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

The Influence of Apis 635

The bull as an embodiment of procreative power was naturally
brought into connexion with the great fertilising agencies of sun-
shine and storm1. In Egypt it is of course the solar aspect of the
beast that is emphasised : Mnevis2 and Apis3 and Bouchis4 all have
a disk between their horns. In Crete too the solar character of the
bull was well-marked and of early date—witness Talos otherwise
called Tauros5, Helios transformed into the ' Adiounian bull6,' the
Minotaur in his Labyrinth at Knossos7, the cattle of the Sun at
Gortyna8. Yet the ' Minoan' combination of bovine horns with
the double-axe9 shows that the bull had been related to the
storm-god also. Among the Hittites the god that bears the
lightning stands either upon10 or beside11 the bull. Nevertheless
this deity was likewise regarded as a sun-god; for c. 1271 B.C.
Hattusil ii, king of the Hatti, made a treaty with Osymandyas,
i.e. User-Maat-Ra (Rameses ii)12, in which the Hittite deities were
enumerated with 'the Sun-god, Lord of Heaven' at their head13.
In Babylonia and Assyria the bull is in primis an attribute of
the storm-god En-lil14 or Ramman or Adad15, though the names
Heliopolis, Zeus Helioupolttes, Iupiter Heliopolitanus imply that
in the Graeco-Roman age Adad at least was equated with
Helios16.

The Influence of Apis.

Given this essential similarity of cult to cult, it was only to
be expected that religious influences, affecting both thought and
expression, would radiate far and wide from the chief centres of
civilisation. We shall glance at three such cases of diffusion
through contiguous areas.

Wassers, bald das Feuer, das Licht und die Warme, ohne die in der ganzen Natur kein
Leben sein kann.' Cp. Preller—Robert Gr. Myth. i. 713 f.

I So with the ram {supra p. 4291".). 2 Supra p. 431 f.
3 Supra pp. 432—436. 4 Supra p. 436 f.

5 Supra p. 468, infra ch. i § 6 (h) i. 6 Supra p. 468 n. 8.

7 Supra pp. 472 ff., 490 ff. 8 Supra pp. 410, 471, 546.

9 Infra ch. ii § 3 (c) i (5). 10 Infra p. 640 fig. 500.

II Supra p. 605 fig. 476.

12 W. Max Miiller ' Der Btindnisvertrag Ramses' II. und des Chetiterkonigs' in the
Mitteilungen der Vorderasiatischen Gesellschaft 1902 vii. 5. 176°., 38 ff., G. Maspero The
Struggle of the Nations London 1896 p. 401 ff"., E. A. Wallis Budge A History of Egypt
London 1902 v. 48 ff., J. Garstang The land of the Hittites London 1910 p. 347 ff., cp.
p. 322, J. H. Breasted A History of Egypt12 New York 1911 p. 437 ff., H. R. Hall The
Ancient History of the Near East London 1913 p. 363 ff., cp. p. 333.

13 Then follow ' the Sun-god of the city Arinna ; the Thunder-god, Lord of Heaven ;
the Thunder-god of the Hatti; the Thunder-god of the city Arinna'; etc.—these
thunder-gods being presumably Sandas and various localised forms of him.

14 Supra p. 579 ff. 15 Supra p. 5768". 16 Supra p. 550 ff.