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

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https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14695#0431

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Ba'al-hamman and Zeus Ammon 355

Thunderer...Iuppiter Hammon1.' Ba'al-hamman was in fact com-
pletely assimilated to Zeus Ammon.

Semitic influence penetrated to the Ammdneion itself. Of its
ritual in the fourth century B.C. a twofold account has come down
to us:

diodoros 17. 50.

'The image of the god is surrounded
with emeralds and certain other ob-
jects, and has a method of divination
quite peculiar to itself. It is taken
round on a golden boat by eighty
priests. They carry the god on their
shoulders, proceeding mechanically in
whatever direction the will of the god
leads their steps. Together with them
follows a crowd of girls and women,
singing paeans all along the road and
chanting traditional hymns to the
god2.'

curtius 4. 7. 23 f.

'That which is worshipped as a god
has not the same shape as artists have
commonly given to deities. It looks
most like an omphalos set with emerald
and gems. When a response is desired,
the priests bear this deity on a golden
boat, many silver saucers hanging- on
either side of the boat. Women and
girls follow them, raising an artless
chant in accordance with traditional
custom, whereby they think that Zeus
will be propitiated and deliver a true
oracle3.'

Both of these statements were doubtless drawn from the lost
work of Kallisthenes, Aristotle's kinsman, who himself took part in
Alexander's expedition. H. Meltzer4 by a detailed study of dis-
crepancies has made it probable that the Roman writer is more
accurate than the Greek: thus, whereas Diodoros uses the vague
term 'image' (xoanori), Curtius describes the cult-object as most
nearly resembling an omphalos. Meltzer would see in it the
baztylos or baitylion of Ba'al-hamman, a sacred stone, half-fetich,

1 Corp. inscr. Lat. viii no. 9018 = F. Biicheler Carmina Latina epigraphica Lipsiae
1895 i. 121 no. 253 [Pan]thea cornigeri sacris adiuncta Tonantis, | [q]uae Libycis
Maurisque simul venerabilis oris | [his] etiam colitur te[rr]is, quam Iuppiter Hammon |
[inter] utrumque lat[us] m[e]diam cum Dite severo | [dext]er sede tegit: etc. Tank as
Virgo Caelestis is at once Iuno and Ceres, and so is placed between Iupiter and Dis.
See Wissowa Rel. Knit. Rom. p. 314 n. 8.

2 Diod. 17. 50 to 5e tou deou %bavov 4k crfxapaydwu /cat tluwp aWwv Trepcex€TaL /cat ttju
ixavreiav Idiafauaau irauTeX&s 7rotetTat. e7rt pews yap TrepL<pepeTai XPVCTVS v7ro iepeoou
oydorjKovra ' outol 5' e7rt tQv tifxwv cpepouTes tou deou wpo&yovcriu auro/mrws, ottov ttot'
olu dyrj (sic codd. F. L., ceteri 01701) to tou deou ueufxa tt\u iropeiau. avuaKoXoudec 5e
irXrjdos irapdevwu /cat yvvaiK&v iraiavas ddouTwu (sic libri : Wesseling cj. q,douaQu,
L. Dindorf adou ?) /cara iracrau ttju 686u /cat 7rar/uy KadufivoiuToov (sic libri: Wesseling
cj. KadvpLuoua&u, L. Dindorf Kadufxuouu ?) cpdrj top deou.

3 Curt. 4. 7. 23 f. id quod pro deo colitur non eandem effigiem habet quam vulgo diis
artifices accomodaverunt: umbilico maxime similis est habitus, smaragdo et gemmis
coagmentatus. hunc, quum responsum petitur, navigio aurato gestant sacerdotes, multis
argenteis pateris ab utroque navigii latere pendentibus. sequuntur matronae virginesque
patrio more inconditum quoddam carmen canentes, quo propitiari Iovem credunt ut
certum edat oraculum.

4 H. Meltzer ' Der Fetisch im Heiligtum des Zeus Ammon' in Philologus 1904 Ixiii.
186—223.

23 — 2
 
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