1 We do not wish to imply a necessarily common "origin" or real identity in the various local aspects of this divinity.
2 Among the pre-Semitic population she appears as Nanai. Cf. Ed. Meyer in Roscher's Lexikon—ASTARTE.
3 See n. 57, p. 21, and n. 25, p. 9. Cf. Frazer, Adonis, Attis, and Osiris, p. 130, n. 1; Ed. Meyer, Gesch. des Alth., i. (1st edn.), p. 247, § 205.
4 Strabo, x. iii. 12; xii. ii. 3.
The probable mention of "Astarte of the Land of the Hittites," as the leading Hittite goddess among the witnesses to the treaty with Egypt (c. B.C. 1271), must be assumed at present to refer to Northern Syria. The allusion is none the less significant, implying an identification of the Hittite deity with Ishtar. This rendering of the Egyptian text is due to an emendation suggested by Müller (Vorderas. Ges. VII., 5), and accepted as probable by Breasted, Ancient Records of Egypt, III., 386, n. a.
5 Cf. Inter alia, De Vogüé, Mélanges d’archéologie orientale, pp. 45, 46, and Hauvette-Besnault, "Fouilles de Délos," Bull. Corr. Hell. (1882), p. 484. ff.
6 Cf. Frazer, Adonis, Attis, and Osiris, pp. 80, 220; Farnell, Cults of the Greek States, ii., p. 628, iii., p. 305; Ed. Meyer, Die Androgyne Astarte, Z. D. M. G. (1875), p. 730.
7 Cf. Pinches, on the Cult of Ishtar and Tammuz, Proc. S. B. A., xxxi. 1909, p. 21.
8 Cf. the words, "My son, the fair one" (Pinches, Proc. S. B. A. 1895, p. 65, col. 1, l. 9, of the Lamentation). On the other hand, in W. Asia Inscr., ii. pl. 59, 1, 9, Tammuz is said to have been the son of Sirdu. In the epic of Gilgamesh (Ed. Unguad, Das Gilgamesch-Epos, 1911, l. 46, 47) Tammuz is described as the Beloved of [Ishtar's] Youth (cf. King, Babylonian Relig., p. r60). Cheyne, Encyc. Bib., col. 4,893, pointed out that one interpretation of this name refers to Tammuz as a son of life—true divine child.
9 By some ancient writers Attis was definitely regarded as the son of Kybele, e.g., Schol. on Lucian, Jupiter Tragædus, 8 (p. 60, Ed. Rabe); Hippolytus, Refutatio omn. Haeresium, v. 9, cited by Frazer, op. cit., p. 219, q.v.: cf. also Farnell, Greece and Babylon, p. 254, and Cults, ii., p. 644, iii. 300, etc. The legends appear in Ovid (Fast. iv. 295 ff.), Pausanias (vii. 17, ix. 10). Though commonly regarded as of shepherd origin (cf. Diod. iii., iv., Theocr. xx. 40; Tertul. de Nat. i.), he was deified and worshipped in common with Kybele in the Phrygian temples (Paus. vii. xx. 2). It is, of course, to his character or fundamental attributes that we allude in our narrative.
10 This is not, however, the explanation suggested by Frazer (op. cit., p. 224-237); or by Farnell (Cults, iii., pp. 300-301; Greece and Babylon, p. 257, and n. 1). On the custom itself, see the stirring poem by Catullus, "The Atys," No. LXIII.
11 King, Chronicles 1., pp. 168, 169; Garstang, Land of the Hittites (hereafter cited as L. H.), p. 323, notes 2, 3; L. H. p. 77, p. 1, p. 323, n. 4.
12 Genesis xxiii., xxv. 9, xxvi. 34, xlix. 29, 32. Cf. Ezekiel, xvi. 3, 45; L. H., p. 324, n. 2.
13 Winckler, Mitt. d. Deut. Orient. Ges., 1907, No. 35, pp. I, 75. The texts are translated in chronological order by Williams, Liv. Ann. Arch., iv. 1911, pp. 90, 98.
14 L. H., p. 326. The sculptures of Sipylus and Karabel (ibid., pp. 167-173) are evidence of the extension of the Hittites to near the western coast.
15 Egyptian treaty. Cf. L. H., p. 348. The name of the god in Hittite is not known. Among the Vannic tribes it appears as TESHUB; in Syria, etc., as HADAD; indeed the latter is the general Semitic name, for Lehmann-Haupt has shown that the name of the Assyrian storm-god, as ideographically written, should be read ‘Adad rather than Ramman. (Sitz. Berl. Ak. Wis., 1899, p. 119.) On points of resemblance to YAHWEH see the suggestive paper by Hayes Ward, Am. Jour. Sem. Lang. and Lit., xxv., p. 175.
16 L. H., pl. lxxvii., p. 291. Ausgr. in Sendschirli, pl. xli. (i). On the hammer or axe as an emblem of the thunder, etc., cf. Montelius, "The Sun-god's Axe and Thor's Hammer," in Folk-lore, xxi., 1910, p. 60.
17 Our Fig. 1, L. H., pl. xliv., Liv. Annals Arch., ii. (1909), pl. xli (4). Cf. the familiar representation in glyptic art of Hadad leading a bull, e.g., Ward, Seal Cyl. of West Asia, Ch. xxx., figs. 456, 459, 461, etc.
18 Proc. S. B. A., 1909 (March), pl. vii.; L. H., p. 180, n. 2. The god is identified by an ideogram in the inscription.
19 See our Fig. 2, drawn from casts exhibited in the Liverpool Public Museums. Cf. L. H., pl. lxv.
20 L. H., p. 239. That this is a divine marriage scene is generally accepted (Frazer, op. cit., p. 108; Farnell, Greece and Babylon, p. 264; cf. Perrot and Chipiez, Histoire de l’Art, iv., p. 630), but it is the recognition that the chief god concerned is not a Tammuz or Attis (as supposed by Frazer, op. cit. p. 105; Ramsay, Journ. Roy. A. S., 1885, pp. 113-120, and others), but the Hittite "Zeus," a form of Teshub or Hadad, that is new in our interpretation and important for our present subject. On the general question of the Hieros Gamos, cf. Daremberg, Saglio and Pottier, Dictionnaire des Antiquités, 1904, p. 177; Farnell, Cults, i., p. 184 ff; Pausanias, ix., 3; and Frazer, The Golden Bough (1890), pp. 102-103. An oriental version of the rite is suggested in the legend recorded by Ælian (Nat. Animalium, xii. 30) that Hera bathed in the Chaboras, a tributary of the Euphrates, after her marriage with Zeus. Cf. the marriage of Nin-gir-su and Baü in Babylonian mythology (Thu. Dangin, Vorderas Bibl., i., p. 77; cf. Jastrow, Relig. of Bab. and Assyr., 1898, p. 59). The details of the scene seem to indicate that the shrine is essentially that of the goddess (cf. Kybele as a goddess of caves, Farnell, Cults, iii., p. 299, and Ramsay, Relig. of Anatolia, in Hastings' Dict. Bibl., extra vol., p. 120), and that the image of the god was carried thereto for this ceremony. (Cf. our note 48, p. 77, also Farnell, Greece and Babylon, p. 268). It is of interest to recall Miss Harrison's arguments, Classical Rev. (1893), p. 24, that Hera had a husband previous to Zeus; also the association of Dodonian Zeus (Homer, Il., xvi. 233; Od., xiv. 327, xvi. 403; Hesiod ap. Strabo, p. 328) with the Earth-Mother in Greece (cf. Farnell, Cults, i., p. 39).
21 L. H., pl. lxv. Representations of the youthful god are rare (cf. Farnell, Greece and Babylon, p. 252); the alternative interpretation would be to see in this image an Attis-priest, clad like the god; similarly the second of the two female forms on the double eagle would be the priestess of the goddess in front. This would seem to be made possible by the analogy of a sculpture from Carchemish (Hogarth, Liv. Annals. Arch., pl. xxxv., i.); but the symbols defining all the figures indicate equally their divine rank. This view is accepted by Frazer, op. cit., p. 106.
22 For the tradition of a son to Atargatis, completing the analogy of a divine triad, see below, n. 70.
23 L. H., pl. lvii. and p. 195. Frazer, op. cit., pp. 98, 100.
24 L. H., pl. lxxi. and p. 241.
25 The first two may be varied aspects of the great god; the seventh is, however, identical with the local deity of Malâtia. L. H. pl. xliv. (ii.).
