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

Adad or Ramman and the Bull 577

therefore1, fairly be inferred that Adad, otherwise styled Ramman,
—the Rimmon2 or Hadadrimmon3 of the Old Testament,—was
essentially related to the bull4. And, since a Susian deity obviously
akin to Ramman is represented with bovine horns projecting from
his head (fig. 447)5, it is probable that Adad or Ramman himself
was sometimes at least conceived as a bull6.

But why was Adad regarded as a bull ? The answer to this
question depends of course upon the functions ascribed to the god.
That he was a sky-god of some sort is certain. He was often
associated with the great astrological triad Sin, Samas, and Istar.

Fig. 446.

Sin was undeniably a moon-god and Samas a sun-god,, while Istar
had come to be identified with the planet Venus. Adad—to
judge from his names Ramman, 'the Bellower/ Birku, 'the Light-
ning,' and from his attribute the thunderbolt—was most unmis-
takably a storm-god. He is, however, constantly coupled with

Bibliotheque Nationale at Paris (F. Lajarcl Recherches sur le culte, les symboles, les
attributs, et les monuments figure's de Vhtus Paris 1849 4' I1> W. H. Ward in the
Am. Journ. Arch. 1899 % 6)5 on which Ramman has a horned head-dress and
stands upon a reclining bull with Istar before him and a worshipper between them.

1 Supra p. 392.

2 2 Kings 5. 18.

3 Zech. 12. 11.

4 My friend the Rev. Dr C. H. W. Johns kindly tells me that the association of
Ramman with the bull may involve a word-play, since rinm, 'a bull,' was popularly
taken to mean 'the bellower, the roarer.'

5 A. H. Layard The Monuments of Nineveh First Series London 1849 pi. 65.

6 I. Scheftelowitz 'Das Hornermotiv in den Religionen' in the Archiv f. Ret. 1912
xv. 456 ff.

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