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 SOIVIE PAlfSHNlAN CULTS 
 IN m. GRECO-ROMAN AGE 
 
THE LIBRARY 
 
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 THE BRITISH ACADEMY 
 
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 Some Palestinian Cults in 
 the Graeco-Roman Age 
 
 By 
 
 G. F. Hill 
 
 [From the Proceedings of the British Academy, f^oL F] 
 
 London 
 
 Published for the British Academy 
 
 By Henry Frowde, Oxford University Press 
 
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 Price One Shilling and Sixpence net 
 
The Library | 
 
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 3 
 
 SOME PALESTINIAN CULTS IN THE 
 GRAECO-ROMAN AGE 
 
 By G. F. hill 
 
 Read March 20, 1912 
 
 It is a little difficult in the present day for us to arrive at a true 
 conception of the relations between Judaism and the religions which 
 hemmed it round, and for a time overwhelmed it, during the Graeco- 
 Roman period. To the ordinary person who is interested in Palestine, 
 that country seems to be merely the home of the Jews and the cradle 
 of Christianity. Of the existence of Phoenicians, Samaritans, Philis- 
 tines, and Arabians he is dimly aware, thanks to incidental references 
 in the New Testament. But that these names represent peoples 
 active and flourishing at the time, even the serious student of the 
 history of the period is likely to forget. The reason partly is that 
 these peoples were much more receptive than the Jews of the veneer 
 of Hellenistic civilization. That their individuality in respect of 
 their religion was not wholly crushed is, however, clear to any one who 
 goes into the matter. The object of this paper is to examine some 
 of the evidence as to the existence in Hellenistic and Roman times of 
 local cults and mythology in certain districts of Palestine. The great 
 Phoenician cities,^ and those of Arabia, I do not propose to touch 
 upon, but shall confine myself to various cities in Samaritis and 
 Judaea. And the evidence with which I shall deal will be drawn, so 
 far as extant remains are concerned, almost entirely from coins, which 
 have the advantage that they can be accurately dated and localized. 
 They have, it is true, compensating disadvantages, especially in the 
 obscurity of details caused by their smallness of size and still more by 
 the usually degraded character of their workmanship and their bad 
 preservation. Nevertheless, if we interpret them with due caution, 
 we shall find in them much evidence about local cults, showing inter- 
 penetrations of Syrian, Phoenician, Philistine, and Egyptian strains, 
 
 ^ With these I have dealt in Journal of Hellenic Studies (1911), pp. 56 ff. 
 V. K-1 
 
 2C98845 
 
2 PROCEEDINGS OF THE BRITISH ACADEMY 
 
 overlaid, of course, by the Hellenistic and Roman surface culture. 
 The result is in many cases such complete confusion of ideas that it 
 is impossible to disentangle them from each other ; but we may rest 
 assured that the people who believed in, or worshipped, these deities 
 were hardly more clear than ourselves about their significance and 
 origin. 
 
 With one exception, none of the coinage of these parts can be dated 
 before the time of Alexander the Great. That exception is the much- 
 discussed group of silver coins of the fifth and fourth centuries b.c, 
 generally attributed to the rulers of Gaza, and including the famous 
 unique piece in the British Museum with the representation of Yahu 
 or Yahweh (Pi. no. 1). These coins do not properly fall within the 
 scope of the paper, and I forbear accordingly from dealing at length 
 with this much disputed piece. I will only make two remarks. First, 
 that the reading in^ seems no longer to be disputed ; and that the 
 balance of opinion is in favour of its naming the type, and not being 
 a personal name of some dynast.^ 
 
 Second, this coin is only one of a large group, which represents the 
 most miscellaneous assemblage of deities and monsters. Assyria and 
 Egypt, not to speak of Greece, lend types to these coins (PI. nos. 2, 3) ; 
 and there seems to be little doubt that the coins were made by people 
 who put on them any types which were likely to attract their customers. 
 Thus the types of archaic Greek, notably Athenian, coins which circu- 
 lated in the Philisto- Arabian district were freely imitated. The types, 
 therefore, that we find on these Philisto-Arabian coins — as I prefer 
 to call them, rather than coins of the 'dynasts of Gaza' — do not 
 necessarily indicate the existence in Philistia itself of the cults of the 
 deities represented. It follows that the coin with the figure of Yahu 
 does not prove that he was worshipped in Gaza. It may, indeed, be 
 merely the local engraver's attempt to represent the Jewish god. 
 
 I propose to deal first with one or two cults which are probably of 
 purely Greek or Roman origin, proceeding later to subjects more 
 Oriental in character. 
 
 Herod's foundation of Caesarea had an extensive coinage, from the 
 time of Nero to Gallienus. Its commonest type (PL no. 6) is the figure 
 
 * R. S. Poole's objection that he knows of ' no instance of the name of a god 
 occurring without qualification of the name of the mint^ as Baal-Tarz on coins 
 of Tarsus' (quoted by Driver^ Studia Bihlica, 1885, p. 19), will not hold. Thus 
 we have the name of Atargatis on coins, probably struck at Hieropolis in Syria, 
 without any place-name ; although it must be admitted that these coins bear the 
 names of rulers on the other side. In any case, however, it must be remembered 
 that these coins of Gaza are quite exceptional, and would not conform to the 
 ordinary rules of Phoenician mints. 
 
p 
 
 SOME PALESTINIAN CULTS 
 
 of a goddess, wearing a mural crown (or sometimes a mere kalathos) and 
 a short chiton, with her mantle hanging over her left arm ; she wears 
 a short sword at her side, her right foot rests on the prow of a ship ; 
 she leans with her left hand on a cross-headed standard, and holds in 
 her right hand a human bust. About this bust, often barely dis- 
 tinguishable, some controversy has arisen. 
 
