Themis, a study of the social origins of Greek ... - Warburg Institute

VIIl] Zeus Ktesios as Agathos Daimon 297
on all hands, very primitive stuff 1
. It is noticeable that when
Agathe Tyche and Agathos Daimon come together the woman
figure in matriarchal fashion precedes the male daimon. Indeed
in the prayer just quoted the (
good Daimon is conceived of as
an angel or messenger standing
as attendant by the side of
Tyche. This possibly helps to ex-
plain the subordinate function of
Hermes as propulos or attendant
on the greater gods— it is anyhow
a mark of early thinking.
Hermes, as Agathos Daimon,
was once merely a phallos; that
he was also once merely a snake,
is, I think, a safe conjecture.
But it is merely a conjecture
I can point to no actual monu-
ment where Hermes is figured^
as a snake. It is otherwise
with another and a greater
than Hermes, in whose form the
Agathos Daimon chose to mas-
querade—Zeus.
Zeus Ktesios as Agathos
Daimon.
Of singular interest is the
relief in Fig. 79 found at Thespiae
m Boeotia and now in the local
museum at Thebes 2 . It dates
ibout the 3rd century B.C. and
is clearly inscribed Ato? Kttjctlov, 'Zeus'
ate it
:
0*f-
we might perhaps trans-
'of household property,' Zeus, not so much of fertility as
1 Reitzenstein, op. cit. p. 28, 129, and R. Foerster, Hermes in einer Doppelhe mums
Cypern. Jahrbuch d. Inst. 1904, p. 140. 'In diesen Gebeten und Anrufungen
lurfen wir nicht so wohl Ergebnisse philosopbischer Spekulation als Ausserungen
virklichen Volksglaubens erwarten/
- Inv. No. 330. I owe to the kindness of Dr M. P. Nilsson a photograph of this
nteresting monument which he has published and fully discussed in the Ath.
tfittheilungen, xxxni. 1908, p. 279, Schlangenstele des Zens Ktesios.