26 L. H., lxv. The double eagle is found at Eyuk: we may see in this group the nature-goddess in a local dual aspect.
27 L. H., pl. lxviii. On his head a cap (cf. Lucian, § 42). His kingly rank is denoted by the winged disc surmounting his emblems.
28 That the male god was really dominant would appear from the fact that his name takes first place in the list of Hittite deities in the Egyptian treaty. L. H., p. 348. This agrees with Macrobius' allusion to Hadad of Hierapolis (see below, p. 25). The general prevalence of his worship among the Hittite and kindred peoples is seen in the Hittite archives, the Tell el Amarna tablets, and the Vannic inscriptions. The dual character of the cult is suggested by the seals of the treaty in question, by some of the T. A. letters (e.g., Winckler, Nos. 16, 20, from which the name of the chief goddess among the Mitanni would seem to be accepted as Ishtar), and possibly by the Hittite-Mitanni treaty.
29 L. H., pl. lxxiii.
30 See our Fig. 3. The bull freely replaces the god on coins of Hierapolis, Tarsus, etc. (B. M. Cat., Galatia, etc. Cf. also Babélon, Les Penses Achéménides, pl. li., vol. 8, pl. xxiv., pp. 20, 22). So also in glyptic art (cf. Hayes Ward, Seal Cyl. of West Asia, ch. lii.). Both at Eyuk and at Malâtia, in the sculpture described above, rams and goats are seen led to the altar as for sacrifice, and the goat accompanies the leading god at Boghaz-Keui. It is interesting to recall the term αγοφγος applied to Zeus (Farnell, Cults, pp. 96, 750, n. 48), and the βουφνια, a chief rite in the Athenian Diipoleia in the festival of Zeus Polieus. So also in the Cult of Zeus of Attica, a god of agriculture, eating the ox was regarded as a sacrament, the ox being regarded as of kin to the worshippers of the god. On Dionysus as a bull and a goat, see Frazer, The Golden Bough, V. (1912), ch. ix. Cf. also our n. 60, p. 22.
31 See note 69 below.
32 Cf. § 31, p. 70. "The effigy of Zeus recalls Zeus in all its details—his head, his robes, his throne, nor even if you wished it could you take him for another deity." The term ZEUS-HADAD would aptly describe the Hittite deity: it is suggested by the fact that the god of Hierapolis identified with "Zeus" by Lucian is called "Hadad" by Macrobius. Cf. below, p. 25.
33 L. H., pp. 150, 151 and pl. xlvii.
34 See Fig. 4, and below, p. 24.
35 Paus. iii., xxii. 4.
36 L. H., pp. 168-170 and pl. liii.
37 Jour. Hell. Stud., xix., pp. 40-45 and Fig. 4; L. H., pp. 164-165.
38 Corp. Inscr. Hit. (Messerschmidt) (1900), p. 20 and p. xxvi. L. H., pp. 99100, Cf. ibid., p. 100, n. 2.
39 Humann and Puchstein, Reisen, Atlas, pl. xlvii-xlix.; L. H., pp. III-112, 119.
40 The power of Ishtar to raise the dead is implied in her threat to do so, should the door of Hades not be opened to her. Cf. Pinches, Proc. S. B. A., xxxi. (1909), p. 26. On Kybele (Matar Kubile) as Goddess of the Dead in Phrygian art, see Ramsay, Jour. Hell. Stud., v., p. 245.
41 L. H., pl. lxxv., No. 1, etc.
42 Cf. Hayes-Ward, The Seal Cylinders of Western Asia, esply. Chs. xlix., 1.
43 E.g., ibid., No. 898, where she wears the Hittite hat, and the feet of her throne suggest lion's paws. The lion appears definitely below the throne in No. 908. In No. 907, curiously, she stands on a bull. She is accompanied by a bird in these, as in Nos. 904, 908, 943.
44 Ibid., p. 162. The myth of Ishtar's Descent to Hades, however, reveals the goddess naked at one stage of her yearly journey. Ed. Meyer is of opinion (Roscher's Lexikon—ASTARTE) that some of the Babylonian clay figures of the naked goddess are archaic and local.
45 Specimens are exhibited in the Hittite gallery of the Liverpool Public Museums.
46 Hogarth, Liv. Ann. Arch., ii. (1909), p. 170, Fig. 1.
47 Atargatis of Hierapolis is always represented as robed on coins of the site, see below, p. 21, and Figs. 5 and 7, also the frontispiece. There is a small bronze figure in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford (Aleppo, 1889, No. 794), which possibly represents the goddess. The head-dress is debased; but the other features—hair, necklace, dress, and facial expression—are characteristic and instructive. On the character and relations of the goddess in general, cf. Cumont, "Dea Syria," Real Encyc. (Wissowa), iv., col. 2237.
48 Prof. Lehmann-Haupt reminds me that the name Mylitta or Mullitta applied to the goddess by Herodotus (I., 131, 199) is derived from mu’allidatu: The Giver (or Helper) of Birth.
49 Doliche is near Aintab, not far north-west from Hierapolis. The worship of Jupiter Dolichenus was introduced to the Roman army by Syrian soldiers (cf. Cumont, Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism, pp. 113, 117, 147 and 263, n. 23; also in Wissowa's Real Encyc. iv., DEA SYRIA, col. 2243). The god stands on a bull holding the lightning and the double axe. (See the illustration in Roscher's Lexikon, DOLICHENUS, and especially the fine sculpture at Wiesbaden, published in the Bonner Jahrbücher, 1901, pl. viii., and compare with the Hittite Hadad of Malâtia, our Fig. 1). His consort is a lion goddess. She is described on inscriptions (C. I. L., vi. 367, 413) by the name "Hera Sancta," which is parallel to the references to the Syrian goddess on inscriptions found at Delos, where the cult had been established by colonists during the second century B.C. ("Fouilles à Delos," Bull. Corr. Hell., 1882, p. 487); thus (in No. 15), Ἁγνῃ Ἃφροδίτῃ Ἀταργάτι καὶ Ἀδάδου; (No. 18) Ἀταργάτει ἁγνῇ θεῷ; (No. 19) ἁγνῆι θεῶι Ἀταργάτει. (Cf. Cumont, DEA SYRIA, loc. cit. col. 2240; also the "Zeus Hagios" of a Phœnician coin, Hill. Jour. Hell. Stud., xxxi., p. 62). The Anatolian character of the god is recognised by Kan, De Jovis Dolicheni cultu (1901), p. 3 ff. Cf. also, F. C. Andreas (in Sarre's D. Oriental. Feldzeichen), in KLIO III. (1903), pp. 342-343. So, too, the god and goddess of Heliopolis (Baalbek), identified with the bull and lion respectively, resemble the Hadad and Atargatis of Hierapolis and the original Hittite pair of divinities (cf. Dussaud in Rev. Arch., 1904, pt. ii., p. 246, etc.). Cf. also, the "Jupiter" of the Venasii, Strabo, xii., ii. 6. The subject of the Phœnician and Cilician analogous mated divinities is more complex, but both regions were at one time or another within the Hittite political sphere of influence. An instructive cubical seal from near Tarsus, now in the Ashm. Mus., Oxford (publ. Sayce, Jour. Arch. Inst., 5887, pl. xliv., Messerschmidt, Corpus Inscr. Hit., pl. xliii., i.), shows upon its chief face the two Hittite divinities in characteristic aspect, but the other faces are devoted to the cult of the goddess.
50 An emblem of the priesthood of Bellona was the double axe. Cf. Guigniant, Nouv. Gall. Mythol., p. 120; also Montelius, in Folk Lore, xxi. (1910), i. p. 60 ff.
51 Cf. the pertinent remarks by Robertson-Smith, Relig. Sem., especially p. 58, on the change of the Mother Goddess from an unmarried to a married state.
52 Our chief sources in this regard have been the coins in the Num. Dept. of the Brit. Mus. and in the Bib. Nationale, Paris; Wroth, Cat. of Coins of Galatia, Cappadocia, and Syria (1899); Waddington, in Revue Numismatique, (1861). Six, in Num. Chron. (1878). Babélon, Les Perses Achéménides (1890); Luynes, Satrapies et Phénicie, (1846); Neumann, (Pop. et Regum) Numi Veteres inediti (1783). Hill, on some "Græco-Phoen. Shrines" (Jour. Hell. Stud., xxxi. 9, 11), and "Some Palestinian Cults" (Proc. Brit. Acad., v, 1912). To Mr. Hill we are specially indebted for suggestions and help in this enquiry.
