DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14696#0498
428 The supports of the Sky personified
'Also St. Giovanni in porta latina in which place of worship there are two
copper pillars constructed by king Sh'lomo o. b. m. whose name " Sh'lomo Ben
David" is engraved upon each. The Jews in ROME told him1, that every year
about the time of the 9th of Ab2, these pillars sweat so much that the water
runs down from them.'
From pillars with personal names we go on to pillars with
individual effigies. At Antiocheia on the Orontes, close to Mount
Silpion with its cult of Zeus Keraunios^, Tiberius built a sanctuary
of Dionysos and outside the temple set up two great statues-on-
columns (stelai) in honour of the Dioskouroi Amphion and Zethos4.
My friend Dr Rendel Harris has justly compared them with the two
extant columns of Edessa {Our/a), which he regards as originally
' representative of or votive to tJie great twin-bretJiren*' He holds
that the Edessan columns were surmounted by statues of the Twins,
and he has even attempted to decipher in that sense the Syriac
inscription graven on the more southerly shaft6. Further, he has
cited in this connexion an important passage from Julian, who
shortly before 361 A.D.7 writes :
'The inhabitants of Edessa, a place sacred from time immemorial to Helios,
associate with him in cult Monimos and Azizos. Iamblichos, from whose ample
stores I have taken all this, states that by Monimos they mean Hermes, by
Azizos Ares, consorts of Helios, conveying many a benefit to the region round
the earth8.'
It looks as though the local Twins had been identified with Azizos,
'the Strong' ('aziz), and Monimos, 'the Beneficent' (jnounfm),
the two pillars of the temple at Jerusalem, he is forgetting that these pillars were both
demolished {supra p. 427 n. 1) and that ctttjAt? in late Greek means ' statue-on-pillar ' and
so 'statue' (C. d. F. Ducange Glossarium ad Scriptores media £2* infinite Grcecitatis
Lugduni 1688 ii. 1447, Stephanus Thes. Gr. Ling, vii. 752 D).
1 Sc. Benjamin of Tudela.
2 The anniversary of the destruction of Jerusalem.
3 Infra Append. N.
4 Io. Malal. chron. 10 p. 234 Dindorf &ricre Se Kal iepbv t<2 Awvtiaw wpbs ti£ opei
6 avrds Ti/3epios flacriXevs, cr^ca? 5vo arrfkas /J.eyd\as tQ>v e£ 'Avtiotttjs yevvrjdevTuv Atoc-
Kovpwv ££a> rod vaov eis Tip.r\v ovt&v, 'Afupiovos re Kal Zrjdov. On the force of arr/Xas see
supra n. o.
5 J. Rendel Harris The Dioscuri in the Christian Legends London 1903 p. 29 ff., id.
The Cult of the Heavenly Twins Cambridge 1906 p. 105 ff. pis. (2) and (3), id. Boanerges
Cambridge 1913 pp. 250 ff., 407 f.
6 See, however, the revised reading and rendering of F. C. Burkitt 'The "Throne
of Nimrod " ' in the Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archeology 1906 xxviii. 149—
155. Prof. Burkitt, on the strength of a fresh photograph (id. pi. 1), rules out the
supposed allusion to the Dioskouroi and concludes that ' we do not yet know to what
deity it [the column] was dedicated.'
7 Supra i. 187.
8 loul. or. 4. 150 C—D oi tt]v "Rbeacrav (E. Spanheim's cj. "E/j-eaav is wrongly adopted
by W. C. Wright) oinovvres, lepbi> e£ alwvos 'HXtou xusPL0Vi MoVi/xo^ avrul Kal "A^i^ov
avyKadiSpvovaLv. aiv'iTTeadai <pr\<ji.v 'Id/i/3\txos, Trap' ov Kal r&Wa navra £k ttoXXQv p.LKpa
'Also St. Giovanni in porta latina in which place of worship there are two
copper pillars constructed by king Sh'lomo o. b. m. whose name " Sh'lomo Ben
David" is engraved upon each. The Jews in ROME told him1, that every year
about the time of the 9th of Ab2, these pillars sweat so much that the water
runs down from them.'
From pillars with personal names we go on to pillars with
individual effigies. At Antiocheia on the Orontes, close to Mount
Silpion with its cult of Zeus Keraunios^, Tiberius built a sanctuary
of Dionysos and outside the temple set up two great statues-on-
columns (stelai) in honour of the Dioskouroi Amphion and Zethos4.
My friend Dr Rendel Harris has justly compared them with the two
extant columns of Edessa {Our/a), which he regards as originally
' representative of or votive to tJie great twin-bretJiren*' He holds
that the Edessan columns were surmounted by statues of the Twins,
and he has even attempted to decipher in that sense the Syriac
inscription graven on the more southerly shaft6. Further, he has
cited in this connexion an important passage from Julian, who
shortly before 361 A.D.7 writes :
'The inhabitants of Edessa, a place sacred from time immemorial to Helios,
associate with him in cult Monimos and Azizos. Iamblichos, from whose ample
stores I have taken all this, states that by Monimos they mean Hermes, by
Azizos Ares, consorts of Helios, conveying many a benefit to the region round
the earth8.'
It looks as though the local Twins had been identified with Azizos,
'the Strong' ('aziz), and Monimos, 'the Beneficent' (jnounfm),
the two pillars of the temple at Jerusalem, he is forgetting that these pillars were both
demolished {supra p. 427 n. 1) and that ctttjAt? in late Greek means ' statue-on-pillar ' and
so 'statue' (C. d. F. Ducange Glossarium ad Scriptores media £2* infinite Grcecitatis
Lugduni 1688 ii. 1447, Stephanus Thes. Gr. Ling, vii. 752 D).
1 Sc. Benjamin of Tudela.
2 The anniversary of the destruction of Jerusalem.
3 Infra Append. N.
4 Io. Malal. chron. 10 p. 234 Dindorf &ricre Se Kal iepbv t<2 Awvtiaw wpbs ti£ opei
6 avrds Ti/3epios flacriXevs, cr^ca? 5vo arrfkas /J.eyd\as tQ>v e£ 'Avtiotttjs yevvrjdevTuv Atoc-
Kovpwv ££a> rod vaov eis Tip.r\v ovt&v, 'Afupiovos re Kal Zrjdov. On the force of arr/Xas see
supra n. o.
5 J. Rendel Harris The Dioscuri in the Christian Legends London 1903 p. 29 ff., id.
The Cult of the Heavenly Twins Cambridge 1906 p. 105 ff. pis. (2) and (3), id. Boanerges
Cambridge 1913 pp. 250 ff., 407 f.
6 See, however, the revised reading and rendering of F. C. Burkitt 'The "Throne
of Nimrod " ' in the Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archeology 1906 xxviii. 149—
155. Prof. Burkitt, on the strength of a fresh photograph (id. pi. 1), rules out the
supposed allusion to the Dioskouroi and concludes that ' we do not yet know to what
deity it [the column] was dedicated.'
7 Supra i. 187.
8 loul. or. 4. 150 C—D oi tt]v "Rbeacrav (E. Spanheim's cj. "E/j-eaav is wrongly adopted
by W. C. Wright) oinovvres, lepbi> e£ alwvos 'HXtou xusPL0Vi MoVi/xo^ avrul Kal "A^i^ov
avyKadiSpvovaLv. aiv'iTTeadai <pr\<ji.v 'Id/i/3\txos, Trap' ov Kal r&Wa navra £k ttoXXQv p.LKpa