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

370 The Ram and the Sun in Egypt

triumphal progress came into Africa, he was overtaken by thirst in
the desert and like to perish with all his host. A ram appeared
to them in their extremity and having led them safely to a plentiful
pool in the Oasis there vanished1. Dionysos founded on the spot
a temple of Zeus Ammon, and set the helpful ram among the stars,
ordaining that when the sun was in Aries all things should revive
with the fresh life of spring. In this connexion it should be
observed that from Berytos in the east to Pompeii in the west
Ammon-ma.sks were used as fountain-mouths2.

Finally, as Zeus Ndios was paired with Dione,^so Zeus Ammon
had a female partner worshipped at Olympia as Hera Ammonia*
and associated with him on certain extant gems (fig. 278)?. Or, if

Fig. 278. Fig. 279.

it be urged that the original consort of Zeus at Dodona was Ge
rather than Dione5^ I would point to the fact that in the Libyan
Oasis too we have found a tradition of Mother Earth6—a tradition
the more noteworthy because in purely Egyptian religion the
earth-deity was not a goddess, but a god.

The conclusion to which the evidence here adduced appears to

1 The ram was presumably Zeus himself in animal form. Another late aetiological
tale told how the gods, when attacked by Typhoeus, fled in a panic to Egypt and
disguised themselves as animals, Zeus becoming a ram, etc. (Ov. met. 5. 327 f., Lact.
Plac. narr. jab. 5. 5, Myth. Vat. 1. 86, cp. Apollod. 1. 6. 3, Diod. 1, 86, Plout. de Is. et
Os. 72, Loukian. de sacrif. 14, Hyg.poet. astr. 2. 28).

2 Corp. inscr. Gr. hi no. 4535 (Berytos) = Cougny Anth. Pal. Append. 1. 317, Over-
beck Gr. Kunstmyth. Zeus pp. 277, 285.

3 Paus. 5. 15. 11 with J. G. Frazer's n. ad loc. (iii. 584). On the association of Zeus
with Hera at Thebes in Egypt see supra p. 348 n. 1.

4 I figure a garnet in the Berlin collection : the original is inscribed AI >A m careless
lettering (Furtwangler Geschnitt. Steine Berlin p. 73 no. 1121 pi. 14, Muller —Wieseler
Denkm. d. alt. Kunst ii. 40 pi. 5, 65 omitting inscr., Overbeck Gr. Kunstmyth. Zeus
p. 301 Gemmentaf. 4, 13). Cp. also a prase at Florence (fig. 279), on which the female
head has no stephdne and is rather Dionysiac in character (Overbeck op. cit. Zeus p. 301
Gemmentaf. 4, 11). The existence of double busts representing Zeus Ammon and Hera
Ammonia is more problematic {id. ib. p. 288 f.).

5 Class. Rev. 1903 xvii. 179 f.
e Supra p. 366 f.