53 See our frontispiece, No. 8; Num. Chron., loc. cit.; also B. M. bronzes, No. 51 (date, Caracalla; cf. Wroth, Cat., pl. xvii., No. 16).
54 See frontispiece, No. 4, also Fig. 7; Num. Vet., loc. cit.; also B. M. bronzes, Nos. 47, 48, 49 (date, Caracalla, 198-217 A.D.).
55 Num. Chron., loc. cit., pl. vi., No. 3.
56 Our frontispiece, No. 5 (ibid., No. 4).
57 The familiar reading is עתרעתה (see frontispiece, No. 2, and Fig. 5, p. 27), which is separable without difficulty into עתר (‘Atar), the Aramaic form of עשתרת (Astarte) and עתה (‘Até or ‘Atheh); reading thus ‘Atar-‘ate. See note 25, p. 52; and cf. Dussaud, "Notes mythol. Syriees," in Rev. Arch. (1904), p. 226. The legend יכונעתה, Yekun-‘ate (Six, loc. cit., No. 3), indicates the separability of ‘Ate (Atheh) as a distinct name. The legend on our No. 8, עתהט, is possibly a contraction of עתה and (ובה)ט, Cf. Six, op. cit., p. 107; cf. also Movers, Phœn., i., pp. 307, 600. But see Ed. Meyer, Gesch. des Alth., i., pp. 307-308.
58 See p. 25.
59 E.g., Brit. Mus. silver coin of Ant. Pius (Wroth, Cat., Gal., Cap. and Syria, pl. xvii., No. 2, also No. 8).
60 E.g., Babélon, op. cit., pl. li., No. 18; Num. Chron. (1861), p. 103, rev. Coins of other sites, e.g., Aradus, Byblos, Tarsus, etc., freely illustrate the same themes. Cf. the epithet applied to the Lions of Kybele by Sophocles, Philoktetes, i. 401 (μκαιρα ταυροκτνων λεντων φεδρε). On this point, see Crowfoot, J. H. S., 1900, p. 118, who argues the theme to be symbolical of the death of the god, whether Attis or Dionysus. So Ishtar, in the epic of Gilgamesh, is accused of being the cause of the death of Tammuz, and of her lion (Ungnad, Das Gilgamesch Epos, p. 31, ll. 52 f).
61 Cf. Wroth, op. cit., pl. xvii., etc.
62 Frontispiece, No. 8; published by Six, Num. Chr. (1878), pl. vi., p. 104, No. 2.
63 We have discussed the legend of this coin in n. 57. M. Six (loc. cit.), following Movers, accepts the theoretical reading "Baal-Kevan" as the name of the god.
64 See our Fig. 7, p. 70. Publ. Numi vet., pt. ii., tab. iii., 2.
65 Six (Num. Chron., loc. cit., p. 119) describes the object as a legionary eagle; but this is somewhat misleading.
66 Professor Bosanquet suggests that the Greek word was possibly used in the sense of the Latin Signum.
67 See pp. 14, 15, and n. 65, pp. 85, 86.
68 "Saturnalia": end of Ch. xxiii.
69 In general aspect the Phrygian goddess is indeed hardly distinguishable from the Hierapolitan goddess as described by Lucian. Compare our illustration of Rhea or Kybele, from a Roman lamp (Fig. 8, p. 72), with the representation in Fig. 7, p. 70. This resemblance is further seen in a relief in the Vatican (Vatican Kat., i., Plates, Gall.-Lapidara, Tf. 30, No. 152), described in C. I. L., vi., No. 423: "Superne figura Rheæ cornu copiæ, timone, modio ornatæ, stans inter duos leones"--which, however, Drexler (in Roscher's Lexikon, I., col. 1991) proposes to identify with Atargatis rather than Rhea.
70 Xanthos the Lydian relates that "Atargatis" was taken prisoner by the Lydian Mopsus and thrown into the lake at Ascalon (sacred to Derceto; see n. 25, p. 52), with her son χθς (Athen. viii. 37). On the proposed identification of the son with Simios, the lover of Atargatis (Diod. ii. 4), etc., see Dussaud, Rev. Arch. (1904), ii., p. 257, who indicates the analogy of the "Hierapolitan triad, Hadad, Atargatis and Simios," with the Heliopolitan, Jupiter, Venus and Mercury. He believes (p. 259) the triad of Hadad to have been of Babylonian origins, implanted at Hierapolis, to reign there through Syria, Palestine and Phœnicia. "Il ne nous appartient pas de rechercher ses migrations et ses influences en Asie Mineure." There is an interesting representation of a Syrian triad in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (1912, 83).
71 See n. 47, p. 76.
72 See our Fig. 5, and frontispiece, No. 2. Publ. Num. Chron., p. 105, No. 5. Choix de Mon. Grecq, pl. xi. 24; Rev. Arch. (1904), ii., pl. 240, Fig. 24 (photo).
73 See the references in Müller and Donaldson, Vol. III., p. 223, from whose work most of these facts have been taken.
74 Essays and Addresses (Cambridge University Press, 1907).
75 See Roman Society from Nero to Marcus Aurelius (Macmillan, 1905), p. 339.
76 E.g., Mr. T. R. Glover in The Conflict of Religions in the Early Roman Empire, p. 212.
77 Identified with the ruins of modern Mumbidj, on a route from Aleppo to the junction of the Sajur River with the Euphrates, from which point it is distant 14½ miles (23 kilometres). Cf. Smith's Dict. of Greek and Roman Geog.—HIERAPOLIS. The distance accords with that given by a fifth century pilgrim, ? Etheria [Silvia]; cf. Corp. Script. Eccl. Lat., xxxix. p. 61, cited by Hogarth, Jour. Hell. Stud., xiv. (1907-8), p. 183. Strabo (xvi. i. 28) gives the distance as four schœni from the river. For early explorers' descriptions of the site, see quotations in the Appendix, pp. 92-95. Many of the fine remains of Roman, Saracenic, Seljukian and Moslem times are now in ruins, but the sacred lake and other features are still to be seen (see note 55).
78 Cf. § 31. By the words "Assyrian Hera" Lucian tersely identifies the goddess and distinguishes her attributes:—"Hera," because mated (§ 31) to a "Zeus ", "Assyrian," because she is to be distinguished from the classical conception of the deity. For this use of the term Assyrian in the sense of North Syrian (or Aramaean), cf. Rob.-Smith, Eng. Hist. Rev., 1887, pp. 312, 313; and note Lucian's reference to himself below as an "Assyrian born." On the name of the goddess, Atargatis, which appears on local coins and is mentioned by Strabo, Pliny, Macrobius, etc., see Introduction, pp. 1, 21; and note 25 below.
79 Its name in Hittite and subsequent Assyrian period has not been recognised. "Bambyce" seems to be the earliest name substantiated, and it came to be called "Hierapolis" ("the sacred city") by the Greeks. Strabo (xvi. i. 28) mentions another name, Edessa, but this is an obvious error. Pliny states that the local Syrian name was Mabog, Nat. Hist. v. 23 (19), § 81 (Ed. Detlefsen).
80 "An Assyrian born"—actually born about A.D. 125 at Samsat, on the Euphrates. The place in Hittite times, of which there are traces [cf. Land of the Hittites (hereafter cited L. H.), pp. 130, 131; Corp. Inscr. Hit. (1900), p. 14, pl. xvii.; Humann and Puchstein, Reisen, Atlas, pl. xlix. 1-3], was on the Mitannian and later the Assyrian frontier, and by the Assyrians several times attacked, as in 1120 B.C. and again about 885 B.C. About 750 B.C. it was in possession of the Vannic kings, and it was finally annexed to the Assyrian empire about 743 B.C. Nineveh fell to the Medes in 606. After the period of Persian domination it became first capital of the province of Commagene in the Greek kingdom of Syria. The district was later ruled by independent princes of Seleucid extraction. Subsequently the seat of government was transferred to Hierapolis.
81 Archæological research hardly bears out this statement. Cf. inter alia Hilprecht, Exploration in Bible Lands (1903); King and Hall, Egypt and Western Asia in the Light of Recent Discoveries (1907). Cf. Herodotus, ii. 2 et seq.
