Zeus Lykaios -Enthroned, holds the thunderbolt - from Lycosura, the Oldest City in the World - pure bronze statue

Condition: New, Made in Greece.
Material: Pure Bronze
Height: 19 cm - 7,5 inches
Width: 6 cm - 2,4 inches
Length: 8,5 cm - 3,3 inches
Weight: 900 g

Pausanias mentions that on the mountain called Lykaion there was the city of Lykosoura which was the oldest city in the world. Besides, the genealogical myths of the people of Arcadia and also the founders of the Arcadic cities had their origins there. In Antiquity, the area constituted a major athletic and religious centre, but cases of human sacrifices on the site cannot be ascertained.
The Arcadian cult of Zeus Lykaios practiced on Mount Lykaion. On the basis of various evidence related to the cult of Zeus Lykaios (etymology, archaeological material, mythical and literary tradition) it is argued that this cult originated from and continued the worship of the Indo-European god of the clear sky, while the concept of him as a storm-deity was added in historical times. The absence of any material evidence for the nature of Zeus Lykaios as a wolf suggests that the stories about lykanthropy, which were associated with Mount Lykaion, should be understood as an indication of a special character of the priesthood of this god as well as of the worship of a wolf-deity by an Arcadian community.

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