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)

916

The stone of Dousares

This curious passage, whatever else it implies, at least asserts
that at Petra in the fourth century Dousares was viewed as the
offspring of Chaamou, a goddess comparable with Kore, the Greek
Queen of the Underworld, and further that his birth was the subject
of an annual mystery-show. Of his sire we hear nothing except the
improbable claim that Dousares meant the 'Only-begotten of the
Lord.' Beyond these obvious pronouncements it would not be safe
to speculate1.

We are not then, so far as I can see, in a position to state
definitely that the black stone of Dousares was an actual meteorite.
At the same time we must concede that it is found in suspiciously
stellar company. Its analogues at Alexandreia and at Elousa were
both of the starry order. For Aion at Alexandreia was marked

1 R. Eisler in successive articles ('Kuba—Kybele' in Philologus 1909 Ixviii. 118—15I1
161—209, 'Kuba—Kybele' in the Revue des etudes anciennes 1909 pp. 368—372, 'Das
Fest des " Geburtstages der Zeit" in Nordarabien' in thtArchivf. Rel. 1912 xv. 628—635)
has maintained that throughout the near east the Semites worshipped a great matriarchal
goddess under various connected or connectible names—Xaa/3oD, Xa/j,dp, Xa/3dp, XafltPi
Xau/3d/>, KoD/3rip, Xapr/p, Kafitp. In Asia Minor she was the Mother of the gods, Kybele,
the Matar Kubile of Phrygian inscriptions (F. Schwenn in Pauly—Wissowa Real-Enc-
xi. 2250), whose cult had spread to Greece by s. vi B.C. and reached Rome in 204 B.C.

These names, linked together ' durch das Band des Gleichklangs und der Buchstaben-
gleichheit, die Basis aller morgenlandischen Wortmystik und religiosen Begriffsbildungi
were associated with three distinct word-groups: (1) Arabic ka'ab, Greek Kvpos, Latin
cubus, English cttbe—the goddess being represented by a stone block (cp. Lyd. de metis-
4. 63 p. 114, 8 Wiinsch iivfieX-q airb rou KvfiiKov (rxwaros). (2) Arabic ka'aba 'to have
swelling, prominent, or protuberant breasts' (see E. W. Lane An Arabic-English Lexic°'1
London and Edinburgh 1885 Book I Part vii p. 2615 f.), ka'ab 'maiden with full breast'
ku'ub 'bosom,' ku'ba 'virginity.' Cp. the Hittite Mother of the gods, whose sign 15
<] O a pair of breasts (F. Hommel Etlmologie und Geographic des alien Orient
Mitnchen 1926 p. 52 n. 2), the Ephesian Artemis {supra ii. 405 n. 4 figs. 307—
and the Persian Anahita from Arabic nahada 'to be full-breasted' [E. Blochet
culte d'Aphrodite-Anahita chez les Arabes du Paganisme' in the Revue de linguistiV1^
et dephilologie comparie 1902 xxxv. 8 n. 1 ' ndhida designe une " fille aux seins arrondis >
ce mot est tres probablement une transcription du nom de la grande deesse perse Anahl' '
l'aspect iranien de l'Astarte semitique.' But my colleague Prof. H. W. Bailey tells n>
that this derivation is frankly impossible: Anahita means 'Undefined.' Again, ElS
blunders badly when in this connexion he speaks of ' der kleinasiatischen " Demete ,
Jfeya\6p.ai,'os und Aera/ta^os': see Gruppe Gr. Myth. Rel. pp. 84 n. 2, 1178 n- I ,
(3) Greek Ki)/3/3a, m5/tjS)j, KvirnWov, Latin cupa, and other words for 'cup' or 'h0^0^,
The Meccan Ka'aba, a feminine substantive, was originally a goddess embodied aS Jse
aerolite and annually draped in accordance with an ancient marriage-rite. In her ' .
the 'hollow' was of course the womb, cp. the ktels on the stone of Kybele (?) {sl>'
p. 897 f. figs. 727—730) and on that of Elagabalos {supra p. 906 figs. 752, 753)-

From fiip-pa Eisler passes on to d/xcpaXos, contending that the Lydian Omphale
form of Kybele—witness her lion-skin etc.—and dealing with many other topics ^ A
do not immediately concern us. On the whole, his articles are brim-full of learning (£)
abound in novel suggestions, some of which deserve to be followed up; but they aI
my thinking, largely vitiated by an admixture of doubtful or worse than doubtl
mologies.