82 Hercules of Tyre. Cf. Herodotus, ii. 44, who records the local tradition that the temple was 2,300 years old, and convinced himself that this Hercules was a god of very great antiquity. Rawlinson (Hist. of Phœnicia, p. 330) points out his identity with Melkarth, who originally represented one aspect of Baal. Similarly the Hittite god represented in the rock sculpture at Ivriz in Asia Minor (L. H., pl. lvii. and pp. 192-195) was identified by the Greeks with Hercules; and is recognised by Frazer (Adonis, Attis and Osiris, p. 97) as identical with the Baal of Tarsus. Cf. also Ramsay, Luke the Physician, pp. 171-179, and a note in his Pauline and other Studies, pp. 172-173, and note 47 below.
83 The Phœnician Astarte [‘Astart], the goddess of productivity in Nature, particularly in the animal world, and hence the guardian of births. Like the Dea Syria, she is differentiated only by local custom or tradition from other aspects of the Mother-goddess. As the natural consort and counterpart of Baal, who embodied the generative principle, "bringing all things to life everywhere," and thus regarded as the sun-god, she was queen of heaven, and hence the moon-goddess. Another symbolism connected with the legend which follows makes her the Cow-goddess in relation to the Bull-god. Cf. Robertson-Smith, Religion of the Semites, p. 477. These purely feminine attributions reflect a patriarchal state of society, with the male god dominant. (Cf. the interesting remarks by Rob. Smith in the Eng. Hist. Rev., 1887, p. 316.) Among the Greeks and Romans, who recognised in Baal their Zeus or Jupiter, the goddess appeared most like to Aphrodite or Venus, whose prototype she was. She is the Ashtoreth for whom Solomon erected a shrine (2 Kings, ii. 5, 33), which was defiled by Josiah (2 Kings, xxiii. 13), who "brake in pieces the images and cut down the groves." In cult and in name she is the local form of the Babylonian Ishtar, see Introduction, pp. 1, 16.
84 Cf. Herodotus, i. 4, iv. 45; Pausanias, vii. 4, i.; ix. 19, i., etc.
85 Zeus, as a bull-god; see also the allusion in § 31, where the "Zeus" of Hierapolis is represented sitting on bulls, as a counterpart to the goddess who is seated on lions. For the identification of the Hittite "Zeus" with the bull, see Introduction, pp. 5, 10; and Figs. 2, 3; cf. Fig. 7.
86 Cf. "The city stood on a height a little distance from the sea" (Strabo, xvi. ii. 18). The temple is figured on coins from the site (see our illustration, Fig. 6; and cf. Hill on "Some Græco-Phœnician Shrines," in Jour. Hell. Stud., xxxi., 1911, pl. iii., No. 16, etc.). The outer court was approached by steps, and its interior was screened to view from without. It had a façade of columns, and was enclosed by a pilastered wall or cloister. It was open to the sky and a conical obelisk rising from the interior symbolised the cult. The sanctuary was raised by a further flight of steps; its approach was ornamented with pilasters, cornice and pediment, and a roof protected the altar and shrine within (cf. Perrot and Chipiez, Histoire, iii. 60, Engl. transl. Phœn., p. 61; Rawlinson, Phœnicia, p. 146; Evans, Mykenæan Tree and Pillar Cult, p. 40; Frazer, Adonis, p. 11, note 1, with bibl.). The temples at Hierapolis and at Carchemish were similarly approached by steps.
87 Differing, if at all, only by local attributes from the Sidonian Astarte. Cf. Cicero, De natura deorum, iii. 23, 59; also see, for a useful summary of the argument, Bennett, Relig. Cults associated with the Amazons (New York, 1912), p. 50.
88 For the myth of Adonis, with bibl., see Frazer, Adonis, Attis, and Osiris, Ch. 1. The legend of the wild boar does not survive in the story of Tammuz, but it appears in one version of the death of Attis. It suggests a totemistic origin.
89 Cf. §§ 55 and 60 below. On the custom of hair-offering among the Semites, cf. Robertson-Smith, Relig. Semites, p. 325 ff.; also Frazer, Adonis, etc., p. 34.
90 A custom of similar character commonly attached itself to the worship of the Great Mother in her various forms (cf. Herod. i. 199; Strabo, xv. i. 20), being regarded as an honourable devotion to her service (Strabo, xi. xiv. 16); it was obligatory in Lydia (Herodotus, i. 93). Cf., inter alia, Ramsay, Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia, i. 94, 115; Cumont, in Pauly's Real-Encyclopädie (Wissowa), 1901, iv., DEA SYRIA, col. 2242; Frazer, Fortnightly Review, Dec., 1904, p. 985. For the survival of the custom on old Hittite sites, cf. Strabo, xii. iii. 32, 34, 36; ibid. ii. 3, etc.). Belin de Ballu, Œuvres de Lucien, v. p. 141, n. 1, cites a similar custom obligatory before marriage (Chez les Angiles, peuples d’Afrique, dont parla Pomponius Méla, liv. I, ch. 8). Cf. also the comprehensive review of the question by Farnell, Greece and Babylon, p. 269 ff, and the valuable résumé by Cumont in his Religions Orientales, p. 319, n. 41. The significance of the connection with a stranger as a relic of exogamy is discussed by Perrot and Chipiez, Histoire de l’Art, Phénicie, pp. 258-261, and developed by S. Reinach, Myth. Cultes, I. (1905), p. 79. But cf. Frazer, Adonis, etc., p. 50 ff.
91 The apparent identity is discussed by Frazer, Adonis, Attis, and Osiris, pp. 357, etc. Prof. Newberry tells us that there are instructive points of relationship traceable in the early evidences of the Cult of Osiris in Egypt. The familiar conception of Osiris, however, as King of the Dead, is, in our opinion, traceable to ancestor- and king-worship.
92 Cf. Plutarch, Isis et Osiris, pp. 12-20 et seq. The legend is rendered by Frazer, op. cit., pp. 270-273.
93 The Adonis, or Nahr Ibrahim, is a short river flowing down from the Lebanon through precipitous gorges rich in foliage, and entering the sea just south of Gebal (Byblos), a short distance only northwards from Beyrout. All visitors are impressed by the grandeur and beauty of its valley, particularly in the higher reaches.
94 Cf. Maundrell, Journey from Aleppo to Jerusalem, (1699, 6th edit., p. 35), March 17: "The water was stained to a surprising redness, and as we observed in travelling, had discoloured the sea a great way into a reddish hue, occasioned doubtless by a sort of minium, or red earth, washed into the river by the violence of the rain."
95 This is the correct explanation.
96 Probably at Aphaca, now Afka, near the source of the Nahr Ibrahim, where the cult was maintained until the time of Constantine, who destroyed the shrine owing to the licentious nature of the orgies in vogue (Eusebius, Vita Constantina, iii. 55). At the present day little survives of the ancient buildings except some Roman ruins.
97 This widespread tribute to the shrine of Hierapolis at once reveals the Dea Syria as an aspect of the Great Mother, who under various names was worshipped in the several countries mentioned by Lucian, namely, in Arabia as ‘Athtar [a male equivalent, vide Robertson-Smith, Relig. Semites, p. 58], in Phœnicia as ‘Astart (Ashtoreth), in Babylonia and Assyria (in varying characters) as Ishtar. Hierapolis, with its hordes of pilgrims, its living worship and frenzied ceremonies, must have been like the Mecca of to-day.
98 This version of the deluge, though associated by Lucian's Greek informants with Deucalion, is clearly of eastern origin, having little resemblance to the Greek legend, and much in common with the Babylonian versions, viz., the story of Xisuthros, recorded by Berosus, and partly preserved; the legend of Tsīt-napishtim in the epic of Gilgamesh, preserved on seventh century tablets from the library of Assurbanipal (and independently appearing on tablets of a king of the first dynasty of Babylon, dating from about 2I00 B.C.); and lastly with the Biblical story of Noah in Genesis. A fundamental difference is that in the Greek legend only Deucalion and Pyrrha were saved, and mankind was subsequently renewed miraculously in response to the oracle of Themis. Lucian's account of the animals coming in couples has its parallel in the Babylonian text: "With all living seed of every kind I filled it, ... the cattle of the field, and the beasts of the field, ... all of them I brought in" (transl. by King, Babylonian Religion, p. 132. q.v.).
99 For a further reference to this custom, see § 48. "The Sea" in this regard is to be interpreted as the Euphrates River, as explained by Philostratus, Vita Apol., i. 20; of. Rob. Smith, Engl. Hist. Rev., 1887, p. 312.
