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Baetyl

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The Emesa temple to the sun godElagabaluswith baetyl at centre. Roman coin of 3rd century AD.

Abaetyl(/ˈbiːtɪl/;alsobetyl), literally "house of god" is a sacred stone (sometimes believed to be ameteorite) that was venerated and thought to house a god or deity.[1]The most famous example is theOmphalosstored in theTemple of Apolloat theGreektown ofDelphi.[2]

The term baetyl was used inancient near easternsources, in the form of "beth-el", as well as in Greek and Roman sources, as abaitylos.In the former, the term was used to refer to the names of gods or places. Examples includeBethel,a location described in theHebrew Bible,and the deityBethel,[3]who was mentioned in texts likeEsarhaddon's Treaty with Ba'al of Tyreand theElephantine papyri.In the latter, the word was used to describe a round stone that had fallen from the sky (i.e. a meteorite).[4]

The word "baetyl" has taken on a vague use in modern writing.[5][6]It has been debated both how ancient and modern usage of this word compare with one another. And, among modern historians, concerns have risen over the precision, accuracy, and generalizing tendency of the usage of this term in describing ancient texts and material objects.[7][8]The term has been used expansively, referring to any cultic stone regardless of the type or shape of stone that it was, such as whether it was a rounded stone (or ovoid), a pillar, or astele(standing stone).[9][10]This generalization has been criticized as not corresponding to ancient use of the term itself and resulting in a projection of the modern sense of the word (a sacred stone containing the presence of a deity) onto a wide variety of cultic stone objects where little evidence exists for such an understanding existed, as in the case of theNabataeans.[11]

Etymology

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The term baetyl is a derivation of the Greekbaitylos,itself being derived from theSemitictermbytʾl,or ( "beth-el", "house of god" ) where it appears to have referred to open-air sanctuaries.[12][8]

In literature

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Ancient Near East

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The earliest known evidence for the baetyl concept in the ancient near east, where it designated either the name of a place or a god, comes from the 8th century BC, from theSefire steles,a set of threeAramaicstelaediscovered at the site ofSfire.In the first half of the 7th century BC, a Phoenician-Aramaic god known asBethelis first attested.[8]

In the Bible

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TheBook of Genesisrecords a story (28:10–22) concerning the patriarchJacob.According to the story, Jacob went to sleep after laying his head on a certain rock. It was in this instance that he had the vision known asJacob's Ladder,which included an appearance of God. When he awoke, Jacob declared that God was in the location he was in. He declared the place to be the "house of God" (and so named it Bethel) and took the stone that he was laying his head on and set it up as a sacred pillar.[13]Though this narrative has been appealed to in some discussions of baetyls, the term Bethel ( "House of God" ) is not used to refer to the stone but to the new name of the town as a whole. Furthermore, the Hebrew word for "pillar",maṣṣebah,was translated into Greek in theSeptuagintasoikos theou( "house of god" ), and notbaitylos,further indicating a lack of connection between this narrative and the baetyl concept. The stone itself is also not the actual location of God's presence, but is a memorial for the vision and vow. Its sacred status is a result of its status as Jacob's pillar.[14]

Ancient Greece

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The first Greek usage of thebaityloscomes from a first century text, but only as the name of a slave, not as a stone or a god. The next usage comes from the same century, in thePhoenician HistorybyPhilo of Bybloswhere it refers to the name of one of the sons ofOuranosandGaia.Philo then refers to a magical stone he calls abaitylia,which was invented when Ouranos first rained them from heaven (making it a meteorite; this is a common mythological etyiology for the origins of these sacred stones[8]). Philo's discussion is only extant in quotations fromEusebiuswho lived in the fourth century.[15]Another first-century reference is fromPliny the Elder,who describes thebaitylosin the following manner[16]:

Sotacus distinguishes also two other varieties of the stone, a black and a red, resembling axe-heads. According to him, those among them that are black and round are supernatural objects; and he states that thanks to them cities and fleets are attached and overcome, their name being baetuli while the elongated stones are cerauniae.

A much later reference occurs in the works ofDamascius,a 6th centuryNeoplatonist,according to later quotations of his text byPhotios I of Constantinoplein hisBibliotheca.There, it is a spherical stone that originated from the sky and was discovered by a certain man named Eusebius. Eusebius finds that this stone is prophetic and becomes its interpreter.[17]

Ancient Rome

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It is only in theLater Roman Empireand in the period oflate antiquitywhen the termbaityloscame to take on connotations that combined its connotations of divinity from the Semitic tradition with the connotations of its function as an object in the Greek tradition. This fusion was a product of the dual influence of both Semitic and Greek tradition on the Roman Near East, particularly in northernSyriaandLebanon.[18]

In material sources

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Ancient Near East

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Depiction ofJacob's dream sleeping on a stone atBethel,byJosé de Ribera

