Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 15, 1904.djvu/402

 372 The European Sky-god.

and in art^^ it was sometimes surmounted by an eagle, the bird of Zeus. When the Homeric chiefs were assembled, he and he only might declare his opinion to whom the herald had handed the sceptre. ^'-^ Very significant is the language used of it by Achilles : " But I will speak out to thee and therewith swear a mighty oath. Yea, by this sceptre, which shall never put forth leaves and branches, having once left its cloven stock upon the mountains, no, nor flourish again ; for the bronze hath trimmed its leaves and bark round about, and now the sons of the Achaeans bear it in their hands, even they that exercise justice, who guard the judgments given by Zeus. Hereby will I swear thee a mighty oath." ^'^ Even in the Periclean age it was still the custom for the Athenian archon to assign the numerous judges to their respective courts by means of acorns {^dXavoi) and staves {/SaKrrjpLac), of which the former were marked with various letters, the latter with various colours,^"* Have w^e not here a survival of the sacred oak which, as the oracular tree of Zeus, conferred juridical rights on the Pelasgian king ?

It would seem that as general too the king stood in some special relation to Zeus. This comes out most clearly in the case of the Spartan kings, who were priests of Zeus Aa/c€Saificov and Zeus Ovpdvco<i^^. Before starting on a military expedition they sacrificed to Zeus 'A'yr]Toop, Zeus

" An eagle was perched on the sceptre not only of Zeus (Find. Pyth., i. 6, Paus., 5. II. I, 8. 31. 4 ; cp. the golden eagles on the pillars of Zeus Ai/KaTof, ib., 8. 38. 7), but also of common kings (Aristoph. av., 509 ff., with schol. ad loc, Baumeister, Denhndler, ii., 903 f., fig. 980). For Roman parallels see Juv., 10. 43, and Mayor's w. Gold coins of Coso, king of Thrace, struck in 42 B.C., show an eagle holding a wreath with one claw and a sceptre with the other {^Brit. Mus. Cat. Gk. Coi7is, Thrace, &c., p. 208).

'2 //., 18. 505, 23. 567 f., Od., 2. 37 f.

>3 II., I. 233 ff.

'* Aristot. de rep. Aih., 63. 2 ff., G. Gilbert, The Constitutional Antiquities of Sparta and Athens, p. 397 ff.

" Hdt., 6. 56.