 The old writers very generally accepted the theory that the goddess 
 is Astarte, and that she holds the head of Adonis — a theory which 
 has no foundation except the statement in the tract de Syria dea that 
 such a head came yearly from Egypt to Byblus, borne by waves and 
 winds Odrj i/avTiXLT], This identification of the head has now 
 generally been discarded. The latest scholar to discuss the type 
 (A. Heisenberg ^), while accepting the usual interpretation of the 
 goddess as Astarte, rejects both the older view that the bust is Adonis, 
 and a later view, due to Head,^ which sees in it the bust of the reign- 
 ing Emperor. There is, however, more to be said for this last inter- 
 pretation before it is swept aside. It/ should be noted that, though 
 Caesarea is perhaps the first by a few years to employ this type on its 
 coins, it occurs also in various modifications at the following places : 
 Tiberias in Galilaea, Neapolis, Nysa (probably), and Sebaste in Samaria, 
 Aelia Capitolina and Anthedon in Judaea, Adraa, Esbus, and Medaba 
 in Arabia, and, to go farther afield, at Cremna in Pisidia. The 
 figure, therefore, is either some very general personification, or a 
 goddess whose cultus was widely disseminated. Further, this bust 
 carried in the hand is not an attribute peculiar to her, since it (or at 
 any rate a similar bust) is also carried by a male figure on coins of 
 Caesarea and Aelia Capitolina. Heisenberg is somewhat unwilling to 
 accept the evidence of places such as Adraa and Cremna ; presumably 
 because they are rather far afield. The evidence of Cremna is indeed 
 important, since there the inscription on the coin identifies the figure 
 as Fortune." The mural crown worn by the goddess in the Palestinian 
 cities also identifies her as the City-Tyche ; but of course Astarte may 
 easily have played the part of City-goddess here, as she undoubtedly 
 did elsewhere. It is, however, noticeable (though it has hardly been 
 observed) that on practically all well-preserved specimens of the 
 ordinary Caesarean type the goddess is seen to be armed with a short 
 sword or parazonium girt at her waist. Another peculiarity is seen 
 on certain coins on which the bust of this goddess, wearing a mural 
 
 ' Grabeskirche und Apostelkirche (1908), i, p. 202. 
 
 ^ Quoted by Wilson^ Golgotha and the Holy Sepulchre in Pal. Expl. Fund Qu. St., 
 1903, p. 243j note 2. Heisenberg (loc. cit.) disguises Mr. Head as ' Barclay'. 
 ' Brit. Mus. Catal. of Greek Coins, Lycia, &c., pi. xxxv. 11, 
 V. R-2 
 
4 PROCEEDINGS OF THE BRITISH ACADEMY 
 
 crown, appears as type, instead of her complete figure ; on this larger 
 scale it is seen that her chiton is worn so as to leave one breast bare.^ 
 Now the parazonium and a similar disposition of the dress are not, so 
 far as I know, associated with Astarte ; but they are characteristic of 
 certain representations of the goddess Roma.^ We have thus a further 
 indication that the personification of the City is at any rate the basal 
 element in the type before us, the figure of the local city being assimi- 
 lated to that of the goddess Roma. But if that is so, it is difficult to 
 see whose bust she would hold if not that of the reigning emperor. 
 The coins of Samaritan Neapolis afford a further slight confirmation 
 of this view. In the reign of the emperor Philip there is a tendency 
 to commemorate him and his sons jointly on the coins. Now as the 
 reverse type of one of the coins of his reign ^ there appear two figures 
 of the goddess, each holding a bust. It seems obvious to conclude 
 that these two busts are Philip the Elder and his son. It might, it 
 is true, be argued that the duplication of the figure shows that each 
 represents not the Tyche of the City, but the Genius of the Emperor 
 or his son. Between these two conceptions there is considerable 
 analogy, and it is quite possible that the type partakes of both. 
 If the figure represents the Genius of the Emperor, a fortiori the 
 bust represents the Emperor himself. But I take it that, even where 
 the City-goddess is certainly identified with Astarte, as she is at Aelia 
 Capitolina, it is as City-goddess, and not as Astarte, that she carries 
 the bust in her hand. Whatever be the exact interpretation, we 
 have in this type an illustration of the form taken by the cult of the 
 Emperor in this part of the Roman world. 
 
 The other cults of Caesarea are such as we should expect to find in 
 a city founded when it was : thus Zeus, Poseidon, Athena, Apollo, 
 Dionysus, Ares, Helios, Demeter, Heracles, Hygieia are all represented, 
 and the cult of Sarapis, to judge by the coins, played a great part here, 
 as it did at Aelia Capitolina and Neapolis. 
 
 Nysa-Scythopolis, the ancient Bethshan, was traditionally a 
 foundation of the Scythians who invaded Syria in the seventh century. 
 The name Nysa, whatever its origin, naturally gave rise to a legend 
 associating the place with the birth of Dionysus. His nurse was said 
 to be buried there. The coins show her sitting on a throne nursing 
 
 ' She is similarly represented on coins of Diospolis-Lydda. 
 
 ^ See, e.g., F. Gnecchi, / Tipi monetarii di Roma Imperials, pi. v. It is 
 a reminiscence of the type of the Amazon-foundress, so common in Asia Minor. 
 
 ^ It occurs attached to an obverse of the Empress Otacilia, but it is well known 
 that reverse types belonging to an emperor were constantly used on the coins of 
 his empress, unless there was some obvious inappropriateness in the conjunction. 
 
SOME PALESTINIAN CULTS 5 
 
 the infant ; but more curious than this is a representation of his re-birth 
 from the thigh of Zeus. Two stages of the story are represented on 
 the same coin (PI. no. 5), this re-birth, and his reception by Nysa, who 
 holds him in her arm ; the two figures are combined as if they made 
 a group. Finally, the coins illustrate some other episode, which I 
 cannot identify, in the Dionysiac legend ; the god appears to be 
 threatening a small primitive idol with his thyrsus. 
 
 The coins of Raphia, the Judaean city on the extreme border 
 towards Egypt, are also influenced by Dionysiac legend. Stephaims 
 (s. V. 'Pa(f>La) records the tradition that the place got its name ' from 
 the story of Dionysus \ The apparent connexion between the name 
 of the city and the Greek word for seam (pacfirj) is not too absurd for 
 Greek etymologists to say that the place-name referred to the story of 
 the infant Dionysus having been sewn up in the thigh of Zeus. His 
 re-birth is not indicated on any of the extant coins of Raphia, as it is 
 on those of Nysa ; but the city-goddess is represented holding the 
 infant on her outstretched hand (PI, no. 4). 
 
