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 Dousares 907

Saint Sophia1. The Sun worshipped by Aurelian was in all
probability a fusion of several oriental Ba'alim, among whom not
the least in importance was Elagabalos2.

(e) The stone of Dousares.

Dousares3, the ancestral god of the Nabataean Arabs, was like-
wise represented by a black stone. Clement4 of Alexandreia says
simply: ' The Arabs used to worship their stone.' Our next witness,
Maximus Tyrius5, is more explicit: 'The Arabs worship I know
not whom; but their image I have seen—it was a square stone.'
A century later Arnobius6, who cannot claim to be an eye-witness,
calls it contemptuously 'a shapeless stone.' Finally Souidas7, draw-
mg from some unknown source, writes as follows:

'Theusares, that is the god Ares at Petra in Arabia. The god Ares is
worshipped by them, for him they honour above all others. The image is
a black stone, square and unshapen, four feet high by two feet broad. It is set
°n a base of wrought gold. To this they offer sacrifice and for it they pour forth
the victims' blood, that being their form of libation. The whole building abounds
111 g'old, and there are dedications galore.'

The evidence of the texts is borne out by that of the coins. At
Adraa in the Hatirdn imperial bronze pieces show a hemispherical
stone set on a cubical base (Arabic ka'bali) or seat (Aramaean
wdtab), which is approached by a flight of steps (figs. 754—756)8.

1 H.Jordan—C. Hiilsen Topographie der Sfadt Rom in AlUrthum Berlin 1907 i. 3.
+53—456, S. B. Platner—T. Ashby A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome Oxford
'929 pp. 491-493-

Fr. Richter in Roscher Lex. Myth. iv. 1146—1149.

3 A good account of Dousares is given by E. Meyer in Roscher Lex. Myth. i. i2o6f.,
and a yet better one by F. Cumont in Pauly—Wissowa Rtal-Enc. v. 1865—1867.
r- Noldeke in J. Hastings Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics Edinburgh 1908 i. 663,
665 is more sketchy.

Clem. Al. protr. 4. 46. 2 p. 35, 14 f. icd\ai pMv oiv oi 2,nv6ai tov dxivdK-nv, ol'Apafies
T^v oi llbpaaL rbv -iroTafibv TrpoaeicOvovv. k.t.\.

Max. Tyr. 8. 8'Apdf3wi abfiovGL p.ev, bvriva be ovk oTSa- to Si &ya\p.a elSov, Xiffos rji>
TeTpdyuvos.

Arnob. adv. nat. 6. 11 ridetis temporibus priscis Persas fluvios coluisse, memoralia
'ndicant scripta, informem Arabas lapidem, acinacem Scythiae nationes, etc.
"A ^ot"^' s-v- Oevs "Ap-ris- Tovreo-TL Bebs'Apys, ev HiTpa tt)s 'Apafjias. atfieTai Sb debs
Pis Trap' aurois' rbvSe yap ixaXima TLp.C)<n. to be &ya\p.a \l8os bcrri /xbXas, Terpdycmos,
^Ttoros, fii^os TTob&v Teao-dpiov, eipos duo- dvaKeiTai Si em fH&treus xPt"rV^&T0'J- TouTLp
0l"r' Kal Tb alfta twv lepeiuif irpoxiovai' Kal touto eaTiv avToh t) airovbi]. b 5b ol/cos dVas
T ""o^Xpwos, Kal avaBriLiaTa TroWd.

R- Dussaud Notes de mythologie syrienne Paris 1905 p. 168 with fig. 37 ( = my
(|- 754) M. Aurelius AOYCAPHC 060CAA PAH [NOON] and the date H0(?)
j> of the era used in the Roman province of Arabia= 174/5 a.d.), P- 168 f. fig. 38
f^my fig' ^allienus,^ rit. Mus. Cat. Coins Arabia etc. pp. xxiii, 15 pi. 3, 5 ( = my
ttelffl GaIlienus with date PN (150 of the Arabian era= 255/6 a.d.), S. A. Cook The
Ston of Ancient Palestine in the light of Archaeology London 1930 p. 25 pi. 33, 3.