Zeus : a study in ancient religion - Warburg Institute

Retrospect 847
Further examples of the double axe in the east' and in the
west^ did not detain us long; and we passed on to discuss the axes
carried by priests and priestesses in Greece and Italy''. Traces of
the 'Minoan' Idbrys were detected in the double axe of Athena^
the double axe of Theseus^ the double axes taken in procession
from Athens to Delphoi", etc. Attention was also drawn to Italian
pontifical axes^ And it was held that the lictor's axe in particular
had been a sacred weapon borne before the king as representative
of the sky-god: the rods bound round it and so charged with its
virtue would be potent to expel evil from a malefactor^
Sacred axes, from neolithic times onward, have been distinguished
by their colour, or size, or decorative design'*. The decoration often
consists in diagonals and zig-zags probably derived from lashings'",
sometimes in dendritic patterns resembling the 'thunder-besom",' or
in stylised moths with circular 'eyes'-.' Such embellishment indicated
the presence of a soul in the axe, and simultaneously protected it
from possible harm. Further progress towards anthropomorphism
was discernible in the Early Iron Age, when small axes of bronze
became axe-shaped pendants and took on sundry animal or human
features'^ Finally the pendant was modified into a gong and thus
endowed with divine utterance'-*.
A marked trait in the 'Minoan' axe was its tendency towards
duplication. Without denying that a pair of axes might be used to
symbolise a pair of deities, we concluded that in general double or
multiple blades were intended to augment the striking-power of
the god that wielded them'^
We next handled at some length the difficult but interesting
case of Tenedos"', and saw that to treat the double axe on its coins
merely as a barter-unit'" involved a very partial and inadequate
hypothesis, contradicted alike by the coin-types themselves'^ and
by the express testimony of the ancients, who record a definite
cult of two axes in the island 'I Rather there was reason to suppose
that here the 'Minoan' weapon had passed into the hands of a
Dionysiac Zeus or a Zeus-like Dionysos, paired as usual with the
earth-goddess 2". Their local names were Tennes and Hemithea,
and their effigies were combined in the male-//«i--female head,
which appeared on the obverse of the Tenedian coins'^'.
' Supra p. 6i4ff. ^ Supra p. 617 ff. ^ Supra p. 620 ff.
* Supra p. 625 f. 5 Supra p. 626 ff. " Stipra p. 628.
^ Supra p. 630 ff.
'" Supra p. 639 ff. " Supra p. 642 f.
'=* Supra p. 647 ff. " Supra p. 649 ff.
'« Supra p. 654 ff.
!'•* Supra p. 668. 2" Supra pp. 662 f., 673.
s Supra p. 633 ff. * Supra p. 635 ff.
'^ Supra p. 643 ft'.
^'^ Supra p. 652 ff.
'^ Supra p. 655 n. i. '* Supra p. 6y^ ff
'^' Supra p. 668 ff.