Pausanias[35] saw at Corinth three images of Zeus, all under the open sky. One he says had no title, another was called He of the underworld (χθόνιος), the third The Highest. What earlier cults this triple Zeus had absorbed into himself it is impossible to say. Such a determined monotheism is obviously no primitive conception, and it is interesting to ask on what facts and fusion of facts it was primarily based. Happily where literature and even ritual leave us with suspicions only, art compels a clearer definition. The two reliefs in figs. 1 and 2 were found at the Peiraeus and are now in the Berlin Museum[36]. From the inscription on the relief in fig. 1 and from numerous other inscribed reliefs found with it, it is practically certain that at the place in which they were found Zeus Meilichios was worshipped. In any case the relief in fig. 1 is clearly dedicated to him. Above the splendid coiled beast is plainly inscribed ‘to Zeus Meilichios’ (Διὶ Μειλιχίῳ). We are brought face to face with the astounding fact that Zeus, father of gods and men, is figured by his worshippers as a snake. [Illustration: FIG. 1.] So astonishing is the inscription that it drove a man of M. Foucart’s learning and ability into strange straits. He was the first to attempt the interpretation of these remarkable reliefs, and so determined is he that the Hellenic Zeus _is_ not, cannot be, a mere snake that he resorts to the perfectly gratuitous assumption that Meilichios is Moloch (Melek) and that the reliefs are dedicated by foreigners to their foreign god[37]. We have no evidence that Moloch was figured as a snake, but anything is good enough for a foreigner. This explanation, though supported by a great name, was too preposterous long to command attention and another way was sought out of the difficulty. The snake, it was suggested, was not the god himself, it was his attribute. Again the assumption is baseless. Zeus is one of the few Greek gods who never appear attended by a snake. Asklepios, Hermes, Apollo, even Demeter and Athene have their snakes, Zeus never. Moreover when the god developed from snake form to human form, as, it will later be shown, was the case with Asklepios, _the snake he once was_ remains coiled about his staff or attendant at his throne. In the case of Zeus Meilichios in human form _the snake he once was not_ disappears clean and clear. [Illustration: FIG. 2.]