Mannheimer Geschichtsblätter Sonderveröffentlichung 4 Titel o.

Abschnitt

Anne Marie Carstens

Bringing Wool to Zeus Labraundos

Introduction
This contribution sets out to explore the meaning
of the woollen bands depicted on representations
of a series of cult images from Western Anatolia in
the Hellenistic and Roman period (fig. 1). The Aph-
rodite from Aphrodisias is one example,1 Artemis
Ephesia is another and more well-known. These
cult images were first studied in depth in the
monograph of Robert Fleischer from 1973: „Artemis
von Ephesos und verwandte Kultstatuen aus Ana-
tolien und Syrien".

Artemis Ephesia
The majority of the representations of the Ephesian
Artemis date to the Hellenistic-Roman period, the
first centuries BC and AD.2
One fine example is a lustrous marble statue, the
so-called „Schöne Artemis Ephesia" (fig. 2).3 Artemis
is depicted here as an archaic wooden cult image
("xoanon") with only a few naturalistic features,
and she is dressed in the most incredible garment.
The cult image, of which we believe statues like this
to be copies, 4 is wearing the characteristic hat, a
"polos", together with a magnificent veil somehow
attached to the polos and falling onto her shoul-
ders. Most striking and eye-catching are the ani-
mal protomes depicting lions, "pegasoi", sphinxes, Artemis is depicted en face with her arms bend at Fig. 1
felines, hinds and cattle, which somehow – in all the elbow and her hands reaching out towards the Map of Karia
Foto: Anne Marie
its unlikelihood – seem to grow from the textile of viewer. On the plinth of the Ephesian statue two Carstens
both the veil and the dress. A pectoral jewellery in interesting objects are carved in the round, namely
the form of an acorn necklace of quite enormous the remains of woollen bands, which are the topic
size and an animal frieze decorate the neck opening of this paper. Their finals are in the shape of elabo-
of the dress. And then, of course, there is the pecto- rate tassels. Remains of the woollen bands them-
ral and abdomen decoration of larger acorn shaped selves were found together with „die Schöne Arte-
or ovoid objects. mis" (fig. 3).7
The nature of these objects is one of the many Often the marble copies of Artemis Ephesia are
obscure and hotly debated elements of the cult only partly preserved, with the outreaching under-
image. Traditionally they were seen as depictions arms and thus the woollen bands missing. But
of breasts, a reference to the "Diana Efesia mul- many coin images show the cult statue of Artemis
5
timammia" as Late Antique references have it. Ephesia in her temple and here the bands are quite
However, in 1979 Gérard Seiterle suggested that the a prominent feature (fig. 4).
ovoid objects, the "breasts" were indeed represen- They spring to the eye of the beholder to such
tations of bulls' scrota, including a strong reference a degree that it seems safe to conclude that they
to Artemis as a fertility goddess and to her animal were a particular characteristic feature of the sta-
sacrifices.6 tue. To be included into the coin image, they must

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Titel o. Abschnitt Sonderveröffentlichung 4 Mannheimer Geschichtsblätter

Bringing wool to Zeus Labraundos

a typical 4th century BC draped "contrapposto" type

(fig. 5).
Although it is reasonable to imagine that the
archaistic Zeus indeed depicts an ancient cult sta-
tue in the sanctuary, it only appears on reliefs and
coins from the Hellenistic period onwards.8 This is
also the case with the other statues of its "fami-
ly" in the borderland between Hellas and Anato-
lia. The most illustrative and detailed renderings
are a weathered relief on a quadrangular basis in
Stratonikeia (fig. 6), a now lost relief from Mylasa,
a depiction on a Mylasan coin issued under Geta,
and the relief from the Athena Alea sanctuary at
Tegea, where Zeus Labraundos is flanked by Idrieus
and Ada, two of the Hekatomnid rulers of the latter
half of the 4th century BC.9
The main feature of the Archaistic Zeus is that the
lower part of his body and his legs are wrapped ei-
ther in a cloth tied with long strings, or in some kind
of net. In some of the depictions it may look as if
this wrapping continues all the way up to the chest.
However, the upper end of this wrapping remains
unclear, since the chest and abdomen are decorated
with hanging ovoid objects, similar to those on the
cult image of Artemis Ephesia. Traditionally – and
in accordance with the multi mammia interpreta-
tion of Artemis Ephesia – these were understood
as breasts. But while that may make good sense in
connection with the then fertile and as a result of
that, polymastic Artemis, it is quite problematic to