 These are instances of the more purely Greek or Roman cults which 
 prevailed in Palestine. The next city to which we come, Neapolis, 
 brings us more within the Syrian sphere of influence. Neapolis stood 
 on or, rather, near the site of the ancient Shechem, on the neck between 
 Mt. Gerizim and Mt. Ebal. By an exception to the general rule, the 
 modern name Nahulus preserves the Graeco-Roman, and not the 
 original native name. Yet the Samaritan element survived obstinately, 
 and has survived, as is well known, to the present day. The sacred 
 mountain Gerizim (PI. no. 7) plays on the coins a part almost as 
 important as Mt. Argaeus at Caesarea in Cappadocia. It shows two 
 distinct peaks, the steepness of which is doubtless exaggerated. On the 
 left-hand peak is the temple which, since it first appears on coins of 
 Pius, is doubtless the temple of Zeus Hypsistos which we know to have 
 been founded by Hadrian.^ Behind it is a small erection which may 
 be an external altar. On the other (right-hand) peak is a construction 
 which again is certainly rather an altar than a small temple. Since 
 the mountain is doubtless supposed to be seen from the town, i. e. from 
 the north, this smaller peak must lie to the west of the larger. We 
 may perhaps identify it with the spur west of the main summit on 
 
 ^ Damascius, vita hid. (ed. Westermann), 141. The Samaritan Chronicle (see 
 Adler et Seligsohn, Une Nouvelle Chronique Samarifaine, 1903, p. 46) calls it 
 a temple of ' Saphis ', which may be meant for Jupiter Sospes ; cp. 2 Mace. vi. 2 : 
 Zeus Xenios on Mt. Gerizim. Guerin (Saniarie, p. 421) confuses Neapolis with 
 Aelia Capitolina when he adduces Cassius Dio as an authority for the fact that 
 Hadrian built a temple on Mt. Gerizim. 
 
6 PROCEEDINGS OF THE BRITISH ACADEMY 
 
 which are the ruins known as Khurbet Lozeh or Luzah ^ ; here the 
 Samaritans still offer up sacrifice. 
 
 The coins clearly indicate the steps by which, as the Bordeaux 
 pilgrim (333 a.d.) records, one ascended to the main temple; they 
 were 300 in number. There were, as we see, chapels at intervals 
 reminding us of many another sacro monte, Varallo before all ; but no 
 trace of them seems to have survived to the present day. Along the 
 foot of the mountain was a long colonnade ; an opening gave access to 
 the foot of the stair and to the road, doubtless for wheeled traffic, 
 which wound up the hill between the two peaks, branching about 
 half-way up. 
 
 What form was taken by the Zeus Hypsistos worshipped in this 
 temple ? It has been thought ^ that he was the Zeus of Heliopolis, 
 who certainly was, as we shall see, worshipped in the city. But of 
 this there is no proof. The figure which is indistinctly visible in the 
 temple on some specimens does not suggest the mummiform deity. A 
 head of Zeus of the ordinary type occurs on a coin of Macrinus, and 
 we also find him seated with Hera and Athena, making the Capitoline 
 Triad. Now this last type occurs on the large coins of Antoninus Pius, 
 in whose reign we also find for the first time the large representations 
 of Mt. Gerizim. It seems probable therefore that the temple on that 
 mountain was sacred to the ordinary Greek Zeus, who might be 
 represented like Jupiter Capitolinus with Juno and Minerva. It may 
 be added that the mountain is sometimes shown supported by an eagle, 
 or in the hands of a figure of Nike ; but no stress can be laid on this 
 fact, since the eagle is also an attribute of the Heliopolitan Zeus ^ ; and 
 in many Oriental representations Zeus is supported by an eagle.* 
 
 The star or sun which appears in the field (sometimes the moon is 
 present also) in association with the mountain indicates the solar 
 nature of the deity worshipped there. 
 
 At Neapolis, Zeus Heliopolites occurs on coins of the Antonine 
 period (PL no. 8). He is of the usual type, with whip and ears of corn, 
 and accompanied by two bulls.^ His appearance on the coins of this 
 period was doubtless prompted by the erection of the great temple of 
 the god at Heliopolis by Pius. I need not go into the details of this 
 well-known type, but will pass at once to the interesting type of the 
 
 ^ P. E. F., Survey of W. Palestine, ii, pp. 187, 192. 
 
 " Dussaud, Notes de mythoL syrienne, p. 51, henceforward cited as ' Dussaud' 
 simply. 
 
 ^ Dussaud, p. 15. 
 
 * Cumont in Festschr. filr 0. Benndorf, pp. 291 ff. 
 
 ^ On this type see especially Drexler in Roscher's Lex. ii. 1180 (Kewan) and 
 Dussaud, pp. 29ff.,117ff. 
 
SOME PALESTINIAN CULTS 7 
 
 Ephesian Artemis (PI. no. 9). She is clad, like the Heliopolitan Zeus, 
 in a sort of sheath, evidently of metal with panelled reliefs. She is 
 veiled, and on her breast are represented two small figures (like wingless 
 figures of Nike, holding a wreath between them). Her hands, extended 
 as is usual in archaic cultus figures, rest on fillet-like supports. That these 
 are real supports, not pendent fillets, is shown by the fact that on a well- 
 preserved specimen they are seen to be topped by small birds (doves ?), 
 on which the hands of the goddess seem to rest. They have all the 
 look of sceptres. She is flanked by two stags, which turn their heads 
 to look up at her. On her head she wears a strange gear, resembling 
 three plumes, supporting a structure which is usually obscure. 
 Sometimes it resembles a cross-piece with three uprights standing on 
 it ; but on the best-executed or best-preserved specimens this structure 
 is seen to be merely the facade of a temple, with four columns and 
 a pediment. Now all these details, except the doves on the tops of 
 the supports^ are paralleled by the ordinary representations of the 
 Ephesian Artemis.^ But, considering the importance of doves in the 
 local Syrian cults, this modification is significant. 
 
 Quite diff'erent from this goddess is another who appears on a coin 
 of Faustina Junior. The rarity of this type (I know of only one 
 instance, PI. no. 10) points to her cult being of less importance. She 
 has the ordinary Greek dress : long chiton with kolpos, and peplos 
 falling over each arm in folds which suggest an archaistic treatment. 
 She is veiled, and wears a head-dress which is unfortunately incomplete ; 
 it may be merely a polos, or it may be three plumes. In her hands, 
 which project in the usual archaic or archaistic fashion, are either 
 wreaths or phialae ; and she is flanked by two long-legged birds, 
 which may possibly be meant for peacocks. 
 
