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

with five golden crosses, a star-spangled child; and Venus at
Elousa was worshipped 'on account of the Morning Star.' The
phrase recalls Astarte's discovery of a star dropped from the sky1—
Lucifer fallen from heaven2. If we were right in regarding the
dropped star of Tyre as a meteorite, the black stone of Dousares
may have been meteoric too.

That conclusion was reached more than a century since by
F. Miinter3 and F. v. Dalberg4, who went on to argue that the
black stone still to be seen in the Ka'bah at Mecca was in pre-
Islamic times the meteoric form of an Arab deity, either Dousares
himself (Miinter) or the Moon (V. Dalberg). They rightly drew
attention to Arab beliefs concerning the origin of the stone5 and
its early history6. Of these the most important is contained in
an extract from Niketas Choniates7 written between 1204 and

1 Supra r>. 892. 2 Isa. 14. 12, cp. Luke 10. 18.

3 F. Miinter Antiquarische Abhandlungen {Copenhagen 1816 p. 281 f.

4 F. v. Dalberg Ueber Meteor-Cu/tus der Alten, vorziiglich in Bezug auf Steine, die
vom Himmel gefalien Heidelberg 1811 p. 93 ff.

6 F. v. Dalberg op. cit. p. 95 f. 'Die Araber behaupten, der Engel Gabriel habe ihn
vom Himmel zur Erbauung der Ka'abah gebraeht... Der Sage nach soli er anfanglich
Weiss und schimmernd gewesen seyn (vielleicht weil er als ein gllihender Stein herab fiel),
nachher aber ware er der Thranen willen, die er fur die Siinden der Menschen vergoss,
ganz schwarz geworden, und habe seinen ersten Glanz verlohren.' So R. F. Burton
Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Meccah and Medinah' London—Belfast 1879 p. 493 n. 3
Moslems agree that it was originally white, and became black by reason of men's sins.
It appeared to me a common aerolite covered with a thick slaggy coating, glossy and
P'tch-like, worn and polished. Dr Wilson of Bombay showed me a specimen in his
Possession, which externally appeared to be a black slag, with the inside of a bright and
sparkling greyish-white, the result of admixture of nickel with the iron. This might
Possibly, as the learned Orientalist then suggested, account for the mythic change of
color, its appearance on earth after a thunderstorm, and its being originally a material
Part of the heavens. Kutb el-Din expressly declares that, when the Karamitah restored
« after twenty-two years to the Meccans, men kissed it and rubbed it upon their brows;
and remarked that the blackness was only superficial, the inside being white.'

6 F. Miinter op. cit. p. 2S2 n. 48 ' Wenigstens sagt die Morgenlandische Fabel: eum
esse cum pretiosis Paradisi lapidibus cum Adamo in terram demissum; ac postea—fiigt
Sle hinzu—diluvii tempore rursus in coelum sublatum. Sim. Assemanni Saggio sull
origuie, culto, litteratura e costumi degli Arabi avanti Maometto. Padoua 1788. p. 21.'

7 F. Lenormant Lettres assyriologiques et epigraphiques sur Vhistoire & les Antiquities
de I'Asic antdrieure Paris 1872 ii. 126 n. 1 cites an unpublished passage of Niket. Chon.
"Vtravpbs dp0o5o£(as from cod. Gr. Flor. xxiv, plut. ix, fol. 259 r° dvadeixarL^w Kai abrbv
Jov e« rb M4k( oXkov rrjs irpotreuxvs, h v <pa<ri niay \i6ov neyav eKrvirui/xa rrjs
A0poStTt;s ^xovra, Tip.aa8o.i 5e rourov iirdvadev airov rrj " Ayap bni\r)<ravros rod
^Ppadp., i) is a$TI£ rjjp Ka>irl\ol, npo<r8ri<rai'Tos b're rbv 'laaaK t/ieWe Bieiv robs Si elt
^poa-evx^v <?Kei dmburas p.h p.iav (leg. /uav nev) avruw xeipa rrpbs rbv \L6ov eKTtsLvuv, rij

eT^P? rb ovs Kar^xef rb 'iSiov, Kai ovtu kvk\orepus eavrovs ircpupipeLV fa>s hv iriaaai
"'"orobwido-avres and further dvaffe/xarlfa robs wpoo-Kvvovvras rip wpawifi aarpip ijyovv r<f
tuvtpbptp Kai rrj ' A<ppo5irrj rjv Kara rr)v rwv ' Appdf}uv y\Ciaaav Xa^dp ivonafavoi, rovrfort
Ke7dX?)i/.

With this second anathema cp. supra p. 915 n. 2 and Const. Porphyrogen. de