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

578 The Bull and the Sun in Syria

Samas1, and Macrobius unhesitatingly identifies him with the sun2.
Probably, then, Adad or Ramman was a storm-god, who in process

v

of time was associated with Samas and ultimately viewed as himself
also a sun-god. This aspect of his nature came more and more
into prominence, till in the Graeco-Roman period he was worshipped
throughout the Mediterranean fringe as the solar Zeus or Iupiter
of Heliopolis. These two conceptions of storm-god and sun-god,
which to our way of thinking seem so diametrically opposed, are

Fig. 447.

in point of fact by no means incompatible3. 'In many mythologies,'
says Dr Jastrow, 'the sun and lightning are regarded as correlated
forces. At all events, the frequent association of Shamash and

1 M. Jastrow The Religion of Babylonia ana! Assyria Boston etc. 1898 p. 157 f., id.
Die Religion Babyloniens imd Assyriens Giessen 1905 i. 137, 148, id. Aspects of Religious
Belief and Practice in Babylonia and Assyria New York and London 1911 p. 83.

2 Supra p. 552 f. It is noticeable that Delian inscriptions associate Helios {Bull.
Corr. Hell. 1882 vi. 501 no. 24, 3) as well as Zeus "Adados (supra p. 549 f.) with
Atargatis.

3 Supra pp. 196 n. 6, 313 n. 8. Empedokles held that lightning consisted of solar
rays caught in the clouds (Aristot. meteor. 2. 9. 369 b 12 f.) : see E. Zeller A Histof-y of
Greek Philosophy trans. S. F. Alleyne London 1881 ii. 158 n. 4, O. Gilbert Die meieoro-
logischen Theorien des griechischen Allertufns Leipzig 1907 p. 621 f.