Fig. 2 have been meaningful and important. They belon-

„Schöne Artemis ged to the deity as part of not only her attire, but
Ephesia"
Fleischer 2002, as her epithet.
p. p. 211 fig. 11
Zeus Labraundos
Another cult image belonging to this East Greek/
West Anatolian group is Zeus Labraundos, a Kari-
Fig. 3
Remains of the "wool- an Zeus Stratios located in a rural sanctuary in
len bands" belonging the southern part of the Latmos Mountains in
to the „Schöne Artemis
southwestern Anatolia. There are two ways of ren-
Ephesia"
Fleischer 2002, dering Zeus Labraundos: an archaisticc perhaps
p. 211 fig. 10 Karian type, closely related to Artemis Ephesia, and

136
 Mannheimer Geschichtsblätter
Anne Marie Carstens
explain this female feature as a characteristic of the
fierce Zeus Stratios Labraundos. The interpretation
offered by Gérard Seiterle in 1979 that suggested
these ovoid objects to be scrota serves both Artemis
Ephesia and Zeus Labraundos. In ancient Anatolian
religion, the bull represented fertility and together
with the double axe (also always accompanying
Zeus Labraundos) it was one of the epithets of the
Anatolian storm god as well as the sun goddess
Hebat, who carries a "polos".
The archaistic cult statue of Zeus Labraundos is
bearded (except on the Mylasa relief) and he wears
a "polos". It is not quite clear due to the weathe-
red state of the base, but perhaps two long locks
of slightly curly hair fall symmetrically over each
shoulder on the Stratonikeia relief. This is confirmed
on a Hadrianic cistophoric tetradrachm, where long
locks of hair are rendered falling onto the shoulders
of Zeus (fig. 7). In his right hand, Zeus lifts his dou-
ble-axe, the labrys, either with his arm at a right
angle, or as on the Tegea relief lifted higher. Indeed
the Tegea rendering differs a bit and may in some
ways form an intermediate version between the
Archaic and the "contrapposto" type: here the lower
part of his body is draped in a "himation", the end of
which he carries over his left arm. This matches the
Stratonikeia relief as well as the Hadrianic cistopho-
ric tetradrachm. In his left hand, he carries a spear.
In all the renderings of the archaistic cult statue,
his right arm also forms a right angle, probably
depicting the traditional „Standmotiv" of Archaic
sculpture. On some of the coin depictions, the
woollen bands that also adorn Artemis Ephesia are
shown hanging from his wrists to his ankles (fig. 7).
Sonderveröffentlichung 4 Titel o. Abschnitt
Fig. 4
Hadrian cistophoric
tridrach
BM 1968, 0908.1
The Trustees of the Bri-
tish Museum
The sanctuary at Labraunda
The rural sanctuary at Labraunda in the Latmos
Mountains above the plain of Mylasa is old. Archi-
tecturally, and not least ideologically, it must have
been the most important sanctuary for the Heka-
tomnids of the 4th century BC; here the Persian/
Karian satrap held a key position as religious and
political leader.10
Two sanctuaries, the Zeus Karios sanctuary in
Mylasa (the Karian "capital" until the 4th century
when it was transferred with Maussollos to Hali-
karnassos at the coast) and the Zeus Labraundos
sanctuary in the mountains northeast of the town
were connected with a large paved procession road,
wide and spectacular as it cut its way through the
steep mountainside.
Labraunda was an ancient Anatolian holy-rock
sanctuary. It seems to have been constructed accor-
ding to the Anatolian religious and ritual tradition
at least: the split rock – a Hittite "huwaši" or a holy
rock – and the spring were at the core of the sanc-
tity of the site. Anneliese Peschlow-Bindokat has
identified such an old traditional huwaši-rock at
Tekerlekdağ in the Latmos Mountains later trans-
ferred to a Zeus Akraios temple,11 and we know of
the Hittite rituals performed at the Hazzi moun-
tain south of Seleukia Pirea, later transformed into
a Zeus Karios sanctuary.12
A similar stone cult is well known in connection
with the Delphic omphalos. In his authoritative
work on Zeus, Arthur Bernard Cook pointed to the
origin of Delphi as a holy place as a site uniting "the
worship of the sky-father (Zeus), the earth-mother
(Ge, Themis) and their offspring (Dionysos), as ante-
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Bringing wool to Zeus Labraundos