100 Semiramis, mythical founder with Ninus of Nineveh; daughter of the fish goddess Derceto; confused in myth or identified with Ishtar (Astarte). The legends of Semiramis are given by Diodorus (ap. Ctesias), II. i. The historical character of Semiramis and her identity with Sammuṙamat, wife of Samsi-Adad (c. B.C. 820)—son of the Assyrian king Shalmeneser II.—mother of Adad-nirari III., and the development of the myth from historical origins, have been recently demonstrated by Lehmann-Haupt, "Die Hist. Semiramis and ihre Zeit" (D. O. G., Publ. Tübingen, 1910), on the basis of a new inscription of hers found at Assur, together with that from Nimroud, in which her name appears. The student will find early but instructive contributions on the subject by Rob.-Smith and Sayce in the Engl. Hist. Rev., 1887, p. 303, and 1888, p. 504.
101 Derceto, identified with Atargatis by Pliny, Nat. Hist. v. 19; indeed, the two names are linguistically similar. That Atargatis was the name of the goddess worshipped at Hierapolis is stated by Strabo (xvi. i. 27), and confirmed by the local coins and other sources (see Introduction, p. 21, and note 57). Atargatis, according to the scholiast on Germanicus' "Aratus," was of local origins, being born in the Euphrates, like Aphrodite from the foam of the sea. (Cf. Rob.-Smith, Relig. Semites, p. 175, and notes on § 45 below.) The name Atargatis is a compound of ATHAR (Phœn. ‘Astart, Heb. ‘Ashtoreth) with ‘ATTI or ‘ATTAH (vide Kœnig in Hasting's Abrig. Dict., p. 70 b); or in Aramaic ‘ATHAR and ‘ATHE (cf. Ed. Meyer, Geschichte des Alterthums, i., 1st ed., p. 246, § 205 ff). Frazer (Adonis, etc., pp. 529, 130) points out that the compound according to this derivation includes the name of the Cilician goddess ‘Atheh, consort of Baal, as well as that of Astarte or Ishtar, amounting thus to Ishtar-Atheh, the latter being presumably a Cilician aspect of the former. Thus far there is no difficulty; but Pliny further describes the goddess as "monstrous" (prodigiosa), and his identification with Derceto suggests the familiar fish goddess of Askalon. Moreover, travellers have seen local representations of the characteristic "mermaid" form (see note 26). Yet in what follows Lucian is careful to distinguish Derceto from the "Hera" of Hierapolis, who is seated on a lion-throne (§ 31), and never assumes any fish-like or other monstrous aspect on the local coins. (Cf. also Dussaud, in Rev. Archéologique, 5904, ii. p. 258.) Assuming the identity of Atargatis with Derceto to be correct, it is more consistent with Lucian's observations (§§ I, 14-16, 31, 32), and with the argument developed in our Introduction, to see embodied in Atargatis that local aspect of the great Nature-goddess that typified the productive powers of waters (in generating fishes, etc.), and that in this capacity she was accorded at Hierapolis a separate shrine and rites, which none the less formed a part of the general worship of the Universal Mother. It is interesting to speculate how all strains of evidence would be reconciled and explained if it could be shown that "Atheh" was really a local fish-goddess. On the whole question, see further Cumont, "Dea Syria," in Pauly's Real-Encyclopädie (Wissowa), 1901, iv., col. 2236, ff.
102 Cf. Maundrell, Journey from Aleppo to the Euphrates (1699), relates that he saw "on the side of a large well a stone with three figures carved on it, in Basso Relievo. They were two Syrens, which, twining their fishy tails together, made a seat, on which was placed sitting a naked woman, her arms and the Syrens on each side mutually entwined" (Appendix, p. 91). This sculpture was apparently seen also by Pocock, who describes it as a stone about four feet long and three wide, on which there was a relief of two winged persons holding a sheet behind a woman, a little over her head; they seem to carry her on their fishy tails which join together, and were probably designed to represent the Zephyrs, carrying Venus to the sea (quoted in the Appendix, p. 93).
Other famous Syrian shrines of Derceto were at Carnion and Askelon, and at the latter also her effigy represented a mermaid (Hastings, Abr. Dict., p. 70). On the general subject, see Cumont, in Pauly's Real-Ency., "Dea Syria," iv., col. 2237; Robertson-Smith, Religion of the Semites, pp. 174-5; also Dussaud, op. cit., p. 243.
103 We take this to refer to the effigy of the Dea Syria (vide § 31, etc.). We must not forget, however, the small figure of the naked goddess supported by "mermaids" noticed by Maundrell and Pocock.
104 Cf. § 45, and see note 56. The origins of this custom are interestingly discussed by Cumont, Les Religions Orientales, p. 357, note 36, where he quotes Ramsay in support of his contention that the poor quality of the fish was the underlying cause of this apparent "totemic prohibition." But see Dussaud, Rev. Arch., 1904, ii. 247. See also Belin de Ballu, in his Œuvres de Lucien (Paris, 1789), p. 149, note 2. Ancient superstitions and uses are recited by Pliny, Nat. Hist. xxxii. 16.
105 See § 54 and note 65.
106 RHEA.—Not the Cretan goddess (Diod. v. 66), but Kybele, with whom the Greeks settled in Asia Minor identified her (Strabo, x. iii. 15; Farnell, Cults, iii. vi.). For the Minoan goddess, see especially Evans, The Palace of Knossos, Annual British School at Athens (1900-1901), pp. 29, 30; and his Mykenæan Tree and Pillar Cult, § 22. On the cult of the goddess in Asia Minor, see especially Ramsay, in numerous works (Bibl. L. H., pp. 393-4), e.g., Jour. R. Asiatic Soc., 1883, and in Hastings' Dict. Bib., extra vol., p. 122 ff. The points of resemblance to Atargatis, and the relationship of both with the Hittite goddess, are discussed in our Introduction, pp. 20, 26, and note 69. (Cf. also Farnell, Greece and Babylon, pp. 62-63.) On the cult transferred to Italy, see Cumont, Oriental Relig. in Rom. Pag., 1911, p. 46 ff., and our Illustration, Fig. 8, p. 72.
107 See also §§ 27, 51. Cf. the legends that Dionysus received woman's clothes from Rhea at Cybela (Apollod. iii. v. 1); and that Hercules, having yielded up his weapons, including his axe, received woman's dress from Omphale (Ovid, Fasti, ii. 305 ff; Diodorus, iv. ii.; etc.).
108 It is instructive to note that the Mitannians, who occupied the eastern side of the Euphrates in the fifteenth and fourteenth centuries B.C., though in some way related to the Hittites, embraced ethnic elements whose deities were radically different, including the Vedic cycle, Mithras, Varuna, etc. Cf. Winckler, Milted. d. Deut. Orient. Ges., No. 35 (Dec., 1907), p. 51 (transl. Williams, Liv. Ann. Arch., iv. p. 93, Extract xxiv.). In post-Hittite times the increasing tendency to local development must have emphasised the distinction between the Assyrian and the Phrygian conceptions of the goddess.
109 Cf. § 32, etc., where Lucian states that she holds a sceptre in one hand and a distaff in the other, and illustration, p. 70. The "tower on her head," i.e., mural crown, emblematic of the goddess as protectress of her cities, is an invariable feature on all but the latest coins, where it sometimes degenerates (see Frontispiece, Nos. r, 8). Compare the chief Hittite goddess (see Fig. 1), and Kybele or Rhea (Fig. 8, p. 72), who is described as turrita by Lucretius.
110 Cf. Diod., iv. (i.). On the cult of Dionysus, cf. Farnell, Cults, v. His legends, rites and mysteries largely borrowed from Asia Minor (Furtwängler in Roscher's Lexikon). Identified with Attis and Adonis by Socrates and Plutarch; and with Osiris also by Herodotus (cf. Frazer, op. cit., p. 357). Macrobius recognises all four as sun-gods.
On the further reference to mannikins, see Hartmann, "Ein Phallobates," in Jahrbuch d. K. Deut. Archä. Inst., xxvii., 1912 (i.), p. 54. For this reference we are indebted to Professor Bosanquet. Dragendorff seems to us to rightly doubt this writer's chief inference (loc. cit. in an editorial note at the end).
111 The stories of Stratonice and of Combabus which follow, §§ 17-25, are not of special interest. They seem to include garbled local details from the legends of Istar and Tammuz, and to be introduced as the fulfilment of Lucian's wish to explain the origin of emasculation and other customs among the Galli (see end of § 15). None the less, Stratonice is a recognisable historical character, wife of Seleucus Nicator (of Antioch), at the close of the third century B.C., and Movers (i., p. 687) has urged the identity of Combabus with the god of Hierapolis. On the resemblance of the name to the Elamite Khumbaba, cf. Ungnad, D. Gilgamesch-Epos, p. 77, n. For this reference we are indebted to Professor Lehmann-Haupt. Six (Num. Chron., 1878, p. 117) explains the main feature of Lucian's story in these words: "... la reine se fit initier aux actes religieux; et prit part aux cérémonies que célébraient les Syriens en l’honneur de leur déesse."
