PLATE XXXVIII
Zeus and the Kouretes
The chief significance of this scene in low relief is that it is the earliest certain representation of Zeus, and scarcely less important is the transparent Euphratean style of its composition and execution. Flanked by winged, male figures the god stands like an Assyrian divinity on a bull, and, after the manner of the Babylonian epic hero Gilgamesh, as depicted on the seal cylinders, vyith both hands swings a lion over his head. This conception of Zeus as a man in the prime of life rather than as an infant is true to an ancient Cretan myth recently recovered. The winged figures, each beating a pair of tympana, are evidently Kouretes. From a design on a Kouretic bronze tympanon of the ninth or eighth century b.c., discovered in the sacred cave of Zeus on Mount Ida in Crete (A. B. Cook, Zeus, i, Plate XXXV). See pp. 154-55.