 There is a curious parallelism in the representations of Zeus 
 Heliopolites and Artemis Ephesia on these coins. They serve as 
 types for coins of the same size, but, when they first appear, Zeus 
 appears on the coins of Marcus Aurelius, Artemis on those of his 
 Empress Faustina Junior. It is only natural, of course, and according 
 to custom, that the male god should be associated with the Emperor, 
 the female with the Empress. But we shall not be too fanciful if we 
 go farther, and see in the so-called Artemis the local consort of the 
 Heliopolitan Zeus. At Heliopolis itself there was a triad consisting 
 
 ^ See especially Amelung in Jahreshefte des oesterr. arch. Inst., xii (1909), 
 pp. 172 ff. ; Imhoof-Blumer in Nomisma, vi (1911), p. 11. Mr. H. R. Hall 
 suggests that the temple-headdress may have been derived from, or suggested by, 
 the pylon-headdress of Hathor in Ptolemaic times, as seen especially in tlie 
 Hathor-headed sistra and models of sistra. 
 
8 PROCEEDINGS OF THE BRITISH ACADEMY 
 
 of Zeus, Aphrodite, and Hermes, to give them their Greek names. 
 The Ephesian Artemis might, as a nature-goddess, be identified by 
 the NeapoHtans with Astarte-Aphrodite, and this identification is 
 suggested by the doves — if doves they be — on which her hands rest. 
 If the birds which accompany the other goddess are peacocks, the 
 Neapolitan Greeks would probably call her Hera ; that is the name 
 which the Greeks gave to the consort of Zeus at Hierapolis.^ It 
 may be suggested that she is, at Neapolis, the consort of the Zeus 
 Hypsistos of Mt. Gerizim. We should then have the two pairs 
 complete : first, Zeus Heliopolites and his consort, the stag-goddess, 
 the so-called Artemis, and second, Zeus Hypsistos and his consort 
 Hera. 
 
 But there is yet a third goddess of an allied kind at Neapolis. In 
 speaking of Caesarea we have already described the City-goddess 
 holding the bust of an emperor. At Neapolis she sometimes holds 
 Mt. Gerizim. But the point of interest is that she stands on 
 a couchant lion ; and we also find a goddess standing on a running 
 lion. Both are representations of the 'Syrian Goddess', Atargatis, 
 who functions as the City-goddess. Earlier writers describe a figure 
 of ' Cybele seated between two lions \ who is, as Dussaud has seen, no 
 other than the same Syrian goddess of Hierapolis.^ 
 
 Another Syrian cult prevailed for a brief time at Neapolis. On 
 a coin of Elagabalus there is represented a conical or beehive-shaped 
 baetyl, side by side with Mt. Gerizim, above a quadriga advancing to 
 the front. An eagle Avith spread wings decorates the front of the 
 baetyl. There can be no doubt that it is the sacred stone of Emesa, 
 the god whom Elagabalus served as priest.^ 
 
 The same cult prevailed at Aelia Capitolina during the reign of 
 Elagabalus (PI. no. 11). But the only type at that city which is of 
 outstanding importance in connexion witli the subject of this paper 
 is the temple of the City-goddess, who was here, as already stated, 
 identified with Astarte. Her temple * stood on the site of the cruci- 
 fixion, and her consort ' Jupiter ', i. e. Baal or Adonis, was worshipped 
 on the place of the Resurrection. Doubtless they had a joint temenos. 
 The Church of the Holy Sepulchre was afterwards erected on the 
 same site, probably more or less on the same plan as the old temple ; 
 just as, after the destruction of the Marneion at Gaza, it was proposed 
 by some to rebuild the Christian church on the same plan. This 
 
 ^ Lucian, de Syr. dea, 31, 32. 
 
 ^ Dussaud, p. 51. 
 
 ' Studniczka in Rom. Mitt., xvi (1901), p. 272 f. 
 
 * See Heisenberg, Grabeskircke, &c., i, p. 200 f. 
 
SOME PALESTINIAN CULTS 9 
 
 question has been fully discussed by Heisenberg, so that we need not 
 linger over it here. The goddess is represented holding the human 
 bust, to which we have already referred. 
 
 Of the great cities of the Philistine coast, two only survived, or 
 retained any degree of importance, in the times with which we are 
 concerned. These were Ascalon and Gaza. Let us see first what 
 literary records we possess of their cults. Ascalon was famous in the 
 time of Herodotus for the worship of Aphrodite Ourania ; Herodotus 
 and after him Pausanias regard this cult as of very ancient origin. 
 The other chief goddess mentioned in connexion with Ascalon is 
 Derketo or Atargatis. To her was sacred a temenos not far from 
 the city, with a large pool full of fish. The goddess had a woman''s 
 face and the body of a fish (or a woman's face and body to the waist, 
 the rest being fish-like). Doves and all kinds of fish were sacred to 
 her. The euhemeristic explanation of the story of Derketo was that 
 she was drowned with her son Ichthys in the pool of Ascalon and 
 devoured by fishes. According to another legend, the daughter of 
 Derketo was Semiramis, who was brought up by doves. 
 
 Lucian, if he is the author of the tract de Syria dea, distinguishes 
 Derketo (of Ascalon) from the goddess of Hierapolis (Atargatis), who 
 was worshipped in human form ; but there is little doubt about the con- 
 nexion between them.^ The Greeks identified both with Aphrodite. 
 