112 It would be inconsistent with what Lucian says in § 27 and elsewhere on the dress of the Galli to believe that this brazen statue really represented Combabus. His description suggests rather the figure of an Amazon.
113 Cf. § 15 and, especially, § 51 below.
114 The exact position is now a matter of doubt (see the extracts in the Appendix (p. 94) and Hogarth in Jour. Hell. Stud., xiv. p. 189). Pocock says: "About two hundred paces within the east gate there is raised ground, on which probably stood a temple of the Syrian goddess Atargatis. ... I conjectured it to be about 200 feet in front. .... I observed a low wall running from it to the gate . . . (cf. note 42, § 29). It is probable that all the space north of the temple belonged to it."
115 So the wall surrounding the royal Syro-Hittite city of Senjerli was doubled (Von Luschan and others, Ausgr. in Sendschirli, Berlin, 1893, etc.); likewise that of the Hittite township on Songrus Eyuk at Sakje Geuzi (Liv. Annals of Arch. v. 65). No traces of the original walls of Hierapolis remain: those described by our earliest travellers seem to be of Byzantine type. [See Appendix, pp. 91, 93, 96.]
116 The ργυια = 4 πήχεις, i.e., 6 feet 1 inch. There is some general correspondence between the details supplied by Lucian and by Pocock. If the latter rightly judged the position we may infer that the temple was 600 feet in length, with a frontage of about 200 feet.
117 Above, § 16. Similarly twin pillars were erected in the temple of Hercules at Tyre (Herodotus, ii. 44), and in the temple of Solomon at Jerusalem (1 Kings, vii. 15, 21), "eighteen cubits high apiece right and left of the porch." At Paphos it would appear from the coins that single pillars stood in the side chapels as well as the twin pillars and cone in the sanctuary. Gold models from Mykenæ show pairs of horns at the base and top of such pillars (Schuchhardt, Schliemann's Excavations, p. 199, fig. 183), suggesting emblems of generative power, and hence in this sense a phallic motive. On top of the horns is the dove, the emblem of the Goddess Mother. The question of original motive, however, is controversial. Cf. Evans, "Mykenæan Tree and Pillar Cult" (Jour. Hell. Stud., 1907, pp. 99-203); Ramsay, "Relig. of Asia Minor," in Hastings' Dict. Bible, extra vol., p. 111; and the phallic character is disputed by Rob.-Smith, Relig. Sem., p. 457. For the pillar cult in Asia Minor, see Ramsay, loc. cit. The pillar does not appear on Hittite mural decoration; but there is a remarkable monument at Fassiler, in Asia Minor, nearly 8 yards high, the width narrowing from 8 yards at the bottom to 1 yard at the top. Upon the base is carved a group showing a great figure upon two lions, with a smaller figure between the latter. The design has obvious Hittite characteristics, but the execution is crude (Ramsay, Cities of St. Paul, p. 134, fig. 7; L. H. pp. 175-176).
This class of emblem is to be distinguished from the sacred cones of the goddess in Syria and Asia Minor, such as are found at Mallus, Perga, Byblus, etc., cf. Fig. 6, p. 45.
118 cf. § 28, where Lucian says that the entrance faced the north.
119 See the design upon the remarkably instructive coin now at Vienna, reproduced in Fig. 7. On the identification of "Hera," the lion goddess, and "Zeus," the bull-god, in the Hittite pantheon, see Introduction, pp. 8 ff., and Figs. 2, 3, 4. Macrobius speaks of them as "Hadad" and "Atargatis," names confirmed by inscriptions found at Delos (see p. 25). Lucian's description of the sanctuary, with its common shrine of "Hera" and "Zeus," and the details by which he distinguishes these deities, form the basis of our argument in the Introduction (pp. 11, 23, 27), that this god and goddess are identical with the chief Hittite male and female deities, who are "mated" in the sculptures at Yasily Kaya. The historical inference is that the origins of the temple date from the period of Hittite supremacy; and this conclusion is in seeming agreement with what Lucian says in § 17 of the antiquity of the original temple. Subsequently, as the Hittite power declined, their god lost predominance, and the cult of the Mother Goddess developed its local tendencies. The rites and institutions in the worship at Hierapolis which Lucian now proceeds to describe are naturally those of his own time, but here and there (as in §§ 44, 47) traces of the original dual nature of the cult may be detected.
120 This description of the effigy distinguishes the original goddess from the naked or partly clad goddess, with hands to her breasts, with which she is commonly identified in later symbolism and modern interpretation. It accords, moreover, well with the pictures of the goddess upon coins, on which she is always fully clothed and usually girdled. (See Introduction, p. 15; also Frontispiece and Figs. 5, 7.) For a familiar aspect of Rhea (Kybele) see our illustration, Fig. 8, taken from a Roman lamp, published in Smith's Small. Class. Dict.—RHEA. A similar design appears on several lamps in the British Museum. For the girdle in Hittite art, see L. H., p. 112 (Marash), p. 527 (Carchemish), etc.
121 This object, "with characteristics of the other gods," etc., is hardly explained by the later structure of Roman character which appears upon the coin of the third century A.D. (cf. Fig.7, and p. 23); but in sculptures at Fraktin in Southern Asia Minor (L. H., xlvii.) there are two groups. In the one there is a shrine and image of a god, whom a warrior-priest seems to be worshipping. In the other the Great Mother is enthroned, with a priestess pouring out an oblation before her. In each case between the deity and the worshipper there rises a special form of altar, with pedestal and flat round top (see Fig. 4, p. 24). The pedestal takes the form of a human body, from waist downwards, being swathed by many cross folds of a fringed cloth or garment. Upon the top is perched a dove or pigeon. The bird appears similarly placed on a similar altar at Yarre (Crowfoot, Jour. Hell. Stud. xix., 1899, fig. 4, pp. 40-45). The altar is shown conventionally at Eyuk (see Fig. 3). For the dove in Hittite symbolism, see note 65, and Introduction, pp. 14, 15.
122 See above, § 13, and below, § 48.
123 It may reasonably be suspected that the empty throne for the sun-god (§ 34) was in reality an altar to this "bearded and robed Apollo." It is also clear that Lucian regards this form of the god as native; and it is of interest to consider what Oriental or Syrian deity is indicated, and for what reasons he became identified in the Greek mind with Apollo.
In the first place it is important to recall a passage from Macrobius, which amplifies Lucian's account and seems to confirm our surmise. In the Saturnalia (I. xvii. §§ 66, 67) he says: "The Hierapolitans, a Syrian people, assign all the powers and attributes of the sun to a bearded image which they call Apollo. His face is represented with a long pointed beard, and he wears a calathos on his head. His body is protected with a breastplate. In his right hand he holds upright a spear, on the top of which is a small image of Victory; in his left is something like a flower. From the top of his shoulders there hangs down behind a cloak bordered with serpents. ... Near him are eagles, represented as in flight: at his feet is the image of a woman, with two other female forms right and left; a dragon enfolds them with his coils." With the last sentence of this extract we are not concerned: it possibly refers to features of the shrine added since Lucian's days. We are left then with the conception of a native solar divinity, bearded and robed, and identified on general grounds with Apollo. Why, then, with Apollo?
The beard presents no difficulty, for in early art the Greek Apollo was frequently represented with this feature (e.g., see Farnell, Cults, figs. xvii. and xxiii. and p. 329). In myth Apollo was twin-brother of Artemis; and in the Iliad he was definitely allied with the Trojans. Further, the attribute λύκιος or λύκειος suggests to some scholars an origin in Lycia; while others derive him from the East or from Egypt. However that may be, most scholars are agreed that some aspects of the god are associated with primitive Nature-worship, and there is a general suspicion of an Oriental or Asiatic element in his cult. (See especially the Oxford lectures of Wilamowitz, 1908, "Apollo," p. 30 ff.) This conclusion seems to be supported by the character and seasons of his festivals in Greece. In particular, the Theophania at Delphi, celebrating the return of the sun at springtime, and the πυανψια at Athens, the harvest-thanksgiving, while natural to any pastoral country, are particularly apposite to the worship of the Great Mother. (For similar festivals in Hittite rites, cf. L. H., pp. 239, 359) Indeed, in § 49, Lucian describes a great festival of the springtime, at which noticeably goats, sheep and cattle were sacrificed; and horses are included in the list of sacred animals in § 41.
