Abstract
Various reliefs to Zeus Meilichios or Philios in Athens, as well as a pillar dedicated to the daimōn Meilichios in Lebadaea in Boeotia, bear the representation of a snake that sometimes even replaces the image of the anthropomorphic god in the field of the image. This type of serpent, associated with the superhuman sphere, is what the Greeks calldrakōn. A child of the earth from which it rises and to which it returns, the serpent is also closely associated with the dead and heroes. However, the snake is more than just a " chthonic animal ". In his treatise on the interpretation of dreams, Artemidorus describes Zeus as a royal animal with the ability to regenerate, and as a symbol of heroic status. However, Zeus is not a hero, and the snake that appears on the reliefs of Zeus Meilichios or Philios cannot be understood as a marker of this type. The animal therefore emphasizes the god's function rather than his status, namely that of provider of benefits linked to prosperity in the form of agrarian prosperity, but also social prosperity in the broadest sense, based on philia. The snake " royal " is thus a mode of expression of the god's action among men, like theAgathosdaimōn and the terrestrial daimones of Hesiod's works studied last year. This is further evidenced by the parallel offered by the figure of Sosipolis in Olympia, whose cult etiology sees an infant transformed into a snake, and whom iconography depicts as Agathos daimōn close to Zeus.