In the study of theancient Near East,the term 'baetyl' is usually broadly used to describe cultic stones.[19]Evidence for such cultic stones comes from theNeolithictemple site ofTas-Silġ,[20]texts from theAmoritesiteMariwhere the termsikkanumdesignated a stone used in cultic ceremony,[21]thehuwasi stonesinstalled into the temples and open-air sanctuaries of theHittites,[6]and among the Phoenicians. In studies ofPhoeniciaandPunic religion,the term baetyl is typically used to refer to a fairly small object that is ovoid or conical.[22]Some early stelae from Phoenicia inscribeovoid-shaped objects, which may prefigure the later appearance of actual baetyls.[23]In Phoenician theogony as described byPhilo of Byblos,there was a god named Baitylos, who was one of the four sons of Ouranos.[3]

TheMeccansanctuary, theKaaba,has been referred to inpre-Islamic Arabic poetryas "God's house" (bayt allāh). According to later sources, theBlack Stone(a baetyl) was moved to this location from a nearby mountaintop in order to augment the sacred nature of the site when the area was under control of theQuraysh.[24]Such baetyls can be described with the Arabicnuṣub(pl.anṣāb), typically referring to sacrificial stone altars (mentioned several times in theQuran:5:3, 90; 70:43) which is distinct from terms likeṣanamandwatham,which refer to manufactured statues or idols.[25]Some historians have compared the Black Stone to the description of a black, rounded stone said to have descended from heaven as described byHerodian.[26]

Ancient Greece and Rome

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Inancient Greek religionandmythology,the term was specially applied to theOmphalos of Delphi( "navel" ),[2]the stone supposed to have been swallowed byCronus(who feared misfortune from his own children) in mistake for his infant sonZeus,for whom it had been substituted byGaea.[27]This stone was carefully preserved atDelphi,anointed with oil every day and on festive occasions covered with raw wool.[27]

The baetyl of Aphrodite atPalaepaphos,described by Tacitus.

InRome,there was the stone effigy ofCybele,calledMater Idaea Deum,that had been ceremoniously brought fromPessinusin Asia Minor in 204 BC.[28]The emperorElagabaluswho reigned from 218 until 222 (and was probably a teenager for all his reign) came fromSyriaand was already the hereditary high priest of the cult ofthe god Elagabalusthere. Once made emperor he brought the god's baetyl to Rome with great ceremony, and built theElagabaliumto house it. It seems to have been a conical meteorite.

In some cases an attempt was made to give a more regular form to the original shapeless stone: thusApollo Agyieuswas represented by a conicalpillarwith a pointed end,Zeus Meilichiusin the form of apyramid.

According toTacitus,thesimulacrumof the goddess at the temple ofAphrodite Paphiaat her mythological birthplace atPaphos,on Cyprus, was a rounded object, approximately conical or shaped like ameta(a turning post on aRoman circus) but "the reason for this" he noted, "is obscure".[29]

Other famous baetylic idols were those in the temples ofZeus CasiusatSeleucia Pieria,and ofZeus TeleiosatTegea.Even in the declining years ofpaganism,these idols still retained their significance, as is shown by the attacks upon them by ecclesiastical writers.[28]

See also

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References

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Citations

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  1. ^"Baetyl".Livius.Retrieved2024-05-16.
  2. ^abDoniger 2000,p. 106.
  3. ^abHyatt 1939.
  4. ^Gaifman 2008,p. 44–46.
  5. ^Pagolu 1998.
  6. ^abMarinatos 2010,p. 87.
  7. ^Gaifman 2008,p. 42–44.
  8. ^abcdWenning 2001,p. 80.
  9. ^Falsone 1993.
  10. ^Doak 2015,p. 79.
  11. ^Gaifman 2008,p. 57–67.
  12. ^Gaifman 2008,p. 42.
  13. ^Marinatos 2004.
  14. ^Gaifman 2008,p. 47–51.
  15. ^Gaifman 2008,p. 51–52.
  16. ^Gaifman 2008,p. 53–54.
  17. ^Gaifman 2008,p. 54.
  18. ^Gaifman 2008,p. 55–57.
  19. ^Durand 2019,p. 15.
  20. ^Vella, Horation C. R., inArchaeology and Fertility Cult in the Ancient Mediterranean,p. 315, 1986, Gruner,ISBN9789027272539
  21. ^Durand 2019.
  22. ^Doak 2015,p. 80.
  23. ^Doak 2015,p. 86, 90.
  24. ^Sinai 2023,p. 148–149.
  25. ^Sinai 2023,p. 302–304.
  26. ^Durand 2019,p. 27, 27n41.
  27. ^abChisholm 1911.
  28. ^abOne or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain:Chisholm, Hugh,ed. (1911). "Baetylus".Encyclopædia Britannica.Vol. 3 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 191–192.
  29. ^Tacitus.Histories.Vol. 2. Translated by Moore, Clifford H. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. pp. 164–165.ISBN0-674-99039-0.OCLC11108482.

Sources

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Further reading

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  • Aliquot, Julien. "Au pays des bétyles: l’excursion du philosophe Damascius à Émèse et à Héliopolis du Liban," 2010, pp. 305–328.Available.
  • Kron, Uta. "Heilige Steine", in:Kotinos. Festschrift für Erika Simon,Mainz 1992, S. 56–70,ISBN3-8053-1425-6
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