There are, then, elements in the Cult of Apollo that had long been familiar to the nature-worshippers of Northern Syria and Asia Minor. The object suggesting a flower (floris species) in the hand of this god indicates, as Macrobius says, a god of vegetation; and possibly it replaced something more definitive, like ears of corn. The calathos we have seen already (note 33) to reflect the ancient conical hat of the Hittite age, and the spear is found in the hand of the warrior-god of Karabel, and in other examples of Hittite art (L. H., pl. lxxv.). Now the local deity who most nearly combined these various attributes would be Sandan (or Sandes), who is figured on the Hittite sculpture of Ivriz (L. H., pl. lvii.) as a god of agriculture, with corn and grapes; he is bearded and wears the Hittite dress and hat. There he was identified by the Greeks with Hercules. Professor Frazer has shown (op. cit., pp. 110, 151 ff.) that Sandan bore to Baal much the same relation as the Hittite "Atys" to their "Zeus." But the youthful god, after the fall of the Hatti and their chief god, seems to have filled in the popular mind the place of the father god also, and to have become more and more identified with him (cf. Frazer, op. cit., p. 236; L. H., p. 360), like Atys with Zeus (Farnell, Cults, i., pp. 36, 37). In this way our Sandan-Atys might come to be regarded quite naturally as a sun-god (like Hadad-Zeus); and hence we should obtain a reasonable explanation for the identification of this deity with Apollo.
124 The image of the god is borne aloft on the shoulders of his priests in the Hittite sanctuary near Boghaz-Keui (L. H., pl. lxv. and p. 239). Strabo (xii. iii. 32) relates a similar custom at Comana (Pontus) at the Exodi of the Goddess, also (xv. iii. 15) in the worship by the Persian settlers of Omanus at Zela in Cappadocia. So, too, the statue of Hadad in Assyria is shown borne by his priests on a representation from Nineveh (Layard, Nineveh, ii., 1849, pl. f. p. 451); and Macrobius (Sat. i. 17) tells us that the image of the analogous god of Heliopolis (cf. n. 26, p. 70) was carried about in a similar manner on a bier.
125 Incidentally it is noteworthy that the group of emblems which distinguishes the king-priest at Boghaz-Keui (L. H., pls. lxviii., lxxi.) is enclosed by columns which separate the celestial emblem, the winged disc, from the terrestrial, the boot. (Cf. Hom., Odyssey, i. 52.)
126 The ox and lion have been already noticed as sacred to the Hittite chief god and goddess, with whom they arc associated in religious art. (Cf. L. H., pls. xliv., lxv.) The eagle appears (a) at Boghaz-Keui and at Eyuk as a double eagle identified with twin goddesses (L. H., pl. lxv. and p. 269); and (b) in the gigantic carving near Yamoola (L. H., pl. xlix.), where it is triumphing, it would seem, over lions. An inscription of Boghaz-Keui refers to a "house" or "temple of the eagle" (Jour. R. A. S., 1909, p. 971). This bird would naturally seem to be an appropriate emblem of Zeus-Hadad, but there is nothing to substantiate this probability. The horse appears on Hittite sculptures only in an ordinary capacity; but in Anatolia in general developed sacred attributes. (Cf. Ramsay, "Relig. of Asia Minor," in Hastings' Dict. Bibl., extra vol., p. 115 b.)
127 The cap and "toga" of the priesthood on the Hittite sculptures distinguish them always from the deities and the people who are familiarly represented as wearing the tall conical hat, e.g., the chief priests of Boghaz-Keui (L. H., pls. lxviii., lxxi.), the king-priest at Eyuk (ibid., pl. lxxii.), and at Sakje Geuzi, in Syria (pl. lxxxi.). On the election of the High Priest by the local worshippers compare the similar custom in vogue at the temple of Hadad and Atargatis at Delos (Bull. Corr. Hell., 1882, p. 486).
128 Cf. the sculptures of Eyuk (L. H., pl. lxxiii.), where three musicians are represented, with trumpet, bag-pipe and guitar. A lyre is figured in a sculpture from Marash (Humann and Puckstein, Reisen—Atlas, pl. xlvii. No. 2), and a guitar-player in the mural decorations of Senjerli (Ausgrab. III., pl. xxxviii.).
129 Cf. the accounts of Strabo concerning the temples at Comana of Cappadocia (bk. xii. ii. 3), where he states that it contained great multitudes of worshippers and temple servants, of the latter at the time he was there at least 6,000. So, too, at Venasa, in the "temple of Zeus" (Strabo, xii. ii. 6). Cf. the sculptures of Eyuk (L. H., pl. lxxii.), where a number of priest-servants are represented in different avocations. On the rock-walls of the sanctuary near Boghaz-Keui numerous women as well as men are represented in the train of the male and female goddesses respectively; and in the small shrine of the youthful god which adjoins it there is a further group of men who, like those without, seem to be taking part in a ceremonial dance in rapid movement, with their sickles held aloft (L. H., pl. lxix. and pp. 220, 227).
130 Notwithstanding the differences of ritual, the association of "Zeus" and "Hera" together in this paragraph is again significant of the original dual character of the cult.
131 The sacred lake is still conspicuous. Cf. Maundrell, op. cit. p. 154: "On the west side is a deep pit, of about 100 yards diameter; it ... seemed to have had great buildings all round it, with the pillars and ruins of which it is now almost filled up, ... but ... there was still water in it." Chesney, Exped. Euphrat. i. 516: "a rocky hollow." Hogarth (Jour. Hell. Stud. xiv. p. 187) describes also "the scanty remains of a stepped quay wall or revetment, with water stairs at intervals."
The Hittite river-gods are invoked in witness of their treaty with Egypt (c. 1271 B.C.). Cf. also Ramsay, Luke the Physician, pp. 171 et seq.; Pauline and other Studies, pp. 172, 173. On the general question of sacred waters in Syria, see Robertson-Smith, op. cit. pp. 170-172; Frazer, op. cit. pp. 22-23.
132 See also § 14, n. 28. No local tradition of this seems to survive, but Xenophon (Anabasis, I. iv. 9) records a parallel case of "tame fish looked upon as gods" in the Chalus, near Aleppo. Modern instances near Doliche, just north of Aintab, and elsewhere in Syria, are described by Cumont (Oriental Relig., p. 245, note 36) and Hogarth (op. cit., p. 188). So also near the mosque of Edessa (Sachau, Reise, p. 196); and in Asia Minor, at Tavshanli, on the Rhyndacus, sacred fish are still preserved in a large cistern (Cumont, loc. cit., ap. Munro).
Atargatis, according to the form of the legend given by the scholiast on Germanicus' "Aratus" was born of an egg which the sacred fishes found in the Euphrates and pushed ashore. On the general subject, see Robertson-Smith, op. cit. p. 292, also pp. 174-175 and 219.
133 Cf. the legend that Hera bathed in the Chaboras, a Mesopotamian tributary of the Euphrates, after her marriage with Zeus (Ælian, Nat. Animalium, xii. 30). The further reference to fishes implies their sanctity to the goddess, and to this extent reveals Atargatis as a fish-goddess (see note 25). This is, however, clearly not her chief character at Hierapolis.
134 On the local use of the word "sea," meaning thereby the Euphrates, see note 23. On the further subject of the narrative, cf. §§ 13, 36. It is of interest to notice that Pliny (Nat. Hist. xxxi. 37) describes a method of filtering sea water into empty sealed vessels.
135 λεκτρυν πς. The narrative is unintelligible unless we suppose that the words by allusion or textual change signify some special priestly office. Thus Blunt (Works of Lucian, London: Briscoe, 1711, p. 267) translates "a sacred cock, or priest, called Alectryo." Is it possible that the word in this sense was in common vogue, on the analogy of the Latin Gallus, a cock? (Cf. an inscription on an urn in the Lateran Museum at Rome, cited by Frazer, op. cit. p. 233, on which the cock is used as emblem of the Attis-priest, with a punning reference to the word.) Belin de Ballu, in his translation (Paris, 1789), v. 178, following Paulmier de Grentruéuil, unhesitatingly substitutes Γλλος, and translates accordingly.