Fig. 5 to an ancient shrine of Carian Zeus at Mylasa, to

Mylasan coin issued which Mysians and Lydians as brethren of the Cari-
under Geta Fleischer
1973, tab. 143 a ans (for Lydos and Mysos, they say, were brothers
of Car), are admitted."15 And according to Pausanias
a cultic communion of brethren consisted of Lydians
and Karians also included the Artemision at Ephesos.16

The Artemision at Ephesos

Such a cultic communion, a shared sanctuary more
than anything characterises the Artemision at Ephe-
sos. Indeed, while this is only indicated by circum-
stantial evidence at the Zeus Labraundos sanctua-
ry, the Artemision at Ephesos was truly an "inter-
national" place. Robert Fleischer has convincingly
argued that not only the position of the sanctuary,
at a central harbour city and a central market place
between east and west, but indeed the asylum
institution – that people fled for sanctuary at Ephe-
rior to the worship of Apollon, who inheritied, so to sos – granted the sanctuary its success. It stayed
speak, the eagles of Zeus, the omphalos of Ge, the independent and strong with a steady surplus of
13
tripod and tomb of Dionysos." I think this relation money and labour forces.17
between the storm god and the earth mother, this At the centre of the Artemis cult was the animal
close familiarity in play at Delphi, is important to sacrifice on the large altar. The sacrifice of bulls was
bear in mind also in connection with the investi- initiated at least during the major festivals.18 During
gation of the relationship between the Western the sacrificial rites, the bull's head was decorated
Anatolian cults; Artemis (as representing the earth- with woollen binds, as a sign of its consecration, its
mother capacities of Ge/ Themis) and Zeus continu- holiness. The woollen binds became an iconogra-
ed to express a common root, even in the Roman
Fig. 6 period. Their worship, religious functions, and the
Relief decorated base ritual practices connected to their cults were clo-
from Stratonikeia
Foto by the courtesy of sely interlinked by ancient cult practise and ritual
Jesper Blid behaviour, and part of this also had to do with the
woollen bands.
We know that Karia was organized in several
"koina" which again met in a central federation, the
"Karian koinon"; a political and religious assembly.
At some point the Karian Koinon met at the sanctu-
ary of Labraunda (at least once in connection with
the Ionian revolt in 496 BC),14 and it seems most
likely that the Hekatomnids used the political and
religious meaning and power of the sanctuary
when turning the place into an appraisal of their
house.
According to Herodotus the Zeus Karios sanctu-
ary in Mylasa, connected to the sanctuary in Lab-
raunda by the procession road, was a shared or
common sanctuary. In a passage concerning the
origin of the Karian people, it is said: "…they point

