Zeus : a study in ancient religion - Warburg Institute

Gradual elimination of the thunderbolt 757
even more of the sceptre and even less of the thunderbolt ; for the
former is held yet higher, while the latter has simply disappeared.
Another long-established^ type was that of Zeus seated on a
throne with an eagle flying either to him or from him. Laconian
cups of c. 550-500 B.C. '^ adopted
the former pose*; Arcadian coins
of s. V preferred the latter^ This federal coinage, probably struck
at Heraia in western Arkadia^, was not unnaturally imitated at
Olympia, hardly more than a dozen miles away, where a very
Fig. 700. Fig.
similar Zeus appears seated on a throne with a himdtion about his
waist, a sceptre in his left hand, a winged thunderbolt in his right,
and an eagle flying before him (figs. 700, joiy. The Olympian
coins start the third of four series dated by Mr C. T. Seltman
between r. 452 and c. 432 B.C.'' It is therefore possible, not to say
probable, that Pheidias, who quitted Athens for Olympia after
the dedication of Athena Parthenos in 438*, took a hint for his
^ According to T. Wiegand Die airhaische Poros-Architektur der Akropolis zu Atheti
Cassel and Leipzig 1904 p. 105 f. figs. 108, 109, the seated Zeus from the eastern pediment
of the old Hekatompedon at Athens held an eagle in his left hand (hand holding
bird's claws extant). A. Furtwangler too in the Sitztmgsber. d. kais. bayr. Akad. d. Wiss.
Phil. -hist. Classe 1905 p. 447 = his Aegina Miinchen 1906 i. 317 fig. 253 restores Zeus with
an eagle in his left hand, a thunderbolt in his right. But G. Dickins Catalogue of the
Ac7-opolis Museum Cambridge 1912 i. 62 ff., 73 no. 25, accepting R. Heberdey's recon-
struction of the pediment, first suggests that Zeus had a sceptre in his raised left hand,
some object unknown in his lowered right, and then adds :
' The figure may be safely
recognized as ZEUS holding a sceptre or a thunderbolt, and, probably, an eagle.' vix
liquet.
701.
^ Sttpra p. 744 n. 4. * Supra i. 92 f. fig. 65, 782 pi. xlii.
* Supra i. 68 f. fig. 39 flf.
s Supra i. 68.
6 Brit. A/us. Cat. Co/«j' Peloponnesus p. 59 pi. 10, 11, P.Gardner in the A'i^/w. Ch7-on.
New Series 1879 ^i'^- ^3^ P^- U' " 2 (London), Babelon Mann. gr. rom. ii. 3. 707 ff.
no. 1049
pi. 229, II (London : rev. only), no. 1050 pi. 229, 12 (Pozzi), C. T. Seltman in
Noviisma 1913 viii. 48 f. no. 98 pi. 3, /3p (London : rev. only), no. 99 pi. 3, AZ ^