 We should expect to find the great god of the Philistines, Dagon, 
 at Ascalon ; St. Jerome knows him as ' idolum Ascalonis, Gazae et 
 reliquarum urbium Philistiae \ But the identification of this god has 
 become uncertain since the old view that he had the form of a fish is 
 now generally discredited.^ 
 
 In an inscription from Canopus, of a. d. 228, an Ascalonian dedicates 
 to Zeus Helios Sarapis a figure of debu 7rar/3i[6i'] /xov 'Hp[^aK^Xfj 
 BrjXov dv^LKrjTOV.^ 
 
 Another Syrian deity of Ascalon was known as ' Ao-kXtj-ttlo^ \eov- 
 Tov)(os. The Neo-Platonic philosopher Proclus addressed a hymn to 
 this god, as he did to Manias of Gaza ; but we know no more. He 
 may have been the Phoenician Eshmun, represented in Syrian fashion 
 with lion supporters. Or, again, he may have been Eshmun assimilated 
 to Melqart-Heracles, with the lion-skin ; such a contamination was 
 found at Citium in Cyprus.* 
 
 ^ See, e. g., F. Baethgen, Beitrdge zur semit. Religionsgesch., p. 7-4. 
 "^ See Dussaud, p. 77 f. 
 
 * S. de Ricci in Arch. f. Papyrusforsch., n, 1903, p. 450, no. 87 ; Dussaud, 
 loc. cit. 
 
 * See the speculations in Movers, Phonizier, i, p. 534 ; Stark, Gaza, p. 592. 
 
10 PROCEEDINGS OF THE BRITISH ACADEMY 
 
 What light do the coins throw on these literary records ? We may, 
 to begin with, rule out of court the remarkable fourth-century stater,^ 
 struck at some city on the Phoenician coast, which represents a sea- 
 god, fish-like from the waist downwards, holding trident and wreath. 
 The weight of evidence points to this coin having been struck in 
 Northern Phoenicia, and not at Ascalon or Ashdod. 
 
 The City-goddess of Ascalon appears constantly on the coins 
 (PI. no. 12) from Augustus to Geta ; she stands upon a prow, holds 
 a naval standard and aphlaston, and is regularly accompanied by 
 a dove and an altar of somewhat peculiar form, with three projections 
 at the top which have caused it to be described as a trident. The 
 dove also appears as the attribute of a goddess who figures on coins 
 from the time of Antoninus Pius onwards (PI. no. 13). She wears on 
 her head, not a turreted crown, but a crescent.^ She stands, not on 
 a prow, but on a Triton, who holds aloft a cornucopiae ; she carries, 
 not a standard, but a sceptre ; and the dove is in her hand, not in the 
 field of the coin. 
 
 From the evidence of the numerous other representations of the 
 marine Astarte in Phoenician coast-cities, it is certain that the former 
 goddess is Astarte functioning as City-goddess. Is the other goddess 
 also Astarte, or is she Atargatis (Derketo) .^ We know that Derketo 
 was worshipped at Ascalon in a semi-piscine form ; but it does not 
 follow that there was not also a human representation of her, since in 
 other cities inland, such as Hierapolis, this fish-form did not prevail. 
 The sea-monster on which the goddess stands would express her 
 marine nature. The dove was also sacred to her. Dussaud has 
 insisted on the view that the lunar crescent alone, uncombined with 
 the solar disk, is never the attribute of Atargatis. Possibly, however, 
 at the late period with which we are concerned, a period of great con- 
 fusion between various deities and their attributes, the rule which he 
 asserts may have been relaxed. There was, in any case, so much that 
 was peculiar in the cults of Ascalon, that we cannot deny the 
 possibility of such a modification. 
 
 Beside the City-goddess type, there appears on the coins throughout 
 the Imperial period another deity, whose name is fortunately inscribed 
 on some of the coins of Hadrian and Antoninus Pius (PI. no. 14). 
 
 ^ B. M. C, Phoenicia, p. cxliv, pi. xiv. 1 ; Journal of Hellenic Studies, xxxi, 
 p. 63, pi. iv. 33. 
 
 2 This is perfectly clear on many specimens, and Dussaud's statement (op. cit. , 
 p. 99) to the contrary must be corrected. If he is right in denying lunar 
 character to Astarte (p. 84), he must be wrong in assuming this goddess to be 
 Astarte. 
 
SOME PALESTINIAN CULTS 11 
 
 This is Phanebalos.^ The name is obviously a transcription of some 
 Phoenician word containing the element b]}2^ and we are immediately 
 reminded of the epithet of Tanith 7]}^ fD, which is explained as ' face 
 of Baal ' or ' manifestation of Baal \ " It is true that Tanith was 
 a female deity, whereas the figure on the Ascalonian coins has 
 generally been described as male. And male I am inclined to think 
 it is, although on some coins the dressing of the hair, the long skirt 
 and broad hips give it an extraordinarily feminine appearance. The 
 name too has a masculine termination, but since it might be an 
 adjective of two terminations we can lay no stress on this. On a coin 
 of Hadrian there appears in the field beside the figure a sign which 
 looks like an attempt to reproduce the symbol of triangle, disk, and 
 horns, the so-called ' sign of Baal \ which is constantly found on 
 Carthaginian votive tablets, and elsewhere.^ This symbol, it is to be 
 remembered, may belong not to Tanith, but to Baal-Hamman ; in 
 any case, it is too obscure on the coin in question to bear much stress. 
 Phanebalos wears a helmet, and wields a weapon which, Dussaud * 
 maintains, is not a sword but a harpe. The dress is probably 
 a cuirass ; on some specimens the pteryges are clearly repre- 
 sented, but on others the skirt is unusually long. In the left hand 
 are a small circular shield and a long palm-branch. The figure 
 sometimes stands on a pedestal. Finally, on the latest coins on 
 which the god is represented, he assumes an attitude similar to that 
 of Sarapis, as that god appears on coins of the same date, with right 
 hand raised (PI. no. 15). His weapon, the harpe, disappears, and in 
 
 ^ First correctly deciphered by Imhoof-Blumer, Rev. Suisse de Num., 1908^ 
 p. 129. 
 
 ^ G. A. Cooke, North Semitic Inscr., p. 132 f., whei'e it is also noted that 
 Robertson Smith explains the epithet as ' having the face of Baal ', i. e. bearded 
 or androgynous. But the theory of a primitive androgynous deity is at present 
 under a cloud. Prof. Cooke and Prof. A. R. S. Kennedy incline to confirm the 
 suggestion made in the text of the equation -jya |S = 4>ANHBAA0C, and the 
 latter reminds me of the equation bWJQ = 4>AN0YHA, Dussaud (op. cit., p. 6) 
 regards the Carthaginian symbol of combined disk and crescent as the ' tra- 
 duction par I'image de I'expression pene Baal', Mr. L, W. King writes : 'In 
 Babylonian theophorous names of the Achaemenian period the combination of 
 pmm " face " with the name of a deity is not uncommon. It is thus possible that 
 we may connect the origin of Phanebalos with Pdni-Bel, the abbreviated form of 
 Puni-Bel-adaggal (lit. " I behold the face of Bel ") ; cp. the similar abbreviation in 
 the name Pdni-ilu ( z=: ?NI''JB), which occurs in a business document of the time of 
 Artaxerxes I.' 
 
