Cook, Arthur B.: Zeus: a study in ancient religion (Band 2,1): Zeus god of the dark sky (thunder and lightning): Text and notes (Cambridge, 1925)

128

The Pillar of Light

lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all night, because the sun was
set ; and he took one of the stones of the place, and put it under his head, and
lay down in that place to sleep. And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up
on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven : and behold the angels of God
ascending and descending on it. And, behold, the Lord stood above it.... And
Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the lord is in this place ;
and I knew it not. And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place !
this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven. And
Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put under
his head, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it. And he
called the name of that place Beth-el : but the name of the city was Luz at the
first1.'

Ladder and pillar coalesce, in the stepped tower or zikkurat of
the Babylonians-, as in the columna cochlis of the Romans, to which
indeed the spiral tower of Samarra (s. ix A.D.)—a direct derivative
of the zikkurat—bears a marked resemblance3. The seven steps of
the zikkurat—eight, if we reckon in, as Herodotos does4, the
sanctuary on the summit—have undoubtedly a cosmic significance ',

1 Gen. 28. 10 ff. For discussion of the passage in its various aspects see in primis
J. Skinner A critical and exegetical Commentary on Genesis Edinburgh 1910 pp. 375—380.

2 Supra i. 603. A useful summary of the present state of knowledge on the subject
will be found in A. Jeremias Handbuch der altorientalischen Geisteskultur Leipzig 1913
pp. 44—47. The article by Scheil there cited as forthcoming has since appeared (F. Y.
Scheil ' Esagil ou le temple de Bel-Marduk a Babylone' in the Mimoires de rAcademic
des inscriptions (institut de France) pre'sente's par divers savants 1913 xxxix. 293—308,
cp. M. Dieulafoy 'Temple de Bel-Marduk' id. pp. 309—372).

3 E. Herzfeld Samarra Berlin 1907 pp. 23—36 pi. 3. Good photographs are repro-
duced by M. Jastrow Aspects of Religious Belief and Practice hi Babylonia and Assyria
New York and London 1911 p. 291 pi. 23, 2, A. Jeremias Handbuch der altorientalischen
Geisteskultur Leipzig 1913 p. 44 n. 5 fig. 26, Capt. K. A. C. Creswell in the Bulletin de
rInstitut francais d''Archdologie orientate 1919 xvi pi. I fig. B.

4 Hdt. 1. 181 ff. ev de (pdpae'i e/carepw rrjs ttoXws reTeLx<-0~T0 ev pLecrip' ev tlq rjev t<x
/3a<rtXf)'ta, wepi[36\cp p.eyd\ip re Kai iaxvP<i>' ev Se erepup Atos Br)Aou (supra i. 756 n. 6)
ipbv xaXK07ri'Xo^, /cat es ep.e rovro ert ebv, 8vo aradiwv Trdvrrj, ebv rerpdywvov. ev p.eat-p 8e rob
ipov rrvpyos crrepeos OLKodbprjrai arabiov /cat to firjKos /cat to evpos' /cat eiri rourco tQ> irvpyip
dWos nvpyos eTrijSe^rjKe, Kai erepos /xd\a iirl roirip, pexPls °v oktu irvpytov. dvdfiaaLS 8e es
avrovs e^codev /ct;/c\a; irepl irdvras robs irvpyovs ^x0VlTa t'evoLrjTai. uecrovvn de kov rfjs
dvafidcrios ecrri KUTaywyrj re /cat 6Qkol dp.iravffTr]pioL, ev tolul KaTi^ovres dfiTravovrai oi dva-
fHaivovres. ev de TeXevraiu} nvpyip vrjbs eweffri pieyas' ev 8e toj vj\<2 kXlvtj /xeydXy) Keerai ev
ecrTpwfAevr], Kai oi rpdire'c~a wapaKeerai x/Hice/7. aya\p.a Se ovk 'ivi ovdev avrodi evidpvp.evov '
nvde vvKra ovOeis evavXiferai dvdptlnruiv, on p.7) yvvrj p.ovvr\ twv einxupiuv, ttjv dv 6 debs
eXrjrai e/c Traffeuv, a>s \eyovm oi XaXSatot, eovres ipees tovtov tou 6eov. k.t.X. For a critical
handling of this and other references to the zikkurat at Babylon see A. Baumstark in
Pauly—Wissowa Real-Enc. ii. 2688ff., and for a description of the extant remains,
R. Koldewey The Excavations at Babylon trans. (Mrs) A. S. Johns London 1914.

5 M. Jastrow Aspects of Religious Belief and Practice in Babylonia and Assyria New
York and London 1911 p. 286 f: 'While no special stress seems, at any time, to have
been laid on the number of stories or stages of which a zikkurat consisted, ...seven stages
seems to have become the normal number, after a certain period. There seems to be no
reason to doubt that this number was chosen to correspond to the moon, sun, and five
planets, which we have seen were the controlling factors in the Babylonian-Assyrian