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)

The stone of Elagabalos 903

officiating in front of the stone to be set up in the Senate-house
over the statue of Victory and duly worshipped by the Senators1.

At Rome Elagabalus erected two temples for his god, one on
the Palatine close to his own residence2, the other in some suburb
by way of summer quarters3. The exact position of both is
disputed4.

In the temple on the Palatine he surrounded the stone with the
most venerated objects of Roman cult, including the stone from
Pessinous5 and others of the like sanctity6. He even imported the
ancient image of Ourania from Carthage to be the consort of his

a Fig. 744. *

stone, and thus celebrated a sacred marriage between the Sun and
the Moon7. A relic of this temple may be seen in a pilaster-cap of
Carrara marble, part of which was found in the excavations of
1870—1872 on the east side of the temple of Castor8, the rest in

1 Herodian. 5. 5. 6 f. 2 Lamprid. v. Heliogab. 3. 4. 3 Herodian. 5. 6. 6.

4 A concise summary of the evidence is given by S. B. Platner—T. Ashby A Topo-
graphical Dictionary of Ancient Rome Oxford 1929 p. 199.

" Lamprid. v. Heliogab. 3. 4 eique templum fecit, studens et Matris typum et Vestae
]gnem et Palladium et ancilia et omnia Romanis veneranda in illud transferre templum et
c agens ne quis Romae deus nisi Heliogabalus coleretur, cp. ib. 6. 7 ff., 7. 1.

Id. ib. 7. 5 lapides qui divi dicuntur ex proprio templo, <simulacrum (add. I. Ober-
C R- Unger cj. typum) > Dianae Laodiciae ex adyto suo, in quo id Orestes posuerat,
aaferre voluit.

1 Dion Cass. 80. 12. if. (ix. 460 Cary), Herodian. 5. 6. 3 ff.
Gei G- Wissowa in the Ann. d. Inst. 1883 lv. 164—167 pi. M (with additions id.

amtnelte Abhandlungen zur rbmischen Religions- und Stadtgeschichte Munchen 1904
PP- 73-77 with figs, (a), (b), (c)).