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

Ba'al-hamman and Zeus Ammon 357

Amen-Ra in the tomb of Seti i was himself coloured green1, it
is clear that the choice of emeralds was deliberate. Certain
magical virtues belonging to this stone2 were connected by Theo-
phrastos with the fact that it is coloured like water3; and it was
probably this resemblance to the watery sky that made it appro-
priate to the service of Zeus Ammon*. Perhaps it was as the son
of Ammon that Alexander the Great had his portrait engraved by
Pyrgoteles on an emerald5.

In the second place, the method of divination practised at the
Ammoneion was not, as Diodoros and Curtius thought, unique. At

Ba'albek the image of Zeus Adados6 and at Bambyke that of a
Zeus-like Apollon7 indicated the divine will in the selfsame manner.
Both these cults were Syrian, and we may fairly infer that the
usage of the Oasis was Semitic too.

Yet, while admitting H. Meltzer's contention that the omphalos
of Zeus Ammon was Semitic, I would point out that the golden
boat on which it journeyed is hardly to be explained by oriental

Plin. nat. hist. 37. 74 et fuisse apud eos in Iovis delubro obeliscum e quattuor smaragdis
quadraginta cubitorum longitudine, latitudine vero in parte quattuor, in parte duorum is
much more credible.

1 Supra p. 132 n. 2.

2 The term a/xdpay8os, strictly used, denotes a crystalline green quartz: it was,
however, loosely applied to other green stones (Furtwangler Ant. Gemmen iii. 394,
cp. 388).

3 Theophr. lap. 4 and 23, cp. Timoth. Pers. 32 f., Nonn. Dion. 5. 178 ff.

4 Similarly the non-crystalline green quartz (6 xkwpbs t'a<r7rts) known to us as'plasma'
or 'plasma di smeraldo' would conciliate the gods and secure a
plenteous rain-fall (Orph. lith. 267 ff.). It was credited also
with medicinal powers, especially if engraved with the Khnemu-
snake (Galen, de si?nplicium medic am entorum temperamentis ac
facilitations 9. 2. 19 (xii. 207 Ktihnj): many 'Gnostic' examples
are extant (Furtwangler op. cit. iii. 388, W. Drexler in Roscher
Lex. Myth. ii. 1258).

' Plasma' was occasionally used for the figure of Zeus en-
throned (Furtwangler Geschnitt. Steine Berlin p. 111 no. 2355
pi. 22, p. 266 no. 7134) or for that of Asklepios enthroned as Yig. 274.

Zeus {id. id. p. 111 no. 2356, T. Panofka in the Abh. d. berl.

Akad. 1845 Phil.-hist. Classe p. 289 pi. 1, 10). I append a laureate head of Zeus
carved in high relief out of ' plasma,' from a ring in my possession (fig. 274, enlarged \) :
the stone is good work of Roman date.

Plat. Phaed. no D describes adpSid re /cat idairidas /cat cr/xapdydovs /cat irdvra ra
rotaCra as fragments of the earth's true surface, which have slipped from the aither into
the air—a notion probably based upon folk-belief. Cp. Ex. 24. 10, Ezek. 1. 26, 10. 1,
Rev. 4. 3.

5 Plin. nat. hist. 37. 8.

6 Infra ch. i § 6 (g) xx (a).

7 Infra ch. i § 6 (g) xx (8).