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 Kronos 937

These two elements, the folk-tale motif of the child-devourer
and the ritual usage of a baitylos, were perhaps first fused in ancient
Crete. For, on the one hand, the Kouretes had of old sacrificed
children to Kronos1 and saved the infant Zeus by deceiving his
father2, while, on the other hand, pillar-cults were admittedly rife3
and even natural stones might on occasion be treated as divinities4.

Further, in view of the relations between ' Minoan' Crete and
Pytho5, it is not surprising to find that what purported to be the
actual stone swallowed by Kronos was still to be seen at Delphoi
in the second century of our era.

population of north Africa (Aug. epist. \.\7.1 mirorquod nominum absurditate commoto
in mentem non venerit habere tuos et in sacerdotibus eucaddires (v.l. eucaddares) et in
numinibus abaddires). This is confirmed by an actual inscription found in Mauritania at
Manliana (Miliana) on the slopes of the Lesser Atlas (Corp. inscr. Lat. viii Suppl. 3
no. 214S1 =Dessau Inscr. Lat. sel. no. 4478 Abaddiri• sajncto• culto|res iuniores | suis

sumtis- I aram constitu., | pro[v.].......).

6 S. Bochart Gcographia sacra, seu Phaleg et Canaan* Lugduni Batavorum 1707
•ib. ii cap. 2 p. 708 'Abaddir Hebraice est pater magnificus....Sed fallor aut

Abdir vel Abaddir, cum pro lapide suinitur, corruptum ex Phcenicio "fl J3K eben dir vel
"■ban dir lapis sphericus. Talis enim Ba:tyli forma,' F. Miinter Antiquarischc Abhand-
lungen Kopenhagen 1816 (supra p. 892 n. 1) p. 266 ' Abdir oder Abaddir. ..eine Benen-
nung, deren Ursprung ungewiss ist, da sie sich entweder von J3N> der gbttliche

■Stein, herleiten lasst, oder nach einer andern, wenn gleich weniger wahrscheinlichen
Meinung, von TIN 3N> der gbttliche Vater; oder auch, dem Bochart zufolge, von
der runde Stein, um die oft rundliche Form der Steine zu bezeichnen, worauf
™* Alten aufmerksam waren,' F. v. Dalberg Ueber Meteor-Cul/us der Alten (supra p. 892
n- 1) Heidelberg 1811 p. 73 'Abadir, der grosse machtige Herrscher,—Pater
niagnus,' W. Gesenius Scripturae lingaaeqne P/ioe/iiciac Monumettta quotquot supersunt
Lipsiae 1837 P- 384 'Vix dubitandum, quin sit T1S pater (deus) potens, cf. de
aiis gentilium Jer. 2. 27, et D'T^X D*n^X 1 Sam. 4, 8..., non "IH |2N lapis sphaericus,
cll'od magis placet Bocharto...: nihil enim frigidius, quam lapidem, eumque talem in quo
nu'iien latere credebatur, lapidem appellare,' G. F. Moore in the Am.Joitm. Arch. 1903
' 204 'The natural interpretation of the name is "mighty or noble father"; the epithet
"ddir is repeatedly applied in the Old Testament to God, and occurs in other Phoenician
c°nipound names; cf. Baliddir in a Numidian inscription (Ephem. Epigraph. VII,
110- 792).' There can, then, be little doubt that R. Thurneysen was wrong when in the
8leat German Thes. Ling. Lat. i. 16 f. he wrote: 'vocabulum peregrinum inc. orig.
"'eipit fortasse a nomine semitico, quod hebraice sonat J3X " lapis."'

Supra ii. 548 f.

Supra i. 647 n. 8.

in h A" ^' Evans ' Mycenaean Tree and Pillar Cult and its Mediterranean Relations'

™eJ°"'u. Hell. Stud. 1901 xxi. 99—204, supra ii. 528 ff.
Sh ' S" A' ^' Evans The Palace °f Minos at Knossos London 1928 ii. 1. 342 ' the late
' ",le found in the Little Palace at Knossos with its grotesque fetishes consisting of
y,a"ral concretions,' 346 fig. 198, ib. ii. 2. 520, J. D. S. Pendlebury A Handbook to the
"f Minos at Knossos London 1935 p. 52 'on the stone balustrade were placed the
l^^1^I figures of natural stone, the objects of adoration of the period of reoccupation

£ull S"Pra ii. 189 n. 8. See also L. Lerat ' Trouvailles myceniennes a Delphes' in the
• Corr. Hell. 1935 ljx. 329—37; figs, r—24, pis. 19-24.