
For a similar figure on a silver dekdlitron of Syracuse (2 1
5—212 B.C.)
(fig. 643) almost certainly—as W. Abeken argued ^— represents the
famous statue of Zeus Ourios"^ carried off from that city by Verres
and known to the Romans as lupiter Iinperator'\ a manifest transla-
tion of Zeus Strategos.
The transition from storm-god to war-god may likewise be
suspected in the case of that imperial favourite lupiter Victor*^ whose
'^^m
- Fig. 643. Fig. 64?4. Fig. 645.
figure—again with spear reversed—on bronze coins and medallions
of Claudius ii Gothicus (268—270 A.D.) is no doubt merely a religious
expression for the victorious emperor himself (fig. 644)^
Other and less sophisticated examples of Zeus with spear in hand
occur here and there among the Greek coins of south Italy, the
Etruscan mirrors, the Gallo-Roman statuettes, and the Roman lamps.
Coppers of Petelia in Bruttium struck in the third century B.C.
^ W. Abeken in the Ann. d. Inst. 1839 xi. 63 pi. A, i.
^ Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Sicily p. 224 no. 661 fig. ( = my fig. 643), G. F. Hill Coins
of Ancient Sicily London 1903 p. 196 fig. 68, Overbeck Gr. Kinistmyth. Zeus pp. 131,
164, 220 f. Miinztaf. 2, 25, Miiller—Wieseler—Wernicke Ant. Denkm. \. 97 pi. 9, 24
(comparing L. Miiller Nnmismatique de I'ancienne Afriqite Copenhague i860 i. 50 no. 193
fig. a gold coin of Kyrene).
=* Infra § 7 (c).
* Preller— Jordan Rotn. Mytk.^ i. 197 ff., Wissowa Rcl. Knit. Rom.- pp. 123, 139 f.
^ Cohen Mann. enip. rorn."^ vi. 142 nos. 127 and 128 fig., Overbeck Gr. Kunstviyth.
Zeus p. 165 f. Miinztaf. 2, 35 ( = my fig. 644), Miiller—Wieseler—Wernicke Ant. Denkm.
i. 97 pi. 9, 25, Gnecchi Mcdagl. Rom. iii. 63 no. 9 pi. 156, i ('col fulmine e lo scettro ').
For other numismatic types of lupiter Victor see Rasche Lex. Num. iv. 896 ff"., 1225,
1228, Suppl. iii. 158, 275, Stevenson—Smith—Madden Diet. Rom.
Fig. 646.
Coins p. 484.
lupiter Stator (on whom see E. Aust in Roscher Lex. Myth. ii.
682—686, 758, H. Jordan— C. Huelsen Topographic der Stadt Rom
im Alterthnm Berlin 1907 i. 3. 20— 23, Wissowa Rel. Knit. Rom!^
p. 122 f.) appears on Roman coins from Antoninus Pius to Caransius
(Rasche Lex. Num. iv. 921, Suppl. iii. 157, 162, Stevenson
Smith—Madden Diet. Rom. Coins p. 484 fig.) usually as a nude
figure standing erect with a spear (sceptre?) in one hand, a thunder-
bolt in the other (fig. 646 is from a silver coin of Gordianus Pius in
my collection). His title was Grecised as "Zr-qaios (Plout. v. Cic. 16 ej's to tov Srijcri'oK Atos
iepdv, dv SraTopa 'rcofiaioi koKovctiv) or 'ETriordcrtos (Plout. v. Rom. 18 iaTTjaav ovv irpCoToi/
06 vvv 6 Tou Aids TOV ^Taropos 'idpvrai v(ws, 6v 'ETncTacnov av rts epfxriv€V(r(iev) or, less
accurately, as 'Opdwaio% (Dion. Hal. attt. Rom. 2. 50 quoted supra p. 422 n. r).