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 Mannheimer Geschichtsblätter
Anne Marie Carstens
phical shortcut for the sacrificial bull, in a similar
way to other iconographical references such as a
cup for a libation, a horn for divinity in Hittite ico-
nography, or a baldachin for a shrine.19
Animal sacrificing was practised where the cult
statue was depicted adorned with woollen bands,
that is in the Artemis cult at Ephesos and Magne-
sia, the cult of Zeus Labraundos and even of Athe-
na of Pergamon. It may also be possible that the
symbolic reference to the bull's sacrifice included in
the decoration with the woollen bands might have
sufficed as sacrificial promise from time to time.
The woollen bands hanging from the horns of the
bucrania on for instance Hellenistic round altars
seem to point to such a turn from the bloody ani-
mal sacrifice on the alter itself to the more symbolic
reference to it via its decoration. Another interpre-
tation of the woollen bands is their connection to
20
the asylum provided by the Artemision. According
to the "Etymologicum magnum", a Greek lexical
th
encyclopaedia compiled in the 12 century AD Con-
stantinople, people fleeing for sanctuary at Ephesos
21
carried woollen binds.
Suggested meanings of the woollen bands
In an article on the woollen bands Gérard Seiterle
subsumed the meaning of the wool in Greek reli-
gion as a magic material: „Die Griechen glaubten,
dass der Wolle allgemein – ohne Zweifel wegen
ihrer natürlichen, reinigenden Kraft – eine kathar-
tische, lustrierende, heilende (heiligende) und all-
gemein eine apotropäische Wirkkraft innewohnt:
Mysten tragen in Eleusis und andernorts einen
weissen Wollfaden an Hand- und Fussgelenk.
Wolle wird bei der Geburt eines Mädchens an die
Haustür geheftet. Wollfäden werden zur Abwehr
böser Geister um Heiligtümer, Bäume und Quellen
22
gespannnt." The wool is here first and foremost
seen as a natural force, a heeling and holy force. It
protects and preserves. And it seems to sanctify
objects, places, and people. Seiterle connects the
immense force of the wool with its natural capaci-
ties as a healing and cleansing material. Also even
in the Hittite ritual text of the 2nd millennium BC
wool, and woollen threads and bands are consi-
dered a "materia magica et medica". The wool and
woollen threads were seen as connecting a patient
with the divine or the deity requested for healing.23
Sonderveröffentlichung 4 Titel o. Abschnitt
Fig. 7
Hadrian cistophoric
tetradrachm
Fleischer 1973, tab. 142 b
There are three main interpretations on the wool-
len bands of Artemis Ephesia and Zeus Labraundos:
The woollen bands may be related to a stone cult
where the binding of woollen bands around the
holy stone formed part of the initiation or worship
of the stone. Or perhaps of the cult object. Stone
cults, "huwaši" and "baityloi" are known from Karia
as an old Anatolian tradition. Labraunda is centred
at the natural rock boulder, near a spring according
to such a tradition of natural holy places in Ana-
tolia.24
The woollen bands may be related to the initiati-
on of the sacrificial animal, which sometimes may
– quite conveniently – be replaced by an indication
of the large scale sacrifice or a reference to it. This
would mean that the woollen bands on the altar
referred to and evoked the memory of the larger
and rarer big sacrifices. In this manner, the woollen
bands became an abbreviated sacrifice, a hint at
the real thing, a replacement. The woollen bands
may also symbolize the asylum institution of the
sanctuary. Written sources relate that people flee-
ing for sanctuary at the Artemision carried woollen
bands. According to the "Etymologicum magnum"
no sheep ("probata") were sacrificed at the Arte-
mision because the fugitives brought μαλλούς –
wool, possibly unprepared wool, to the sanctuary.
One source, Hesychius of Alexandria, calls Artemis
Ephesia πολυθύσανε, with many tassels.25
It is of course possible to see the three explana-
tions as simultaneously working, so to speak. This
would mean that the bands both refer to an anci-
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Titel o. Abschnitt Sonderveröffentlichung 4
Bringing wool to Zeus Labraundos
