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

Ba^al-tars and Zeus Tersios 593

all things' and again as ' her who gave mankind their earliest
knowledge of all that is good for them1.'

(77) Ba'al=tars and Zeus Tersios.

Akin to the Syrian Adad, though not identical with him,
was a god worshipped since Hittite times in Kilikia and the

precinct, but outside the temple: here many eunuchs and sacred men perform their
orgies, cutting their fore-arms and striking each other on the back. Many, standing by,
play the flute; many beat drums; others sing inspired and holy songs. On these days
too, while the eunuchs are raising their din, madness falls on many a young man, who
flings aside his garments and with a great cry rushes into the midst of them. He seizes
a sword ; for there are swords in plenty placed there on purpose. With this he mutilates
himself and runs through the town holding in his hands the parts that he has cut off.
When he has flung them away into a house, he receives from that house feminine attire
and a woman's ornaments (ib. 49—51).

A dead eunuch is buried in a peculiar fashion. His comrades carry him out to the
suburbs, set him down on the bier, cast stones over him, and return. They may not
enter the temple-precinct for the next seven days. If any of them sees a corpse, he does
not enter the precinct that day, but purifies himself on the morrow and enters it. If one
of their own household has died, they wait thirty days, shave their heads, and then enter.
The beasts that they sacrifice are oxen both male and female, goats, and sheep. Swine
only they deem unclean and neither sacrifice nor eat: others, however, deem them not
unclean but sacred. They regard the dove as an object of the greatest sanctity: they
will not even touch it; or, if they do so by accident, they are unclean throughout that
day. Hence doves dwell with them, enter their houses, and feed for the most part on
the ground (ib. 52—54).

When a man goes to Hierapolis to attend a festival, on first entering the town he
shaves his head and eyebrows and then sacrifices a sheep. Most of it he cuts up and
eats, but the fleece he lays on the ground. Kneeling upon it, he draws the feet and head
of the beast over his own head ; and at the same time offering prayer he asks the deity to
accept his present sacrifice and promises a greater one in future. After that he wreathes
his own head and the heads of all those that have come on the same errand with him.
From the moment when he quits his own country for the journey he must use cold water
both for bathing and for drinking and must always sleep on the ground, it being forbidden
to mount upon a bed till he has reached his home again. In Hierapolis he is received by
a host whom he does not know. Certain hosts are there assigned to each town, the
office being hereditary. Those that discharge it are called by the Assyrians 'teachers,'
since they explain the rites to their guests. They do not offer sacrifice in the sanctuary
itself; but, having brought the victim to the altar and poured a libation over it, they lead
it home alive, and, on reaching every man his own dwelling, sacrifice it and pray.
Another sacrifice is performed thus: they wreathe the victims and cast them alive from
the Propylaia, the victims being killed by the fall. Some even cast their own children
down hence, but not as they do the beasts : they put them in a sack and lower them
by hand, jeering at them the while and declaring that they are not children, but
oxen [cp. supra p. 442 nn. 1, 2]. They are all tattooed, some on the wrist, others on
the neck. Just as at Troizen lads and lasses must not wed till they have shorn their
hair for Hippolytos, so at Hierapolis young men offer the first hairs of their beards, while
girls leave a sacred tress uncut from their birth onwards. On reaching the sanctuary
they cut the hair and, placing it in vessels of silver or often of gold, nail it to the temple-
wall and inscribe it with their names [cp. supra p. 23 ff.] (ib. 55—60).

1 Plout. v. Crass. 17.

c. 38