 ' C. I. S., \. 265 and passim ; Cooke, loc. cit. ; Hill, Coins of Ancient Sicily, 
 pi. X. 9, XV. 18 (coins of Sicily and Cossura). 
 
 * Op. cit., p. 76. 
 
12 PROCEEDINGS OF THE BRITISH ACADEMY 
 
 the field we see a thunderbolt. The connexion with Zeus — and that 
 is only another way of saying Baal — is thus established. Now of course 
 a goddess intimately connected with Baal might use his attribute ; 
 but the balance of probabilities seems to me to indicate that we have 
 in our mysterious deity a male ' manifestation of Baal ' as a war-god, 
 and not a goddess. After all we do not know enough about the 
 meaning of the term ?y333 to be able to assert that, because at 
 Carthage it was an epithet of a goddess, therefore at Ascalon it 
 could not be the epithet of a god. 
 
 It would be idle to attempt to disguise the fact that this explanation 
 of the nature of Phanebalos is a tissue of conjectures. But one can 
 only state the arguments on either side fairly. The only other 
 solution proposed is due to Dussaud. He sees in the deity a solar 
 god (because of the harpe), of the class of Bel-Kronos, and identifies 
 him with the Herakles-Belos whom we know, from the Canopus 
 inscription, to have been worshipped at Ascalon.^ 
 
 Ascalon provides us with a number of other curious types. Under 
 Antoninus Pius first appears a remarkable building which appears to 
 consist of a series of four doorways, one within (i.e. really beyond) the 
 other (PI. no. 16). The Egyptian element in the architecture is 
 strong, being perceptible not merely in the uraei which decorate two, 
 if not three, of the architraves, but in the columns flanking two of 
 the entrances. The type probably represents the approach to some 
 sanctuary through a series of doorways — an adaptation of the 
 Egyptian temple-plan. 
 
 In the same reign also we meet for the first time with the type of 
 a male deity, apparently Osiris, with his usual attributes of flail and 
 sceptre, but accompanied by three lions which stand beside and before 
 the basis which supports the figure. On later coins he stands in true 
 Syrian fashion on the lions (PI. no. 17). On the earlier coins he wears 
 a plain kalathos ; on the later he has the atef crown ; and on the 
 latest he no longer holds a sceptre, but raises his right hand in the 
 attitude usually adopted by Sarapis on late coins. We have just noted 
 that this attitude is also affected on the latest coins by Phanebalos 
 (who consequently has to dispense with the harpe, as Osiris with his 
 sceptre); and the same is true of Poseidon (whose dolphin is 
 consequently placed in the field instead of in his hand). The same 
 
 ^ He goes further and identifies Herakles-Bel with Dagou. Dagon may be, as 
 he argues (p. 79), connected with agriculture ; but the supposed representation 
 of the deity in question as holding ears of corn in his hand (De Saulcy, Num. 
 de la TerreSainte, p. 189, no. 4) is surely the ordinary type with the palm-branch, 
 misdescribed by Reichardt. 
 
SOME PALESTINIAN CULTS 13 
 
 tendency affects Mamas on the coins of Gaza about this time. Is it 
 due to assimilation to the ordinary attitude of Imperial statues in the 
 act of adlocutio ? 
 
 Coins of Caracalla, Severus Alexander, and Maximinus show us 
 a bust of Isis, below which are sometimes discernible three lion's heads 
 — shorthand for the whole animals (PI. no. 18). We may assume that 
 at Ascalon there was a pair of deities, adapted from Osiris and Isis, 
 represented like Syrian gods, standing upon lions. A statue of Isis 
 suckling Horus, in the ordinary form, was found at Ascalon. 
 
 Pius also introduced on Ascalonian coins the type of the Dioscuri 
 with a crescent, representing Astarte, between them. This group I 
 have discussed elsewhere.^ 
 
 Finally, under Macrinus appears the type of a nude Heracles, 
 holding a small Nike and his club. I take this to be the Heracles- 
 Belos of the Ascalonians to which we have already referred ; the Nike 
 gives significance to the epithet di/eiK-qros applied to this god in the 
 Canopus dedication. 
 
 Thus, at Ascalon, so far as we can interpret the evidence, we find 
 nothing of specially Philistine character, but a highly characteristic 
 mingling of Phoenician, Syrian, and Egyptian elements, which is quite 
 in place geographically. The local colour of Gaza is quite different.^ 
 
 Two passages in Stephanus of Byzantium ^ form the starting-point 
 of any consideration of the cults and legendary history of Gaza. He 
 says : ' It was called Ar:a, as well as Gaza, and to the present day the 
 Syrians call it Aza, from Azon son of Herakles. But some report the 
 legend that it was founded by Zeus, and that he deposited there his 
 private treasure, for gaza is the Persian word for money. But it was 
 also called lone, from lo who came thither by sea and abode there. And 
 also it was called Minoa, because Minos, with his brothers Aeacus and 
 Rhadamanthys, leaving his own country, founded '^ this city. Whence 
 also there came to be the temple of the Cretan Zeus among them, 
 whom even in our time they called Marnas, which is interpreted 
 Cretan-born. For the Cretans call maidens thus : marnans. And 
 again : ' The sea from Gaza as far as Egypt was called Ionian ; for 
 
 ' J. H. S., xxxi (1911), p. 62 (Tripolis). 
 
 2 A statement in S. A. Cook, Religion of Ancient Palestine, p. 33, that ' in 
 RIerneptah's reign we hear of a man of Gaza who is described as a servant of 
 Baal ', is based on a mistranslation in Breasted, Ancient Records, iii, § 630. 
 Mr. A. H. Gardiner informs me that the translation ' there went up the servant 
 of Baal Roy, son of Zeper, of Gaza ' should be ' there went up the servant (or 
 retainer) Baal-Roy ' &c. No conclusion can be drawn from this theophorous name 
 as to the worship of Baal at Gaza in Merneptah's time (thirteenth century b. (;.). 
 
