Cook, Arthur B.: Zeus: a study in ancient religion (Band 3,1): Zeus god of the dark sky (earthquake, clouds, wind, dew, rain, meteorits): Text and notes (Cambridge, 1940)

882

The cult of meteorites

with the shooting-stars. But in popular belief they are very different,
not soundless streaks of light moving across the nocturnal sky, but
an explosive bombardment from above leaving the earth littered
with visible debris. Hence shooting-stars are as a rule a good
omen, meteorites a sign of downfall and ill-luck1. Accordingly
these mysterious bodies, when they were not dissipated into
impalpable powder, but reached the ground in some bulk, were
always viewed with peculiar veneration, their sudden arrival being
attributed directly or indirectly to divine agency, most often that
of a sky-god.

Much material said to bear on their cult in ancient Egypt has
been collected in a series of important papers by Mr G. A.
Wainwright2. I shall therefore restrict myself in the main to
evidence drawn from the Hellenic or Hellenistic area.

in Ancient and Modern Times' in Science Progress 1898 vii. 349—370, P. Saintyves
'Talismans et reliques tombees du ciel' in the Revue des etudes ethnographiques et socio-
logiques 1909 p. 176 ff. (offprint p. 1 ff. ' Les Aerolithes'), id. Corpus du Folklore
Prehistorique en France et dans les Colonies Francaises Paris 1934 ii. 488 Index s.vv.
' Aerolithes 011 Meteorites,' W. Gundel Sterne und Slernbilder im Glauben des Allertums
und der Neuzeit Bonn—Leipzig 1922 p. 352 Index s.v. ' Meteore,' id. in Pauly—Wissowa
Keal-Enc. iii A. 2446, and more systematically handled by V. Stegemann in the Hand-
worterbuch des deutschen Aberglaubens Berlin—Leipzig 1934 vi. 217—228.

1 V. Stegemann loc. cit. p. 218. Cp. supra p. 475 n. 1.

2 G. A. Wainwright 'The aniconic Form of Anion in the !\Tew Kingdom' in the
Annates du service des antiquites de V Egypte Le Caire 1928 xxviii. 175—189 argues that
the aniconic form of Anion—evidenced by a stile from Asyut (fig. 1: dynasty xviii—xix)i
a couple of bronze plaques from Memphis (figs. 2 and 3: 593—588 B.C.), three models
from Karnak (fig. 5 after G. Daressy 'Une nouvelle forme d'Amon' ib. 1908 ix. 64—69
pi. 1, a, b, c, d, of which a front + a' right side = my fig. 718: Persian or early Ptolemaic
period), and a Roman sculpture at Medinet Habu (fig. 4 after Daressy loc. cit. pi. 2)—1S
normally associated with Min the thunderbolt-god and may well have been a 'meteorite,
or a fragment of one, which was kept as a sacred thing, on a stand or throne, wrapp^
up, and decorated with a feather on top and mystic figures on the wrappings' (p. 183)'
Where an actual meteorite was not available, it might be represented by an omphalSs—'
witness the one found by G. A. Reisner in the inner part of Anion's temple at Napat*
(Gebel Barkal) (fig. 7 after F. LI. Griffith 'An Omphalos from Napata' in The Journal of
Egyptian Archaeology 1916 iii. 255 with fig. =my fig. 719. Material: sandstone. Date-
c. 1 A.D.) or the omphaloid fetish in the Ammoneion (stipra i. 355 ff.).

Id. 'The Relationship of Amun to Zeus and his connexion with Meteorites' in T"e_
Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 1930 xvi. 35—38 restates his view 'that Amun 0
Thebes was a god of the air, a sky-god; that his sacred object at Thebes was a
meteorite; that he was intimately connected with, if not actually derived from, his faf
older neighbour Min, the thunderbolt-god of Koptos; and that the omphalos of ^e.uSjj
Amnion at the Oasis of Ammonium (Siwah) had of itself certain characteristics wb'c
associate it with the weather.' He makes three further points in support of the sar>ie
thesis. (1) Zeus was identified with Amun of Thebes as far back as 900 B.C.,
D. G. Hogarth in the Ann. Brit. Sch. Ath. 1899—1900 vi. 107 pi. x, 1 f. published
small bronze statuette of Amen-Ra, good early work of the New Empire, found by '^'^
in the Psychro Cave (supra ii. 926 n. o). (2) At Kassandreia on Pallene imperial co ^
show the head of Zeus Ammon (Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Macedonia, Etc. p. 65 noS'