Zeus : a study in ancient religion - Warburg Institute

The sword of Zeus 713
and that the weapon brandished in his right hand appears to be a
thunderbolt of unusual form. The other combatants are grouped
in pairs^ Hera stabs Harpolykos(?). Athena seizes Enkelados by
the crest of his helmet and swings up a short sword for the coup de
grace. Poseidon, in a scaled cuirass, with a black rock (the island
Nisyros) on his left shoulder and a trident in his right hand, dis-
patches Polybotes. And Hermes, in petasos, pelt, and endromides,
plunges a lance into Polybios. The inscriptions, according to
P. Kretschmer-, suggest that the painter hailed from Keos, or
possibly Naxos or Amorgos. Our business, however, is not with
the subject as a whole, but with the weapon of Zeus in particular.
O. Jahn^, J. Overbeck^ and M. Mayer^—three highly competent
critics—all took it to be a sword. But E. Pottier"—an authority of
equal eminence—described it as the thunderbolt. And P. JacobsthaP
has argued in the same sense :
he
points out that Zeus, unlike the
other swordsmen of the vase, has neither sheath nor sword-belt
that the attitude of his arm implies the action of hurling, not
striking ; and that the lines engraved on the bolt can be paralleled
from the Etruscan mirror already discussed'*. I accept this conclusion
and assume that the front half of the thunderbolt is supposed
to be hidden by the swan-head crests of Zeus' helmet.
We are on surer ground, though in a less Hellenic atmosphere,
when we pass from the Kyklades to Karia. In the temple at
Labranda near Mylasa Zeus was worshipped as Strdtios, and his
ancient image had a sword slung beside it''. Here we can be
^ On this type-form see Overbeck op. cit. Zeus p. 341 ff. and H. B. Walters in the
Biit. Mils. Cat. Vases ii. 9 ff.
- P. Kretschmer in the Zeitschriftfur vergleichende Sprachforschung 1889— 1892 xxxi.
292 ff., id. Die Griechischen Vasejiinschriften Giitersloh 1894 pp. 59—61 ('Keische Vase'):
= -E7rid\Tr7S, APPOA .
P .
. . . ='Ap7r6X[uKos], HE . . ="H[p7;], ^H3M S3H = 'Ep^^j,
. . BIO^=n[o\^]/3tos, AGENAH='A^97''a'7, ^OAAA3HI3H='E(7)MAa5oj,
. 3T08VAOn = noXu/3c6T77[s]. The same irregularity in the writing of ^-sounds is,
according to Kretschmer, a feature of Cean inscriptions (but see A. Thumb Handbuch
der griechischen Dialekte Heidelberg 1909 p. 346 f.).
•* O. Jahn in the Ann. d. Inst. 1863 xxxv. 246 :
* Overbeck Gr. Kunstmyth. Zeus p. 349 :
Schwerdt.'
•'' M.
' una larga spada.'
Mayer Die Giganten und Titanen Berlin 1887 p. 285 :
' nicht seinen Blitz, sondern ein gewaltiges
' ein Schwert.'
'* E. Pettier Vases antiques du Louvre 2""= Serie Paris 190J p. 68: 'Zeus brandit le
foudre de la main droite.'
" P. Jacobsthal Der Blitz in der orientalischen und griechischen Kunst Berlin 1906
p. 15 n. 2.
'' Supra p. 709 ff. pi. xxix.
* Ail. de not. an. 12. 30 quoted supra p. 591 n. i.