Zeus : a study in ancient religion - Warburg Institute

of the thunderbolt 767
or straightish lines (figs/726, 727)1. From s. ix B.C. onwards there
is a tendency to duplicate- these forks by giving them prongs at
either end (figs. 728—730)^ And under the Sargonid dynasty
Die Hettiter Leipzig 1903
p. 24 f. fig. 25, A. Jeremias
in Roscher Lex. Myth. iv. 53
fig. 12 f., E. Meyer Reich und
Kultur der Chetiter Berlin
19 14 p. 66 ff. fig. 56, R.
Koldewey The Excavations at
Babylon trans. A. S. Johns
London 1914 p. 164 f.
fig. 103 f.) : Tesub standing
with axe and lightning-fork.
Fig. 725 from a somewhat
later Hittite relief in dolerite
(height I •27), found at
Sinjerli (F. von Luschan
Aiisgrabungen in Sendschirli
Berlin 1902 Hi. 218 f. fig. 114
and pi. 41, a (=my fig. 725),
A. Jeremias in Roscher Lex.
Myth. iv. 53 fig. 14, J. Gar-
stang The Land ofthe Hittites
London 1910P. 291 pi. 77, i,
E. yi&ytxop.cit. p. 67 fig. 57):
Tesub standing with axe and
lightning-fork.
1 Fig. 726 from a cylinder
(W. H. Ward The Seal Cylin-
ders tic. pp. 174 fig. 468, 399):
lightning-fork on a bull.
Fig. 727 from a northern
cylinder (id. ib. p. 383
fig. [48 d\) : Adad seated
with the lightning-fork in his
hand.
2 P. E. Newberry 'The
Egyptian cult-object --
and the "Thunderbolt"'
the Ann. Arch. Anthr
iii. 50— 52 pi. 19,
in
1910
I— 17
argues that the cult-object,
which appears as a doubleheaded
dart on prehistoric
vases etc. and in shapes com-
parable with the Greek thun- Fig. 725.
derbolt on monuments of the
Middle Kingdom and later, was ' always used in hieroglyphic inscriptions as a symbol
of the god Min the original form of Anion... Lord of Heaven and (iod of Thunder"'
and presumably represents the thunderbolt in types derived from flint arrow-heads, stone
celts, and belemnites.
* Fig. 728 from an alabaster relief found in the N.W. palace of Ashur-nasir-pal iii