 ^ S. VX1. rdfn and 'loiioc Tr/Aayos-. * Reading eKTiafV for eKiiXeaev. 
 
14 PROCEEDINGS OF THE BRITISH ACADEMY 
 
 Gaza also was called lone, from lo, and has a cow beside her in the 
 image representing her.' 
 
 Minos is represented on a coin of the year a.d. 131-2. I do not 
 know of a well-preserved specimen ; but he appears to wear a short 
 chiton or cuirass and to hold in his right hand a long branch, in his 
 left a spear. On the reverse of these coins is a tree, but of what kind 
 it is difficult to say. This association of a founder with a tree has 
 a Cretan air. Thus at Aptera the hero Ptolioitos stands in adoration 
 before a tree ; at Phaestus Herakles stands beside one ; at Priansus 
 a palm grows beside the throne of the goddess ; and we shall have to 
 mention immediately some of the Cretan figures seated in trees. As 
 Svoronos has remarked of such representations,^ ' we may say that 
 they are the most characteristic feature of the Cretan coinage.' They 
 certainly reflect an important aspect of Cretan religion. 
 
 The City-goddess of Gaza is shown resting on a sceptre and 
 holding a cornucopiae ; a heifer stands beside her, bearing out the 
 passage just quoted from Stephanus (PI. no. 20). When lo is present 
 in human form with the City-goddess, the heifer, which would be 
 tautological, is omitted. But for the benefit of those who would 
 be unable to recognize lo without her attributes, her name is then 
 always written beside her. 
 
 We now come to the most remarkable of the Gazaean deities, 
 Mamas. This god played an important part in the struggle 
 between Christianity and paganism at the end of the fourth and the 
 beginning of the fifth century. To the Christians of the time he was 
 almost as deadly an enemy as Sarapis. The struggle is described in 
 the most vivid way by Mark the Deacon in his life of Porphyry, 
 bishop of Gaza — a narrative which is not surpassed in human 
 interest by any work of its time.^ 
 
 Mark identifies Mamas with Zeus Kretagenes, and describes his 
 temple, the Marneion, as the most famous of all temples. Allowing 
 for the writer's local pride, we may suppose it to have been of con- 
 siderable importance. His description is not clear, and the Latin 
 translation in which it was alone accessible until recently does not 
 make it clearer. The building appears to have been circular, with 
 a double portico or peristyle, one set of columns within the other, 
 and a central dome. Mark's description of the dome is dva^va-qTov 
 Ki(3a)pLov, Kal di/aT€Tafiii'ov el? vyjro?. ' An inflated cup extended 
 
 ' Rev. Beige de Num., 1894, p. 127. 
 
 '^ It is nothing less than extraordinary that the Greek text of this narrative, 
 which has been accessible since 1874 in Haupt's transcript (^6A«nrf/. Berl. Akad.) 
 and since 1895 in the Teubner edition, is still ignored by some of the most 
 learned writers on archaeology and religion. 
 
SOME PALESTINIAN CULTS 15 
 
 vertically' sounds like an elliptical dome ^ ; but I am inclined to 
 think it merely means a dome of the ordinary kind. The coins show- 
 ing the temple (PI. no. 19) unfortunately do not help us, the engraver 
 having been content with the most conventional indication of two 
 columns supporting an architrave with a pediment above. Probably 
 this is meant for the facade of the building. This summary rendering 
 may be due to the fact that two figures had to be represented in the 
 temple, and the engraver did not feel capable of giving many details 
 of the architecture as well. 
 
 The god is shown in the temple confronting a figure resembling 
 the ordinary Greek Artemis as huntress. Beside him is written his 
 name MAPNAC.'^ Eckhel, puzzled by the Apolline appearance of 
 the god, suggested that the word was not his name but an epithet of 
 the city. But in that case one would expect an adjectival form. 
 What is more, this inscription is found only in association with this 
 particular figure ; were it an epithet of the city, it might be expected 
 to appear elsewhere, with other types. 
 
 Who was this Marnas ? We have already seen that he was identi- 
 fied with the Cretan Zeus. Epiphanius," speaking of the worship of 
 
 ^ Miss Gertrude Bell points out that such a shape is extremely probable in 
 itself ; but the earliest Persian dome is probably about a. d. 226^ whereas the 
 Marneion, it would seem, was most likely of the second century. Stark {Gaza, 
 p. 599) had long ago recognized that the building was domed, and of the Pantheon 
 type. It is possible, of course, that Mark is using the word /cijSwpioi/ technically, 
 in the sense of a canopy of some sort. Draseke {Ges. Patrist. Untersuch., 1889, 
 p. 235) supposes the word to have the sense of the seed-vessel of tlie water-lily, 
 and to be used to indicate a dome. Strzygowski has devoted a brief passage to 
 the subject in his Kleinnsien (1903, p. 101) ; it is unfortunate that he seems not 
 to have consulted the original Greek, instead of the Latin translation, of the life 
 of Porphyry. If the Greek is difficult to understand, the Latin is sheer nonsense. 
 Strzygowski's instinct seems, however, to have kept him on the right track : ' it is 
 probable', he writes, Hhat it was not, as Dehio assumes, a hypaethral central 
 room with two circular porticoes, but a domed room with gallery and opaion, or 
 outlet for smoke. For only in the case of a closed central room (;ould they liave 
 entertained any idea of employing the scheme of the temple for a church.' He 
 goes on to refer to the supposed opaion, which naturally could not exist in 
 a hypaethral building ; but since this feature is only assumed in order to make 
 sense of the Latin translation, and has no basis in the Greek, we need not 
 consider it further. As regards the possibility of a hypaethral central room, it 
 is true that Mark, in a later passage (c. 84), speaks of the hypaethrum of the 
 temple ; but this was after the inner temple had been burnt, and any roof whicli 
 it had possessed was destroyed ; I do not think he is using the word in its 
 technical sense. 
 
