Zeus : a study in ancient religion - Warburg Institute

798
The thunderbolt of Zeus
Byzantion, issued c. 221 B.C., figure Poseidon erect with a trident in
his left hand, but Nike crowning the magistrate's name in his right
(fig. 759^. A chalcedony scarab of late Etruscan style, formerly in
the Dehn collection (fig. 760)-, portrays an unbearded god, with a
himdtion over his left arm, in the act of stepping into a chariot.
He grasps a thunderbolt in his right hand, and a trident in his left,
while at his feet is a small sea-monster. The fusion of Poseidon
with Zeus is complete. Similarly on a brown paste at Berlin
(fig. 761)^ we see the equivocal Zeus-Poseidon holding the thunder-
bolt in his right hand, the trident in his left, with an eagle perched
before him. Finally, two deities painted in the Augustan house
near the Villa Farnesina are— if we may trust Man's publication
(figs. ,765, 766)^— perhaps to be described as Poseidon with the
thunderbolt of Zeus (?) and Zeus with the trident of Poseidon (??)^
(8) The thunderbolt of Zeus and the fork of Hades.
Zeus had a thunderbolt, and Poseidon a trident. It is some-
times contended that Hades, as his corresponding weapon, had a
fork or two-pronged spear. But neither the existence nor the
significance of this attribute is free from serious doubt, and some
of our more cautious mythologists are inclined to dismiss it as
altogether fictitious". The evidence therefore must be scrutinized
with care.
In the first place it may be conceded that weapons of the sort
were not unknown in the Mediterranean area. Apart from mere
* Rasche Lex. Num. i. i6.:?8, Hunter Cat. Coins i. 394 pi. 26, 16, Ant. Miim. Berlin
Taurische Chersonesus, etc. i. 148 no. 57. Fig. 759 is from a specimen in my collection :
BYlANT[inN] E[ni] Ainn[IOY] with two countermarks {obv. P and
helmet, rev. ear of corn).
^ G. Winckelmann Monumenti antichi inediti Roma 1821 i. 3 no. 3, T. Panofka ' Uber
verlegene Mythen ' in the Abh. d. berl. Akad. i8jg Phil. -hist. Classe p. 35
pi. i, 5, P".
Creuzer Symbolik und Mythologie'^ Leipzig and Darmstadt 1841 iii. i. 204 pi. 6, 27,
Welcker Gr. GdtterL i. 162 n. 5, L. Stephani in the Covipte-rendu St. Pit. 1866 p. 93
n. 6, Overbeck Gr. Kunstmyth. Zeus p. 259 Gemmentaf. 3, 7, Furtwangler Aiit.
Gemmen i pi. 18, 6 ( = my fig. 760), ii. 87, Class. Rev. 1904 xviii. 361 fig. 1 ('the
threefold Pelasgian god'—a view which I here recant), Farnell Cults of Gk. States iv. 60
pi. 2, b.
A similar scarab of brown sard cited by most authorities (Panofka loc. cit. p. 33 ff.
pi. I, 4, Creuzer op. cit. iii. 1. 204 pi. 6, 26, Overbeck op. cit. p. 259 Gemmentaf. 3, 8,
Farnell op. cit. iv. 60 pi. 2, b) is a modern forgery (Furtwangler Geschnitt. Steine Berlin
p. 332 no. 9330, id. Ant. Gemmen ii. 87).
* Furtwangler Geschnitt. Steine Berlin p. 150 no. 3447 pi. 28 (=my fig. 761: scale \).
* A. Mau in the Ann. d. Inst. 1884 ivi. 320, Mon. d. Inst, xii pi. 7, 3 and 5 ( = my
figs. 765 and 766). The paintings are now in the Terme Museum at I-lome.
^ A. Mau loc. cit. :
' Nelle due figure di Nettuno (3) e di Giove (5) non e chiaro ne
I'oggetto che Nettuno regge nella sin., ne cio che sta in cima alio scettro di Giove.'
•^ E.g. Gruppe Gr. Myth. Rel. p. 1182 n. 2.