DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14695#0632
The Bull and the Sun in Syria 549
resemblance to a 'Willow' or a 'Willow'-leaf\ If so, the sacred
tree of Europe attained a scientific euthanasia in the text-books
of Hellenistic astronomy, as did the bull of Zeus, which was like-
wise placed among the stars to be the constellation Taurus2.
xx. The Bull and the Sun in Syria.
(a) Zeus Adados and Iupiter Heliopolitanus.
The bull appears as a sacred animal in connexion with the
sky-gods of Syria also. And here again the cults in question took
on a solar character and were ultimately fused with that of Zeus
or Iupiter.
This was the case with Adad or Hadad, * king of the gods3' and
consort of Atargatis. Since a common designation of Adad
describes him as a deity of the west or Amurru4, it has been con-
jectured that he was originally a god of the Amorites, imported
into the Euphrates-valley by an Amoritish wave of migration.
However that may be, his worship, widely spread in Palestine and
Syria5, had reached Greece before the close of the second century
B.C.—witness a series of inscriptions found by the French in Delos6.
From these it appears that a certain Achaios son of Apollonios, a
native of Hieropolis resident among the Delians, dedicated a
temple etc.' to Adatos and Atargatis the gods of his fatherland ' and
was elected, presumably by his fellow-countrymen, to serve as
priest thereof for the year 137-136 B.C.7. Repairs of the sanctuary
1 The Chinese regard as a Willow-leaf the stars 8, e, £, co, 0, p, 17, s of the constellation
Hydra (G. Schlegel Uranographie chinoise The Hague 1875 cited by A. de Gubernatis
La Alythologie des Plantes Paris 1882 ii. 337—340).
2 Eur. Phrixus frag. 820 Nauck2 op. pseudo-Eratosth. catast. 14, Hyg. poet. astr. 2.
21, cp. Io. Malal. chron. 2 p. 31 Dindorf, Nonn. Dion. 33. 287, German. Arat. 536 ff.
Others took the constellation to be Pasiphae's bull or the Marathonian bull (schol. Arat.
phaen. 167), or Io the cow (Hyg. poet. astr. 2. 21). It is probable too, though not certain,
that the same constellation was sometimes regarded as the bull-form of Dionysos
(A. W. Curtius Das Stiersymbol des Dionysos Koln 1892 p. 6 ff., Gruppe Gr. Myth. Rel.
p. 825 n. 3 and p. 943 n. 2).
3 Philon Bybl. frag. 24 {Frag. hist. Gr. iii. 569 Miiller) ap. Euseb. praep. ev. 1. 10.
3i"A5w5os fiaaike-bs 6eG>v.
4 Mar-Tu, the ideographic form of Amurru. See further A. T. Clay Amurru, the
Home of the Northern Semites Philadelphia 1909 p. 77 ff.
5 W. Drexler in Roscher Lex. Myth. i. 1987 ff., ii. 1179 ff., A. Jeremias id. iv. 19 ff.,
R. Dussaud in Pauly—Wissowa Real-Enc. vii. 2157 ff., M. Jastrow The Religion of Baby-
lonia and Assyria Boston etc. 1898 p. 156 ff., id. Aspects of Religious Belief and Practice
in Babylonia and Assyria New York and London 1911 p. 117 ff.
6 A. Hauvette-Besnault in the Bull. Corr. Hell. 1882 vi. 479 ff., G. Doublet ib. 1892
xvi. 161.
7 Bull. Corr. Hell. 1882 vi. 495 f. no. 12, 5 f. 'ASdrwt koX 'AraplydreL deois
irarpioLS.
resemblance to a 'Willow' or a 'Willow'-leaf\ If so, the sacred
tree of Europe attained a scientific euthanasia in the text-books
of Hellenistic astronomy, as did the bull of Zeus, which was like-
wise placed among the stars to be the constellation Taurus2.
xx. The Bull and the Sun in Syria.
(a) Zeus Adados and Iupiter Heliopolitanus.
The bull appears as a sacred animal in connexion with the
sky-gods of Syria also. And here again the cults in question took
on a solar character and were ultimately fused with that of Zeus
or Iupiter.
This was the case with Adad or Hadad, * king of the gods3' and
consort of Atargatis. Since a common designation of Adad
describes him as a deity of the west or Amurru4, it has been con-
jectured that he was originally a god of the Amorites, imported
into the Euphrates-valley by an Amoritish wave of migration.
However that may be, his worship, widely spread in Palestine and
Syria5, had reached Greece before the close of the second century
B.C.—witness a series of inscriptions found by the French in Delos6.
From these it appears that a certain Achaios son of Apollonios, a
native of Hieropolis resident among the Delians, dedicated a
temple etc.' to Adatos and Atargatis the gods of his fatherland ' and
was elected, presumably by his fellow-countrymen, to serve as
priest thereof for the year 137-136 B.C.7. Repairs of the sanctuary
1 The Chinese regard as a Willow-leaf the stars 8, e, £, co, 0, p, 17, s of the constellation
Hydra (G. Schlegel Uranographie chinoise The Hague 1875 cited by A. de Gubernatis
La Alythologie des Plantes Paris 1882 ii. 337—340).
2 Eur. Phrixus frag. 820 Nauck2 op. pseudo-Eratosth. catast. 14, Hyg. poet. astr. 2.
21, cp. Io. Malal. chron. 2 p. 31 Dindorf, Nonn. Dion. 33. 287, German. Arat. 536 ff.
Others took the constellation to be Pasiphae's bull or the Marathonian bull (schol. Arat.
phaen. 167), or Io the cow (Hyg. poet. astr. 2. 21). It is probable too, though not certain,
that the same constellation was sometimes regarded as the bull-form of Dionysos
(A. W. Curtius Das Stiersymbol des Dionysos Koln 1892 p. 6 ff., Gruppe Gr. Myth. Rel.
p. 825 n. 3 and p. 943 n. 2).
3 Philon Bybl. frag. 24 {Frag. hist. Gr. iii. 569 Miiller) ap. Euseb. praep. ev. 1. 10.
3i"A5w5os fiaaike-bs 6eG>v.
4 Mar-Tu, the ideographic form of Amurru. See further A. T. Clay Amurru, the
Home of the Northern Semites Philadelphia 1909 p. 77 ff.
5 W. Drexler in Roscher Lex. Myth. i. 1987 ff., ii. 1179 ff., A. Jeremias id. iv. 19 ff.,
R. Dussaud in Pauly—Wissowa Real-Enc. vii. 2157 ff., M. Jastrow The Religion of Baby-
lonia and Assyria Boston etc. 1898 p. 156 ff., id. Aspects of Religious Belief and Practice
in Babylonia and Assyria New York and London 1911 p. 117 ff.
6 A. Hauvette-Besnault in the Bull. Corr. Hell. 1882 vi. 479 ff., G. Doublet ib. 1892
xvi. 161.
7 Bull. Corr. Hell. 1882 vi. 495 f. no. 12, 5 f. 'ASdrwt koX 'AraplydreL deois
irarpioLS.