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Cook, Arthur B.
Zeus: a study in ancient religion (Band 1): Zeus god of the bright sky — Cambridge, 1914

DOI Seite / Zitierlink: 
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14695#0258

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Direct identifications of Zeus with the Sun i g i

Philon of Byblos, who flourished c. 100 A.D., wrote what pur-
ported to be a translation of an ancient' Phoenician history by a
certain Sanchouniathon of Berytos1. An extract from the translation
preserved by Eusebios states :

The descendants of these men (Aion and Protogonos) were called Genos
and Genea, and dwelt in Phoinike. When a drought befell, they stretched their
hands to heaven towards the sun; for he was the one god that they worshipped
as lord of heaven, calling him Beelsamen, which signifies 'Lord of Heaven'
among the Phoenicians or 'Zeus' among the Greeks2.

Fig. 138.

Zeus is here the Greek equivalent of the Phoenician Ba'al-samin,
'Lord of Heaven,' who was honoured not only in Phoinike and its
colonies but throughout the whole of Syria3, and was sometimes at
least conceived as a sun-god4. It is he who appears on a fine
bronze disk at Brussels published by Monsieur F. Cumont (fig. 138)5.

1896 ii. 134 no. 256 a Mithraic relief at Dorstadt (figured ib. ii. 307 f. no. 191) inscribed
Io(vi) S(oli) invi(cto) | deo genitori | r(upe) n(ato) etc., ib. ii. 140 no. 319 Dalmatia?
D(eo) S(oli) I(ovi?) o(ptimo?) m(aximo?) | aeterno j etc., ib. ii. 174 no. 556 Rome I(ovi?)
S(oli?) I(nvicto?) P(raestantissimo ?) d(eo?) M(agno?) | etc.

1 Gruppe Cult. Myth, orient. Rel. i. 350—-409, W. Christ Geschichte der griechischen
Litteratur's Miinchen 1898 p. 764.

2 Philon ~Ryh\. frag. 2 {Frag. hist. Gr. iii. 565 f. Midler) ap. Euseb.praep. ev. i. 10. 7.

3 F. Cumont in Pauly-Wissowa Real-Enc. ii. 2839 f., W. W. Baudissin Adonis tmd
Estnun Leipzig 1911 p. 26.

4 C. J. M. de Vogue Inscriptions semitiques Paris 1868 p. 19 no. 16 a bilingual
inscription in Aramaic and Greek from Palmyra, [}0]6? \^V]^ being rendered by
[toD "H]Xtou.

5 F. Cumont in the Festschrift fiir Otto BenndorfWien 1898 pp. 291—295.
 
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