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https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4679#0319
4. ANNIA FAUSTINA. 293
touched on in discussing the god Sozon. We have seen Ch. VIII § 9
that this epithet was commonly used in dedications to the great god
of the district as saviour and healer, and that it probably originated
as a grecized form of the native name Savazos or Sauazos (which more
commonly appears as Sabazios). We also see in § 4 and App. I that
Savazos or Zeus Savazios was the great god of the Ormeleis, that
a college of six priests directed the cultus, that the chief priesthood
was an annual office, that the wife of the chief priest was the priestess,
that the priesthood was not confined to any family; though in two
cases our scanty records show a father and his son both chief priests,
and in several cases two brothers appear as chief priests1. There
were mysteries and initiation ; a list of mystai in a.d. 207-8 has come
down to us (St. 46); and the chief priestess is mentioned in this
inscription alone, which suggests that she was more important in the
mysteries than in the public cultus (a fact which we have already
found to be characteristic of the Phrygian worship). See no. 127.
The supreme priestess of the cultus, according to the usual rule in
Asia Minor (as nos. 101, 102, prove), was the wife of the chief priest.
The goddess, who is called Demeter (nos. 101, 97), was the mother of
her associated god ; but Demeter is a grecized title, and the name
Leto seems probably to have been also used, as we may infer from
a comparison of no. 100 with no. 101.
The close resemblance of the worship and mysteries of Savazos
among the Ormeleis with the common Phrygian god Sabazios is
attested by an altar at Sazak with reliefs: on one side is a veiled
priestess or worshipper, and on the other side a serpent with swollen
cheeks (irapeias ocpis)2. The place of this serpent in the Phrygian
mysteries has been already described (Ch. Ill § 5). He is the trans-
formation in which the divine father approached the divine mother
in the mystic drama; and the act was imitated by devotees and
represented in votive reliefs3. See p. 94.
The name Sabazios is not Greek, but oriental; and the variant
Sebadios is due to the grecizing tendency which sought to find a
meaning in the foreign name by assimilating it to crefiofMaL. Saoazos,
no. 97, as the least grecized form, probably approximates most closely
to the native form. The termination -a£o- seems to be formative,
leaving Savo- or Sao- (ZaFo) as the root-word; and Savoi (ZafioT),
which is given as one of the cries used in the Phrygian mysteries 4,
1 The remains show, as might be ex- s See Foucart Assoc. Reltg. p. 77 f.
pected, that members of certain families 4 Demosth. de Cot: 260 f3oai> Eiot 2«-
often held the priesthood. /3oi. Compare the cry "Ytjs "Attjjs, also
2 BCH 1878 p. 55. an invocation.
touched on in discussing the god Sozon. We have seen Ch. VIII § 9
that this epithet was commonly used in dedications to the great god
of the district as saviour and healer, and that it probably originated
as a grecized form of the native name Savazos or Sauazos (which more
commonly appears as Sabazios). We also see in § 4 and App. I that
Savazos or Zeus Savazios was the great god of the Ormeleis, that
a college of six priests directed the cultus, that the chief priesthood
was an annual office, that the wife of the chief priest was the priestess,
that the priesthood was not confined to any family; though in two
cases our scanty records show a father and his son both chief priests,
and in several cases two brothers appear as chief priests1. There
were mysteries and initiation ; a list of mystai in a.d. 207-8 has come
down to us (St. 46); and the chief priestess is mentioned in this
inscription alone, which suggests that she was more important in the
mysteries than in the public cultus (a fact which we have already
found to be characteristic of the Phrygian worship). See no. 127.
The supreme priestess of the cultus, according to the usual rule in
Asia Minor (as nos. 101, 102, prove), was the wife of the chief priest.
The goddess, who is called Demeter (nos. 101, 97), was the mother of
her associated god ; but Demeter is a grecized title, and the name
Leto seems probably to have been also used, as we may infer from
a comparison of no. 100 with no. 101.
The close resemblance of the worship and mysteries of Savazos
among the Ormeleis with the common Phrygian god Sabazios is
attested by an altar at Sazak with reliefs: on one side is a veiled
priestess or worshipper, and on the other side a serpent with swollen
cheeks (irapeias ocpis)2. The place of this serpent in the Phrygian
mysteries has been already described (Ch. Ill § 5). He is the trans-
formation in which the divine father approached the divine mother
in the mystic drama; and the act was imitated by devotees and
represented in votive reliefs3. See p. 94.
The name Sabazios is not Greek, but oriental; and the variant
Sebadios is due to the grecizing tendency which sought to find a
meaning in the foreign name by assimilating it to crefiofMaL. Saoazos,
no. 97, as the least grecized form, probably approximates most closely
to the native form. The termination -a£o- seems to be formative,
leaving Savo- or Sao- (ZaFo) as the root-word; and Savoi (ZafioT),
which is given as one of the cries used in the Phrygian mysteries 4,
1 The remains show, as might be ex- s See Foucart Assoc. Reltg. p. 77 f.
pected, that members of certain families 4 Demosth. de Cot: 260 f3oai> Eiot 2«-
often held the priesthood. /3oi. Compare the cry "Ytjs "Attjjs, also
2 BCH 1878 p. 55. an invocation.