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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#0442

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366 The Ram and the Sun in Egypt

the Ammoneion of an oracular grove without specifying oak-trees1.
Finally, Clement of Alexandreia and Eusebios allude to an ancient
oracular oak as worshipped amid the desert sands2. This can be
none other than the- oak of Amnion*. I conclude, therefore, that
Silius' statement is not to be dismissed as a mere poetic fiction, but
to be accepted as a fact.

If Zeus had an oak-cult of immemorial antiquity in the
Ammoneion, we might reasonably expect that it would figure in
the earliest traditions of the Libyan tribes. Now the Oases of the
eastern Sahara were occupied in classical times by the Garamantes4,
whose eponym was Garamas—also called Amphithemis—the son
of Apollon by Akakallis daughter of Minos5. Of the Garamantes
in general it is recorded that they were pious folk, who had a
temple or temples established in their midst6; but of Garamas in
particular we fortunately possess an older and more definite
account. A lyrical fragment7 attributed by Schneidewin to Pindar
and recognised by Bergk as coming from the Hymn to Zeus
Amnion9, declares that in the beginning men sprang from Mother

1 Curt. 4. 7. 20 incolae nemoris, quos Hammonios vocant, dispersis tuguriis habitant:
medium nemus pro arce habent, etc., ib. 22 est et aliud Hammonis nemus : etc., Lucan.
9. 522 ff. esse locis superos testatur silva per omnem | sola virens Libyen...solus nemus
abstulit Hammon. | silvarum fons causa loco, etc., Sil. It. i. 414 tu quoque fatidicis
Garamanticus accola lucis | etc., Stat. Theb. 8. 201 quin et cornigeri vatis nemus atque
Molossi I quercus anhela Iovis, Avien. descr. orb. terr. 317 mugit arenosis nemus illic
denique lucis.

2 Clem. Al. protr. 2. 11. 1 p. 10, 22 ff. Stahlin yepdv8pvov 8e \f/dfj,fxois £pr)p.ais T€Tip.7]-
jxevov (t€t7]pr]p:evov cj. Mayor) /cat to avrodc fxavreiov avrfj Spv'i' fxe/j-apaa/nevov /aijOois yeyrjpa-
kocti KaTaKeL\j/are~ Euseb. praep. ev. 2. 3. 1.

On a double bust of Zeus Amnion and Sarapis (?) with oak-wreath and kdlathos see
Gerhard Ant. Bildw. pi. 320, 3, Overbeck Gr. Kunstmyth. Zeus p. 289.

3 This important piece of evidence was clearly pointed out by E. H. Toelken in his
notes to H. von Minutoli Reise zum Tempel des Jupiter Amnion Berlin 1824 p. 377,
by C. J. Schmitthenner De Jove Hammone Weilburgi 1840 p. 30 n. 2, and independently
of them by me in the Class. Rev. 1903 xvii. 403 and in Folk-Lore 1904 xv. 295; but it .
appears to have escaped the notice of all recent writers on the cult of Amnion.

4 H. Dessau in Pauly—Wissowa Real-Enc. vii. 751 f. They hold the oracle of Zeus
Amnion in Lucan. 9. 511 ff., Sil. It. 1. 414, 3. 10, 14. 440, Aug. de civ. Dei 21. 5.

5 Ap. Rhod. 4. 1483 ff. with schol. adloc, Eustath. in Dionys. per. 209, Hyg.y^. 14
p. 48, 21 ff. Schmidt, interp. Serv. in Verg. Aen. 4. 198. Cp. Agroitas frag. 1 {Frag,
hist. Gr. iv. 294 Muller) ap. Herodian. irepi jxov. Ae£. p. 11, 19 ff. Dindorf.

6 Agroitas frag. 4 (Frag. hist. Gr. iv. 295 Midler) ap. schol. Ap. Rhod. 4. 1492 (&m
8e /cat vaos Trap' avrois scholia vulgata, /cat vaoi ev auroLS 'idpvvTou cod. Paris.).

7 Frag, adesp. 84 Bergk4 (33 Hiller), 12 f. ap. Hippol. ref. haeres. 5. 7 p. 97 Miller
(pavri 8e irpoiToyovov Ya.pdfj.avTa \ At/Sues aux/x^pcDf' Tre8iwv dvaSvvra yXviceias Aids dirap-
£acr#at fiaXdvov. This is Bergk's restoration of the MS. At'/3es 5£ Tdppavra 0a(rt
irpwToyovov avxfJ-VP^ dvaSvvra 7re5ty, yXvueias dirap^aadai. Atos j3a\dvov. Hiller reverts
to Schneidewin's cj. 'IdpfiavTa. But T. Zielinski in the Archiv f. Rel. 1906 ix. 42 n. 1
gives reasons for preferring Bergk's emendation.

8 Supra p. 352 f.
 
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