He had no statue, but was venerated as a black stone with a round base and a pointed top. Iin the mid-second century CE, a dedication was made to Elagabal in a town called Laurium in Germania Inferior, at the opposite end of the Roman world ( more.).Įlagabal had always been worshipped with much pomp and devotion, accompanied by music and dancing. The Syrian sun god was also known outside Syria. It is assumed that the cult of Elagabal was the principal cult of Syria and that Emesa was its main religious center. Sacrifices were brought to Emesa by the inhabitants of the surrounding areas.
The cult of Elagabal A dedication to Elagabal from AugsburgĪccording to the Greek-Roman historian Herodian, who witnessed how the cult of Sol Invictus (the invincible sun) Elagabal was introduced in Rome by the emperor Heliogabalus (218-222), the worship of Elagabal was not a local phenomenon from Emesa, but was known from other places too. She offered water and fertility to the people, and was immensely popular in Syria. the other female deity, Astarte, resembles Aphrodite.Atargatis can be compared to the Phrygian goddess Cybele, the "great mother".Triads were common in Syrian and Mesopotamian cities, and Elagabal, the personification of a male principle and fertile warmth, had two female consorts of Semitic origin: Gebal is a Semitic root which means "to create". Elagabal has also been compared to the Chaldaean god Gibil, which can be translated as "god of the black stone". At a later stage, the worshippers of Elagabal were influenced by the cult of the Babylonian sun god Šamaš. Mountain gods had been known in Anatolia, Syria, and Palestine since Hittite times, and they continued to be venerated up until the Roman age. The Aramaic form of name of Elagabal is Ilaha Gabal, meaning "God of the mountain". His unusual name suggests an earlier origin and suggests this god was a local deity, related to similar pre-Arabian gods from Canaan. An eagle protects the stone with its wings.Īll gods of the pantheon of the Arab city Emesa, in Syria, had Semitic names, with one exception: the supreme god Elagabal, who represented the sun. The pantheon of Emesa The baetyl of Elagabal on a coin from Emesa. His cult was introduced in Rome by the boy-emperor Heliogabalus (218-222). Elagabal ( Aramaic Ilaha Gabal, the "lord of the mountain"), Syrian sun god.
0 kommentar(er)