ent stone cult practice, once shared in the Bronze
Age Eastern Mediterranean, West Asia, and Anato-
lia, and to the initiation of a place or an object as
sacred, or as a reference to an animal sacrifice – and
indeed "because" of these meanings and links – as
a sign of asylum.
The nature of the woollen bands
I started working with the archaeology and history
of Karia and western Anatolia – this fascinating sur-
face of fractions – long before I got involved in tex-
tile archaeology at the Danish National Research
Foundation's Centre for Textile Research (CTR) in
2007. But after I met textile researchers and expe-
rienced the experiments carried out by textile tech-
nicians and archaeologists at CTR, I realized that
wool is not just wool, and that preparing the raw
material, the fleece for spinning, requires several
stages of preparation. And this brought me back to
have another look at the woollen bands and their
meaning.
The woollen bands of Artemis Ephesia and Zeus
Labraundos are in all likelihood made by long
"bands" of unspun, finely carded wool, so-called
rovings. These rovings were either tied with fine
yarn or interrupted by knots. The woollen bands are
thus not made out of spun yarn, nor woven bands,
but unspun bundles of wool fibres. The binding or
the knots obviously made the bundles stronger, but
never as strong as a spun thread, and all the same
the knots or bindings made it impossible to use the
woollen bands, the rovings, for spinning.
The same practice of knots and bindings is known
from the Hittite text corpus. It seems that the knots
and the bindings served to connect this world with
the divine, be it at funerals, in connection with hea-
ling, or as initiations.26
A lot of preparation was needed to produce these
special "signs" and if only for this simple reason,
there must be some meaning hidden in the quite
complicated preparation of the bands. A roving of
wool, prepared for spinning, but turned into some-
thing different, into a sort of band with a rhythmic
1 Brody 2007.
2 Fleischer 1973, p. 129-137.
3 Efes Muz inventory no. 718 and 1637; Fleischer 1973, E 46.
140
Mannheimer Geschichtsblätter
pattern of interruptions by the knots or the binding.
Perhaps a reminder of the rhythmic repetition of
ritual songs and prayers?
Conclusion
Pontus Hellström of the Swedish Labraunda excava-
tions has kindly assisted me by conducting a small
investigation of the old excavation diaries and find
lists from the Labraunda excavations 1948-1953. In
accordance with evidence from other sanctuary
sites, such as Timpone della Motta in South Italy,27
it would be interesting to see if it would be possi-
ble to assume whether an actual textile production
took place in the sanctuary. In all 55 spindle whorls
and 42 loom weights were registered 1948-1953, and
although this is not a clear answer to the question
it does let us know that textile tools were present
in the sanctuary, which may indicate production as
well as textile tools deposited as votives.28
The three suggested explanations of the woollen
bands – as a reference to an ancient stone cult, as
related to the animal sacrifice, initiating objects or
places or persons, or as a reference to the asylum
institution – seem to me quite interrelated. I have
seen Greek orthodox shrines adorned with bands
– perhaps in an old religious tradition reflecting
that still the Greeks believe that the wool contains
a carthasic, lustrous, healing, holy and apotropaic
force.
The Hittite ritual texts reveal that this belief was
an ancient one, also shared with Anatolian people
of the Bronze Age. Even today there exist praying
trees in Armenia, in the Turkish countryside and on
Balkan decorated with pieces of cloth as small gifts
to the divine. Perhaps this practise is a relic of an
ancient performance of both producing garments
for and dressing the god in the sanctuary hidden
in this gesture.
There is definitely something timeless to the
practice of connecting wool, woollen bands, wool-
len threads or these cloth trees with the binding
nature of the human dependency on the divine. It is
evidently an ancient tradition and it lives on.
 Mannheimer Geschichtsblätter Sonderveröffentlichung 4 Titel o. Abschnitt

