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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#0445

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Zeus of the Oasis a Graeco-Libyan god 369

In short, it appears that the whole apparatus of the oracle at
Dodona—its grove, its oak of special sanctity, its doves, its holy
well—was to be matched in the Oasis , of Ammon. Strabon adds
that both oracles gave their responses in the self-same manner,
' not by means of words, but by certain tokens' such as the flight
of doves1.

Nor was the character of Zeus himself different at the two cult-
centres. Zeus Ndios of Dodona was essentially a god ' of Streaming
Water2': the oracular spring—we are told—burst from the very
roots of his famous oak3. So with Zeus Ammon. The close con-
nexion between his cult and water comes out clearly in Diodoros'
description of the Oasis4:

' The Ammonians dwell in villages, but have in the midst of their territory
an akropolis secured by a threefold wall. Its first rampart encloses a palace of
the ancient rulers; the second, the womens' court, the apartments of the
children, wives, and kinsfolk6, together with guard-houses, and besides the
precinct of the god and the sacred spring, which is used to purify all that is
offered to him ; the third includes the quarters of the king's body-guard and
their guard-houses. Outside the akropolis at no great distance is built a second
temple of Ammon shaded by many large trees. Near this temple is a fountain,
which on account of its peculiar character is called the Fountain of the Sun.;
Etc.

The same association of the desert-god with water occurs in a
tale for which our earliest authority is Hermippos the pupil of
Kallimachos (c. 250 B.C.)6. When Dionysos in the course of his

1 Strab. 329 frag, i ov <5td \6ywv, dWd bid tlvcjv av/x^oXcou, cp. 814 ovx wairep ev
AeAc/>ots /cat BpcryxiScus ras airodeairLaeis did \6ycov, d\\d vetipiaat. /cat o~vp,86\ois to irXeou,
cos /ecu Trap' 'O^pco • rj /cat Kvaveycriv ^7r' 6<pptio~i veuae Kpovicov. To the same effect Eudok.
viol. 75 ov tlvos at p.avT€lai did avp,j36\cou yivovTai, t/tol did Gxqp,dTWV tlvQu /cat KaTavetiaewv
/cat dvavevaewv = Eustath. in Dionys. per. 211. See also Hdt. 2. 58 cited supra p. 363.

Yet Zeus Ndios and Zeus Amnion both gave oracles in verse. For those of the former
see Cougny Anth. Pal. Append. 6. 175 f.; for those of the latter, Cougny ib. 6. 179 and
G. Parthey ' Das Orakel und die Oase des Ammon' in the Abh. d. berl. Akad. 1862
Phil.-hist. Classe p. 143.

2 Schol. //. 16. 233 0 de Audcovaios /cat Ndios- vdprjXd yap rd e/cet %wpt'a. Cp. Na'ta
a spring at Teuthrone in Lakonike (Paus. 3. 25. 4). Other cognates are vdeo, vdfxa,
vacr/uLos, vapbs, N^/jew, N?ytds, etc. (L. Meyer Handb. d. gr. Etym. iv. 230 f., Prellwitz
Etym. Worterb. d. Gr. Spr.2 p. 306 f., Walde Lat. etym. Worterb. p. 415). See further
Class. Rev. 1903 xvii. 178 f. and O. Hofer in Roscher Lex. Myth. iii. 2 f.

3 Supra p. 368 n. 4.

4 Diod. 17. 50. This and the parallel passage in Curt. 4. 7. 20—22 are derived from
the same source, presumably Kallisthenes.

5 Diod. loc. cit. (rvyyevQiv : Curt. loc. cit. pellicibus. Curtius has again [supra p. 355)
preserved a detail dropped by Diodoros.

6 Hermippos ap. Hyg. poet. astr. 2. 20, Nigidius ap. schol. Caes. Germ. Aratea
p. 401, 6 fT. Eyssenhardt, Amp. 2, Lact. Plac. in Stat. Theb. 3. 476, Serv. in Verg. Aen.
4. 196, schol. Lucan. 4. 672.

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