Zeus : a study in ancient religion - Warburg Institute

760 Gradual elimination of the thunderbolt
cited by J. Overbeck^ as nearer akin to the Pheidiac original than
any other extant figure, can claim, if not the calm of conquest, at
least a quiet dignity of its own, and must doubtless be classed as a
later representative of the Olympian type. The left hand was raised
to hold a sceptre. The right, to which the restorer has given a globe,
very possibly, as Overbeck suggests, carried a Victory. And the
thunderbolt is nowhere to be seen, unless we may detect a stylised
form of it in the throne-legs and in the relief-pattern that connects
them behind (pi. xxxv)l The once dreaded missile of the skygod
could hardly undergo further attenuation without vanishing
altogether.
When Alexander the Great placed upon his silver coinage the
design of a seated Zeus, it might have been expected that he would
choose for. the purpose the great cult-statue at Olympia—and the
more so as Mount Olympos was a prominent feature of his own
domain. In point of fact, he did nothing of the sort. He set aside
all the improvements introduced by Pheidias and deliberately re-
verted to the old pre-Pheidiac type. A comparison of his tetradrachms
(fig. 704)* on the one hand with the federal coins of Arkadia,
on the other with the Olympian statue, is instructive
Arcadian coins
Right hand has eagle.
Left hand has sceptre held
high.
Pheidias' statue
Right hand has Nike.
Left hand has sceptre held
low.
Right leg is in advance of Left leg is in advance of
left leg.
Hiindtion is wrapped
about lower limbs only.
Throne has at first no
back.
right leg.
Hiindtion covers left
upper arm as well.
Throne has high back.
^ Overbeck Gr. Ktaistmyth. Zeus p. \^li^ no. i8.
I Alexander's
coins
Right hand has eagle.
Left hand has sceptre held
high.
Right leg is in advance of
left leg.
Hiindtion is wrapped
about lower limbs only.
Throne has at first no
back.
'^ PI. XXXV is from a couple of photographs kindly procured for me by Mr S. C. Cockerell.
I add, for comparison, four throne-legs of white marble formerly in the collection at
Deepdene {Hope Sale Catalogue 191 7 p. 32 no. 205) and now in the Fitzvvilliam Museum
(fig. 703 from a photograph by Mr W. H. Hayles). Greatest height : 36^ ins. They are
of similar design, but vary in detail and workmanship, and here and there have been
patched by a modern restorer. Such legs are frequent in representations of ancient couches
and thrones (L. Heuzey— H. Daumet Mission Archiologiqiie de Macddoine Paris 1876
Texte p. 261 fig. (eight examples), C. L. Vjssviom^ Studies in Ancient Furniture Chicago
1905 pp. 20 fi., 44
thunderbolt, though fortuitous in origin, would make them peculiarly suitable to a throne
ff., 72 ff., 90 ff. (with numerous figs.)), and their resemblance to a
of Zeus (cp. the marble throne-leg at Palermo in Durm Baukunst der Griecheti^ p. 253
fig. 175, ib? p. 239 fig. 209). The closest parallel to the Cambridge legs is afforded by
Ant. Skulpt. Berlin p. 429 f. no. 1092 a. b., a marble leg which shows traces of red colour
and gilding.
•' From a specimen in my collection.