136 In this festival of the Pyre at Heliopolis one or two details may profitably be noticed. The "tall trees" suggest the pine, sacred to Attis. (Cf., inter alia, Farnell, Cults, p. 645, and Frazer, op. cit., p. 222.) It is possible that in the sculptures of Boghaz-Keui the objects on which the high priest stands (L. H., pl. lxviii.) are indeed fir-cones. Goats and sheep we have seen led to sacrifice at Eyuk; the former animal is frequently represented in association with the Hittite chief god, and was no doubt sacred to him. "Cattle" indicate the bull, the emblem of the great god, and the cow with which his consort might be reciprocally identified. Cf. Pausanias (XI., iii. 7), where the bull and cow are seen to be sacred to Zeus and Hera respectively; and compare especially the details of the Dædala with this holocaust. The hanging of garments or shreds of them on trees near sacred places, or trees themselves, is a common practice in the East and in Egypt to-day. (Cf. also Rob.-Smith, op. cit., p. 335.) In the last words of the paragraph it is significant that no special mention is made of a goddess in connection with this rite.
137 Cf. the rites surviving in the worship of Kybele and Attis in Rome. For a description and bibliog., see Cumont, op. cit., ch. iii., Asia Minor, p. 46 ff., and Frazer, op. cit., p. 233.
138 On this custom, which is specially characteristic of the worship of the goddess, see, inter alia, Frazer, op. cit., p. 224; Farnell, Greece and Babylon, pp. 256, 257; also our Introduction, p. 3, n. 10.
139 Cf. § 15, above, n. 7. On the general aspect of this custom, see, especially, Frazer, op. cit., Appendix iv. p. 428.
140 No actual act of sacrifice is represented in Hittite art, though at Eyuk and Malâtia goats and rams are seen led to the altar of the god. The general subject of burnt sacrifice and holocausts among the Semites is discussed fully by Rob.-Smith, op. cit., x. xi., and numerous special rites of extreme interest are described by Frazer, op. cit. On the sacred animals of Asia Minor, see also Ramsay, Relig. of Asia Minor, op. cit., pp. 114, etc.
141 On the sanctity and abhorrence of the pig, see especially, Ramsay, op. cit. p. 115 b, and Hist. Geog. of Asia Minor, p. 32, where he points out that the Halys River divided these two points of view. See also Robertson-Smith, op. cit. pp. 153, 392, n., 448; and the discussion of his theory of Adonis as a swine-god by Farnell, Cults, p. 645. For the swine in connection with the Cult of Set in Egypt, cf. Newberry, in Klio, xii. (1912), p. 397 ff.
142 Cf. also § 16. This statement is confirmed by Xenophon, Anabasis, I. iv. 9. According to Ælian (Nat. Ann. iv. 2), the dove was an especially sacred companion to Astarte, and this is borne out by archaic clay figurines of the goddess from Phœnicia, Asia Minor, Rhodes, Delos, Athens and Etruria. These are ascribed to "Aphrodite" by Fürtwangler (Roscher's Lexikon f. Griech. u. Röm. Mythologie, p. 410, q.v.); but are indistinguishable as to character and provenance from the original deity. (Cf. also Ed. Meyer, in the same, art. Astarte.) In Babylonian and Assyrian art and mythology the bird does not seem to appear in the same inseparable association with Ishtar, though we have the suggestive passage: "Like a lonely dove, I rest" (Pinches, op. cit., col. iii. ll. 1, 2). On this point Mr. L. W. King writes: "In the earlier periods there is no evidence that a bird was associated with Ishtar, and I have little doubt that the association was a comparatively late addition to her cult. Of course the myth of the Allatu bird is early, but can hardly be connected with the symbolic or votive bird under her Phœnician form" (Letter dated Sept. 7, 1912). Diodorus relates how the child Semiramis was fed by doves, and how eventually she took flight to heaven in the appearance of this bird.
In Hittite art of Asia Minor, however, the bird appears in association with the enshrined Goddess-mother, at Yarre (Jour. Hell. Stud. xix. fig. 4), at Fraktin (Fig. 7), and in two carvings from Marash (L. H., pp. 119, 151, 164).
In glyptic art the evidence of association is confirmatory (see Hayes Ward, Seal Cylinders of Western Asia, pp. 293, etc., especially Nos. 898, 904, 908, 943). With the naked goddess, who may be of Syrian origins (ibid. p. 162), and is found represented on a sculpture of Carchemish (L. H., p. 128), but not elsewhere on Hittite monuments, the bird appears only sporadically.
Among the Semites the pigeon was peculiarly sacred (Robertson-Smith, op. cit. p. 294), and sacrificed only on special occasions (ibid. p. 219; cf. also Leviticus xix. 4, 49 Numbers, vi. 10). The sacred character of the bird does not seem to survive in any form.
143 Cf. § 60.
144 Cf. especially Rob.-Smith, op. cit. p. 477 ff.
145 The libation is a feature of Hittite worship represented on several sculptures, e.g., at Fraktin and at Malâtia (see Fig. 1, p. 5). At the latter place live animals (rams) are shown in the sculpture (L. H., pl. xliv.) behind the priest, being led by an attendant. This is not shown in our illustration, in which also the Hittite hieroglyphics are omitted from the field for the sake of clearness. These sculptures have been lately removed, it is reported, to Constantinople.
146 The special character of this sacrifice is strongly suggestive of a totemistic influence. On the general aspect of human sacrifice among the Semites, cf. Rob.-Smith, op. cit., pp. 371, 464. On human sacrifice in the Cult of Dionysus, cf. Frazer, op. cit., p. 332. Children were sacrificed to Moloch, who was identified with Cronos, an original deity of vegetation (cf. Farnell, Cults, p. 28, n.). Attempts have been made (cf. Dussaud, Rev. Arch., loc. cit., ap. Movers; Six, Rev. Num., loc. cit.) to identify the god of Hierapolis with Cronos. While we cannot accept the theory, this field of enquiry is attractive; and the suggested identity might arise in myth by grouping the god as father of the goddess's son in a natural triad.
147 Cf. Pliny, Nat. Hist., vi. 4, and xxii. 2. On this subject, cf. Rob.-Smith, op. cit., p. 334, note 1. In the Sudan, according to Bruce, some of the tribes tattooed their stomachs, sides and backs, as with fish-scales. Professor Strong reminds us that there have been found a number of bodies of Nubians of the time of the Middle Empire (c. 2000 B.C.) with definite tattooing; and the patterns pricked upon the skin of these desiccated bodies were identical with those painted on the dolls buried with them. Cf. Dr. Elliot Smith, The Ancient Egyptians, p. 56.
148 See also § 55, where a first act of the pilgrim is to shave his head; and § 6, where it appears that at Byblos the female locks could be sacrificed as an alternative to offering their own persons. At Trœzene, according to Pausanias (xxxii.), the custom was to sacrifice the hair before marriage. In Catullus, Ode lxvi., Berenice dedicates her hair to Venus. On the general question, see Robertson-Smith, op. cit., p. 329.
149 Caele habet—Bambycen, quae alio nomine Hierapolis vocatur, Syris vero Magog. Ibi prodigiosa Atargatis, Graecis autem Derceto dicta, colitur. Plin. Nat. Hist. V. 19.
150 Jisr Munbedj, two days from Haran. Jaubert's Edrisi, p. 155, tome VI.; Recueil dc Voyages, etc. Paris, 1840.
151 Ammian. Mar., XIV., c. viii.
152 The Syrian name of the city, which the Greeks afterwards called Hierapolis. Strabo, XVI., p. 747.
153 Ammian. Mar., XIV., c. viii.
154 Hierapolis, or Magog, in Syriac. Plin. lib. V., c. xxiii.
155 Plutarch in Crassus.
156 It was first built by the Persians, who had a fine temple there. Muhammed Ibn Sepahi's Clear Knowledge of Cities and Kingdoms.
157 Des Guignes, His. des Huns, tome II., p. 275.
158 Amm. Mar. XIV., c. viii.
159 There were temples of this goddess in Palestine. Jos. Ant., lib. V., c. xiv. 8; at Tyre, ibid.; against Apion, lib. I., s. 19; and at Sidon, 1. Kings, c. v., and v. 33.
160 Strabo, XVI., p. 748.
161 Herod., lib. I., c. cv., mentions the temple of Venus at Askalon, which, in Diod. Sic., lib. II., is called that of Decerto. There was another temple of Venus, or Atargatis, at Joppa. Plin., lib. V., c. xiii. and xxiii.