The oldest worship of Zeus, as of all other Greek divinities, was without an image, and remained so on Mount Lycaeum and probably elsewhere for a longer time than the other cults. In Homer we have an explicit reference to an idol of Athene and an allusion to one of Apollo, but no hint that he ever knew of an image of Zeus. And the most archaic statues that have come down to us are representations of Artemis and perhaps Apollo, but not of the Supreme God. The reason why the most primitive religion, both of Greece and Rome, was destitute of images, was, of course, want of imagination and helplessness of hand rather than the piety that Clemens claims for the Pelasgians; but obviously this would not explain why, when the iconic age had begun, the cult of Zeus was later in admitting the iconic form than the other divinities. We may allow that the cause here lay in a certain religious reserve.

For a long period he was worshipped on the mountain tops with altar and sacrifice only; in the next stage, or during the same period, certain aniconic objects were consecrated to him. The strangest of these was the stone which Pausanias saw near Gythium in Laconia, upon which Orestes had sat and had been healed of his madness,‘ and which had been called Zeus the stayer in the Dorian tongue.’