Anne Marie Carstens

4 Fleischer 1973, p. vi and p. 129; Brody 2007, p. 1.

5 M. Nielsen: Diana Efesia Multimammia. The metamorphosis of a pagan goddess from the Renaissance to the Age of Neoclassicism,
in: T. Fischer-Hansen et al. (eds.): From Artemis to Diana: the goddess of man and beast (Acta Hyperborea 12), Copenhagen 2009,
pp. 455-496, see p. 455.
6 G. Seiterle: Artemis – Die Grosse Göttin von Ephesos, in: AW 10, 1979, p. 3-16.
7 Fleischer 2002, p. 208, Abb. 10.
8 Fleischer 1973, p. 313s. and p. 318.
9 G. B. Waywell: The Ada, Zeus and Idrieus relief from Tegea in the British Museum, in: O. Palagia, W. Coulson (eds.): Sculture from Arcadia
and Laconia, Oxford 1993, pp. 79-86; Carstens 2009, p. 91-94.
10 This assumption also lies behind Ann C. Gunter's reading of Labraunda, A. C. Gunter:Looking at Hekatomnid patronage form
Labraunda, in: REA 87, p. 113-124; Carstens 2009, p. 75-100.
11 A. Peschlow-Bindokat: Der Kult des anatolischen Regen- und Wettergottes auf dem Gipfel des Latmos und das Heiligtum des Zeus
Akraios im Tal von Dikilitas, in: IstMitt 46, 1996, p. 217-225.
12 V. Haas: Hethiitsche Berggötter und hurritische Steindämonen. Riten, Kulte und Mythen, Mainz 1982, p. 117; Cook 1965, p. 982; Carstens
2008.
13 Cook 1965, p. 231.
14 HDT. 5,119.
15 HDT. 1,171,5.
16 PAUS. 7,2,8.
17 Fleischer 2002, p. 185-186.
18 W. Burkert: Greek Religion, Harvard 1985 b, p. 55-59.
19 Seiterle 1999; Carstens 2008.
20 Fleischer 2002, p. 208-215. Seiterle 1999, p. 251. Part of this bringing of unprepared wool to the sanctuary may be connected with the
sanctuary as a centre of textile production. M. Gleba: Textile Tools in Ancient Italian Votive Contexts: Evidence of Dedication or
Production), in: M. Gleba, J. MacIntosh Turfa (eds.): Votives, Places, Rituals in Etruscan Religion, Leiden 2008, p. 69-84.
21 Non vidi; Fleischer 2002, p. 209.
22 Seiterle 1999, p. 251.
23 Haas 2003, p. 649-650.
24 Carstens 2008.
25 Fleischer 2002, p. 208-210.
26 Haas 2003, p. 662-680.
27 M. Kleibrink, J. K. Jacobsen, S. Handberg: Water for Athena: votive gifts at Lagaria (Timpone della Motta, Francavilla Marritima, Calabria),
in: World Archaeology 36, 2004, p. 43-67.
28 The contexts are quite summary and it would be interesting to have a closer look at both the actual finds as well as the excavation
records. I am very grateful to Pontus Hellström for his kind help in this matter.

Abbreviated Works:
L.R. Brody (2007): The Aphrodite of Aphrodisias, Mainz am Rhein 2007
A. M. Carstens (2008): Huwasi rocks, baityloi, and open air sanctuaries, in: Karia: Kilikia and Cyprus, OLBA (Mersin University Research
Center for Cilician Archaeology) 13, 2008, S. 73-93
A. M. Carstens (2009): Karia and the Hekatomnids. The Creation of a Dynasty (BAR International Series 1943), Oxford 2009
A. B. Cook (1965): Zeus. A study in ancient religion (2. vol.), New York 1964-1965 [reprint of 1914-1940]
R. Fleischer (1973): Artemis von Ephesos und verwandte Kultstatuen aus Anatolien und Syrien, Leiden 1973
R. Fleischer (2002): Die Amazonen und das Asyl des Artemisions von Ephesos, in: JdI 117, 2002, S. 185-216
V. Haas (2003): Materia magica et medica Hethitica, ein Beitrag zur Heilkunde im Alten Orient, Berlin 2003
G. Seiterle (1999): Ephesische Wollbinden. Attribut der Göttin, Zeichen des Stieropfers, in: H. Friesinger, F. Krinzinger (Hrsg.): 100 Jahre
Österreichische Forschungen in Ephesos, Wien 1999, S. 251-254

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