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

Zeus of the Oasis a Graeco-Libyan god 363

and 1150 B.C. witnessed yet another attempted invasion by
northerners, among whom were Philistines (Pulnsatha), Siculo-
Pelasgians ? (Zakkala), Oaxians ? ( Waasasa), Teucrians (Tdkarai),
and Danaans (Daanau, Danauna)1. Several of these identifications
are doubtful ; but that Egypt was thus repeatedly exposed to a
general movement of Mediterranean peoples, many of whom were
forefathers of the historical Greeks, is fortunately beyond all question.
Prof. Flinders Petrie would even carry back the said Graeco-Libyan
league well into the third millennium B.C.2 This extreme view must
be left for Egyptologists to criticise. But on the strength of the
ascertained facts I have elsewhere suggested that the invaders may
have planted in the Oasis a cult of their sky-god Zeus, who at
some later date was fused firstly with the Theban Amen-Ra and
secondly with the Punic Ba'al-hamman3. If so, we should expect
to find that the cult of Zeus in the Ammoneion resembled the most
archaic cults of the same god on Greek soil, e.g. that of Zeus Ndios
at Dodona. Was this actually the case ?

The Zeus of the Oasis is by Nonnos termed Zeus Asbystes after
the Asbystai, a Libyan tribe occupying the Hinterland of Kyrene,
and under that denomination is compared with the Zeus of
Dodona :

Lo, Zeus Asbystes1 new-found answering voice
The thirsty sands oracular sent forth
To the Chaonian dove4.

The same comparison of the Libyan with the Dodonaean Zeus
was made some 850 years earlier by Herodotos, who not only
declares that—

'The oracular usage of Thebes in Egypt and the oracular usage of Dodona
in point of fact resemble one another5'

—but also reports at first hand with every appearance of fidelity
the local myths of both cult-centres :

' This is the tale that the Egyptians tell concerning the oracles of Hellas
and Libye. The priests of Zeus Thebaieus stated that two priestesses were

1 H. R. Hall op. cit. p. 175 ff., G. Maspero op. cit. p. 459 ff., E. A. Wallis Budge
op. cit. vi. 37 f.

2 W. M. Flinders Petrie in the Journ. Hell. Stud. 1890 xi. 271—277. The sherds of
Middle ' Minoan' and Late ' Minoan' ware found by him in the Fayum (id. pi. 14) are not
necessarily the deposit of hostile invasions ; they may surely be due to peaceful trading.

3 Class. Rev. 1903 xvii. 403 f., cp. Folk-Lore 1904 xv. 295.

4 Nonn. Dion. 3. 292 ff. /cat Atos 'Aafivarao verjv avrLppoTrov dp.cpriv | Xaopt'77 j3oococrc
7reXetd5t dtxpddes afx/xot. \ p^avTnrbXot. [v.I. p-avTLiroXio), cp. 13. 370 ff. /cat Aids 'Aafivarao
lAearmfiplfavTas ivatiXovs, | [xavTiirbXov Kepoevros, otrrj irore ttoW&kis"A/iAp.wp | apvecov rpieXiK-
tov ^Xtop tv8a\/xa Kepalrjs | 6/<t0atots crro/xdreaaLV edecrxLaev 'Hcnrepios Zevs.

5 Hdt. 2. 58.