Zeus : a study in ancient religion - Warburg Institute

75 8 Gradual elimination of the thunderbolt
Olympian Zeus^ from the local coinage. He retained the throne
/ and the sceptre in the god's left hand, but replaced the winged
thunderbolt by a winged Victory, and transferred the eagle to the
sceptre-top, thereby suggesting not so much the stormy strength of
/ the thunder-god as the tranquil supremacy of the victor.
A little later than the stateres illustrated above are others (fig.
702)^ with an obverse design of Zeus seated on a rock, the sceptre
Fig. 702.
leaning against his right shoulder, the eagle about to fly from his
right hand, and the thunderbolt omitted. P. Gardner conjectured
that the rock was meant for Mount Olympos-'—Olympos (let us
suppose) in the neighbourhood of Olympiad The comparative
freedom of the seated figure, the arrangement of the Jiimdtion over
the left upper arm, and the dropping of the thunderbolt were perhaps
due to the influence of Pheidias' chryselephantine colossus. If the
simile published two mutilated columns of papyrus (pap. ^d}, and 264 of the Geneva
collection), which contain portions of a life of Pheidias attributed l)y him to Apollodoros.
According to Nicole's interpretation, Pheidias was accused at Athens of stealing the ivory
(as Philochoros loc. cit. says), not the gold (as Plout. v. Per. 31 says), of the Parthenos ;
was released upon heavy bail, forty talents, paid by the Eleans, who wanted him to carry
out their commission of the Zeus Olympios ; and, on being condemned about four years
later, was compensated by the Eleans with their citizenship. Immediately after this there
is a record of the dedication of the Olympian Zeus. Nicole's reading of the papyrus is
attacked by L. Pareti ' II processo di Fidia ed un papiro di Ginevra ' in the Rom. Mitth.
1909 xxiv. 271— 316. But Pareti's own views are refuted by H. Lechat in the Revue des
etudes aticietines 191 1 xiii. 125 fif. And, though Nicole's interpretations are not all
reliable {e.g. F. Jacoby in the Berl. philol. Woch. Sept. 10, 1910 pp. 1148— 1156 shows
that the papyrus has nothing to do with Apollodoros), yet it is evident that the new
biography supports Philochoros as against Plutarch. See further E. A. Gardner in "Zhua.
Athenes 1912 p. 49 ff., A.J. B. Wace in The Year's Work in Class. Stud. 1912 p. 37,
A. Frickenhaus in ihtjahrb. d. kais. deutsch. arch. Inst. 1913 xxviii. 346—352.
1 Infra Append. O.
- Brit. AIus. Cat. Coins Peloponnesus p. 59 pi. 10, 12, P. Gardner in the Num.
Chron. New Series 1879 ^^'''
'^S^
pl- ii> ii 3 (London), id. Types of Gk. Coins p. iii
pi. 3, 41 (London : obv. only), Babelon Monn. gr. rom. ii. 3. 707 ff. no. 1048 pi. 229, 10
(London), C. T. Seltman in Nomisma 1913 viii. 49 no. 100 pi. 3, j3p (Seltman : rev. only),
no. loi pi. 3, BA /3r (London), no. 102 pi. 3, ySv (Berlin: rev. only). Head Hist, nutn.^
p. 420. Fig. 702 is from a cast of the British Museum coin.
^ P. Gardner Types of Gk. Coins p. 11 1 ('no doubt mount Olympus').
* Supra i. 100 n. 3.