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

Zeus (Adad) at Hierapolis 585

pseudo-Lucian, having described the statues of the inner shrine,
goes on to say that in the main body of the temple, on the left
hand side, there was set a vacant throne of the Sun and next to
it a clothed and bearded image {xdanon) of Apollon. A propos of
this last divinity he continues1:

'When he is minded to deliver an oracle, he first stirs in his seat, and the
priests at once lift him up. If they do not, he sweats and stirs again more
decidedly. When they stoop and carry him, he drives them on, whirling them
round in every direction and leaping from one to another. At last the chief-
priest meets him and asks him questions concerning all things. He, if he
refuses to do aught, retreats backwards, if he approves of aught, drives his
bearers forwards like a charioteer. So they gather their oracles and do nothing
either of religious or of private import without him.'

This image of Apollon in the nave must be carefully dis-
tinguished from the image of Zeus seated on bulls in the inner
place. Macrobius2 describes the former in terms that preclude
identification with the latter:

'The natives of Hieropolis, Assyrians by race, comprise all the powers and
virtues of the sun under the form of a single bearded image, which they call
Apollo. His face is represented as having a pointed beard ; and a basket
{calathus) projects above his head. His image is adorned with a breast-plate.
The right hand holds erect a spear, and on it stands a small statuette of Victory.
The left stretches out a flower. A Gorgon-headed aegis fringed with snakes
passes over his shoulders and clothes his shoulder-blades. The eagles beside
him look as if they were flying. Before his feet is a female form, to right and
left of which are statues of women : these are surrounded by the twisted coil of
a snake. The beard below his chin signifies that rays are shot downwards on
to the earth. The golden basket rising aloft indicates the apex of the upper air,
from which the sun is supposed to derive its substance. The representation of
a spear and a breast-plate adds a resemblance to Mars, whom I shall subse-
quently prove to be one with the sun. The Victory testifies that all things are
subject to the power of this luminary. The flower bears witness to the bloom
of those things that are sown, generated, cherished, nurtured, and matured by
the said deity. The female form stands for the earth, on which the sun is shin-
ing from above : the other two statues of women enclosed in their circle signify
matter and nature reg'arded as fellow-servants. The snake shows the sinuous
course of the luminary. The eagles, whose swift flight is high over all else,
point to the altitude of the sun. A Gorgon-vest is added because* Minerva,
whom tradition takes to be the rightful owner of this garb, is the virtue of the
sun. Porphyrins too asserts that Minerva is the sun's virtue, which furnishes
the minds of men with wisdom. Indeed that is why this goddess is said to have
sprung from the head of Iupiter, in other words, to have arisen in the topmost
portion of the upper air, where the sun originated.'

But, though we cannot equate the male statue of the inner
sanctum with that of the nave, it is possible that after all they were
effigies of the same god. When the pseudo-Lucian, who identi-
fied the inner statue with Zeus, says that ' you could not, even

1 Loukian. de dea Syr. 36, cp. ib. 10. 2 Macrob. Sat. 1. 17. 66 ft'.