Zeus : a study in ancient religion . ad-mitted the presence of features susceptible of an Orphic interpretation. R. Eislerhas done good service by insisting on its Orphic character. The egg-like recessin which the god is placed, the upper and lower shells from which he hasemerged, the strange animal-heads on his flanks {supra p. 1022 f.), the snakeshead appearing above his face {supra p. 1023), all mark him as Phanes. Hebears thunderbolt and sceptre, because Phanes was one with Zeus. His face isthat of the sun-god in Rhodian art, for Phanes was not only called Antaugesand Phaethon {supra p. 10
Zeus : a study in ancient religion . ad-mitted the presence of features susceptible of an Orphic interpretation. R. Eislerhas done good service by insisting on its Orphic character. The egg-like recessin which the god is placed, the upper and lower shells from which he hasemerged, the strange animal-heads on his flanks {supra p. 1022 f.), the snakeshead appearing above his face {supra p. 1023), all mark him as Phanes. Hebears thunderbolt and sceptre, because Phanes was one with Zeus. His face isthat of the sun-god in Rhodian art, for Phanes was not only called Antaugesand Phaethon {supra p. 1026) but also identified with HeHos {supra i. 7 n. 6, 311).Cavedoni took the cloven hoofs to be those of a goat: if so, they hint thatPhanes was Pan {supra p. 1023). Cumont and Eisler think them bovine : if so,they denote him as Dionysos {supra p. 1026). The relief bears two first, [E]YPHROSYi[NE ET] FELIX on the background of the recess,has been intentionally effaced. The second, P P | FELIX PATER on I052 Appendix G. Fig. 909. Orphic Theogonies and Cosmogonic Eros 1053 either side of the zodiac, must be completed as piecunia) p{osuit) Felix pater{sacrorum). Eisler ingeniously sug-gests that the relief in questionoriginally adorned the Orphic sanc-tuary of a certain Felix and Eu-phrosyne and was subsequentlyre-dedicated in a Mithraic templeby Felix alone, since women wereexcluded from the rites of an Orphic monument shouldthus be re-consecrated in a Mithraicshrine seems likely enough in viewof the fact that at Borcovicium{Housesteads on Hadrians Wall)Mithras himself was represented inan oval zodiac with an egg-shell onhis head (J. C. Bruce The RomaJiIVa/P London 1867 p. 399 with p. 398, id. Lapidariufn Septen-trionale Newcastle-upon-Tyne 1871ii. 96—98 no. 188 fig., F. CumontTextes et monuments figures relatifsaux mysteres de Mithra Bruxelles18961. 395 fig. 315, R. Eisler Welten-mantel und Hi?miielszelt Miinchen1910 ii. 410 ff. fig. 48 a rel
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