 "^ The full form is clear on some specimens, which were unknown to those who 
 doubted whether it referred to the figure of the god. 
 
 3 Ancoratus, 109 C (i, p. 209, ed. Dind.). 
 
16 PROCEEDINGS OF THE BRITISH ACADEMY 
 
 mere mortals, instances Mapvds SovXos 'Aarepiov rod Kprjro^ rrapa 
 Fa^aLot.?, KdatosSe 6 vavKXrjpos irapa IlrjXovaicoraLS. Now Asterios 
 or Asterion was a name of the Cretan Zeus. 
 
 But we can go a little further than this. I have noted that two 
 deities seem to have been worshipped together in the Marneion. 
 Mark the Deacon, in fact, speaks of the 'images of the gods' which 
 were hidden by the priests Avhen the temple was threatened with 
 destruction ; there were, then, more than one cultus-image. The god, 
 on the coins, appears to be nude, and perhaps to hold a bow. This 
 Apolline appearance does not prevent his having been a Zeus ; 
 the Zeus Kasios of Pelusium, mentioned by Epiphanius, was similarly 
 youthful.^ But Crete furnishes us with the best parallel, in the youth- 
 ful Zeus Velchanos of Phaestus. Overbeck ^ has already noted the 
 apparent connexion between this Velchanos, as he appears seated in 
 a tree, and the so-called Europa, also in a tree, on the coins of 
 Gortyna. And this Europa, as Svoronos maintains,^ is really in all 
 probability the Cretan Britomartis, who is well known to have been 
 identified with Artemis, more particularly in her capacity of huntress. 
 Now the lover of Britomartis was Minos, himself a hypostasis of 
 Zeus. Britomartis is glossed as ' sweet maiden ', and the second part 
 of her name is plausibly connected with the Cretan word mama 
 = maiden. I suggest that Mamas and mama would stand to each 
 other as Kopos or Kovpos and Kopa.^ 
 
 Modern critics have preferred to see in Manias a Syrian name, 
 equivalent to ' Our Lord \^ Modern, but not the most modern 
 critics, have also shelved the whole of the literary records about the 
 connexion between Crete and Gaza as the invention of scholars. 
 It is remarkable that the whole of the recent evidence^ about the 
 
 ^ If the young, Apolline Zeus Kasios of Pelusium was of the same origin as we 
 shall see is probable in the case of the Zeus of Gaza, we can well understand how 
 the name ' Ionian ' came to be applied to the sea which washed the coast from 
 Gaza to Pelusium. ' Ionian ' meant, not the sea of lo, as Stephanus supposed, 
 but the sea of the children of Javan, from ' the isles afar off'. 
 
 ^ On the youthful Zeus, Kunstmythol., ii, pp. 194 ff. 
 
 3 Rev. Beige, 1894, pp. 113 ff. 
 
 * On Zeii? Kovpos in Crete see Miss Harrison's article in B. S. A., xv, pp. 308 ff. 
 
 ® F. Baethgen, Beitriige zur semit. Religionsgesch. , p. 65 f. Hall {Oldest Civiliza- 
 tion of Greece, p. 320), however, suggested that the word need not be Semitic 
 at all. 
 
 ^ See the summary in A. J. Evans, Scripta Minoa, pp. 77 ff. To the evidence 
 there mentioned must be added that from Tell es-Safi (Gath). The Palestinian 
 pottery was seen to be Aegean by Welch {B. S. A., vi, pp. 117f.)j but its 
 Cretan character and date were established independently by Thiersch {ArcMol. 
 Anseiger, 1908, pp. 378 f.) and Hall (P. «. B. A., 1909, p. 236). Finally, 
 
 I 
 
SOME PALESTINIAN CULTS 17 
 
 connexion between Crete and Philistia, overwhelming as it is, should 
 still be ignored by some writers on Palestinian archaeology. I think 
 that the facts that have been briefly stated above help not a little to 
 confirm the view of the Cretan origin of Gaza, if it needed coiifirma- 
 tion ; that the two deities, looking like Apollo and Artemis, in the 
 temple at Gaza, are Mamas and his consort Britomartis, the Cretan 
 Zeus and the Cretan Artemis, connected in name in the same way as 
 Zeus and Dione; and that the name Manias is probably Cretan in 
 origin, its Syrian appearance being fortuitous. 
 
 The approximation of Marnas to the ordinary Greek Zeus is 
 carried out further on a coin of Gordian. He is still a slight, youth- 
 ful-looking figure ; he holds a thunderbolt in his left arm ; sometimes 
 there is an eagle at his feet, or he is crowned by a Nike standing on 
 a column behind him. He raises his right hand, in the attitude 
 which I have already noticed as coming into fashion on the later coins 
 of Ascalon. 
 
 Whatever may have been the real nature of Marnas, his importance 
 to the city of Gaza was such that the whole coinage, except in the 
 very earliest period, bore his mark, even if he was not actually 
 represented. This mark was the Phoenician letter mem^ the initial of 
 his name. Damascius the Neoplatonist enlightens us on this point ; 
 for it is doubtless to this letter that he refers in a passage describing 
 signs which are sacred to various divinities : ' as, with the Egyptians, 
 the sign called tet, consisting of one upright straight line and three 
 cross lines, one at the top and two below that ; and again, another 
 sign with the Heliopolitans, and with the Gazaeans yet another, 
 which is sacred to Zeus.' ^ 
 
 This sketch of the numismatic evidence relating to the cults and 
 legends of the neighbours of the Jews in the Graeco-Roman age is, 
 I am only too well aware, incoherent and, in parts, speculative. But 
 perhaps it may serve to indicate to Semitic scholars that there is 
 a considerable body of evidence which, though obscure and difficult to 
 handle, cannot altogether be neglected by students of Palestinian 
 religion. 
 
 Mackenzie has fouud similar evidence in his excavations at Bethshemesh {Pal. 
 Expl. Fund Qu. St., 1911, pp. 141 f.). 
 
 ' Damascii Successoris Dubitationes , ed. Ruelle (Paris, 1889), ii, p. 127 f. 
 (fol. 300 r.). Sir Arthur Evans suggests that this supposed mem at Gaza is 
 really a modification of the swastika-symbol. 
 
I 
 
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PALESTINIAN CULTS 
 
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