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)

884

The cult of meteorites

and 4 Claudius, 5 Vespasian, 6 Domitian, [Hunter Cat. Coins i. 273 f. nos. 1—3 Claudius,
4 and s Nero, 6 Vespasian, 7 pi. 19, 22 Titus and Domitian, 8 Caracalla, 9 Caracalla or
Elagabalus, McClean Cat. Coins ii. 24 nos. 3194 and 3195 pi. 116, 15 Nero, 3196 pi. 116,
16 Caracalla]) and a famous meteorite is known to have been worshipped (Plin. nat. hist.
2. 150, infra p. 886). (3) At Gythion again there was a cult of Zeus Ammon {supra i.
351) and the stone of Zeus Kapp6tas (infra p. 939ff.), 'clearly a meteorite.'

Id. ib. 1931 xvii. 151 f. in a trenchant critique of K. Sethe Amun und die Acht Urgbtter
von Hermopolis (Abh. d. berl. Akad. 1929 Phil.-hist. Classe no. 4) Berlin 1929 demurs to
Sethe's view that Yahweh originated in Egypt from Amun as a result of the Sojourn,
and concludes: ' As a matter of fact there are other Egyptian gods who are as much, or
more, like Yahweh than is Amun. The probability is that they, and Amun, and Yahweh
himself, as well as many other gods of the Near East, were all local developments of the
one primitive conception of the air-, storm-, or sky-god.'

Id. 'The emblem of Min' ib. 1931 xvii. 185—195 discusses the thunderbolt first
recognised by P. E. Newberry as the symbol of Min (supra ii. 767 n. 2). Wainwright too
traces its development chronologically from the middle prehistoric period, when it was
an arrow-like weapon with triple or double or single barb at either end, through a time
of transition (end of dynasty vi to beginning of dynasty xii), till from c. 2000 B.C. onwards
it attained a final form identical with that of the normal Greek thunderbolt. ' Min thus
comes into relationship with Zeus ; and this is not unnatural, seeing he was the original
of Amun, who was Zeus' (p. 188). Since coins of Seleukeia in Syria exhibit both the
thunderbolt of Zeus Keraunios (supra ii. 809 figs. 771 and 772) and the omphaloid stone
of Zeus Kdsios (supra ii. 982 f. figs. 880—884), Wainwright is able to urge that the one
is the Greek, the other the Semitic form of the same object. He recalls the contention
of F. Lenormant 'Zeus Casios' in the Gaz. Aixh. 1880 vi. 142—144 (id. in the Revue de
I'histoire des religions 1881 iii. 41, id. in Daremberg—Saglio Did. Ant. i. 935) that the
Aramaean god Qaciu was Hellenized into Zeus Kdsios or Zeus Keraunios: ' Qaciu = Xeus
Casios etait done positivement un dieu-foudre ou un dieu-aerolithe, ce qui nous induit a
tirer son nom de la racine originairement bilitere qui donne a l'hebreu qacac, "tailler,
rompre," et qdfah, "tailler, couper," au syriaque qfb, "briser," en rapportant le sens
primitif a Pexplosion qui accompagne et precede de quelques secondes la chute de tout
aerolithe.' On this showing, as Wainwright says (p. 189), 'meteorite, omphalos, and
thunderbolt were all one and the same thing in religion.' He further dwells on the
close association of 'the three partners, Amun, Min, and Horus' (p. 190), and adopts
Newberry's interesting suggestion (Ann. Arch. Anthr. 1911 iv. 99 n. 2) that Min5
worship was established at Akhmfm just because the rocks there are full of Lithodomh a
fossil much like belemnites (supra ii. 767 n. 2, 932 n. 1).

Id. 'Letopolis' ib. 1932 xviii. 159—172 argues for the existence of a similar thunder-
bolt-cult at Letopolis and claims that 'the way into heaven, which was offered there
by a rope ladder, was derived from the flight of a meteorite' (p. 169). The cult was
established at Letopolis because another quasi-thunderbolt, the fossil Nerinea HequK11'
iana, abounds in the rocks there and seems to be characteristic of the locality.

Id. 'The Bull Standards of Egypt' ii. 1933 xix. 42—52 contends that the bull, whicn
occurs on the standards belonging to four of the nomes in the Delta (the sixth, Xois; the
tenth, Athribis; the eleventh, the Cabasite; the twelfth, Sebennytus), in each case haS
reference to the sky- or storm-god, and that the symbols in front of the said bulls*
viz. mountain, shield(?), sickle-shaped meteorite (?), calf, are at least consistent with tfilS
interpretation.

Id. 'Jacob's Bethel' in Palestine Exploration Fund: Quarterly Statement for
pp. 32—44 applies the results gained from the foregoing investigation of Egyp''*1
meteor-cults to a study of the Palestinian Bethel. Impressed by common features (
ladder set up from earth to heaven, the gate of heaven, the golden calf, etc) ^
confirmed by the equation bethel=/SairuXos, Wainwright concludes : 'Thus, there can
no reasonable doubt that Jacob's bethel was a sacred meteorite, or an omphalos
substitute.'