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Julien Aliquot, Inscriptions grecques et latines de la Syrie 11, Mont Hermon (Liban et Syrie)

Ted Kaizer
p. 441-443
Référence(s) :

Julien Aliquot, Inscriptions grecques et latines de la Syrie, tome 11, Mont Hermon (Liban et Syrie), BAH 183, IFPO, Beyrouth, 2008, 28 cm, vi + 168 p., ISBN : 978-2-35159-079-9.

Texte intégral

1This latest instalment in the IGLS series deals with the epigraphic harvest from the Hermon. Originally announced in 1959 by Father R. Mouterde (two years before his death) as soon to be published as part of volume VI (IGLS, V, p. 2), the Hermon inscriptions had since then long been awaited as a separate tome (IGLS, VI, p. 6). Work on the actual book here under discussion commenced in 2003, when Mouterde’s manuscript was passed on to J. Aliquot. In an earlier version, it served as an appendix to the latter’s PhD on religious life in the Roman Lebanon, which has now been published as a separate volume in the same BAH series (189) as La vie religieuse au Liban sous l’Empire romain (Beirut, 2009).

  • 1 It may be added to p. 11, n. 32, that the most recent edition of this text is now that by A. Lichte (...)
  • 2 Aliquot had already published three of those previously, in an article which appeared in BAAL, 8 (2 (...)
  • 3 Cf. J. Aliquot, « Sanctuaries and villages on Mt Hermon during the Roman period », in T. Kaizer (éd (...)

2Aliquot opens his IGLS volume with general considerations about the geography of the Hermon (emphasising the fact that the population was most numerous on its western slope), the mountain’s multifarious reputation for sanctity through the centuries, and an overview of the history of the region’s exploration and subsequent historiography —from the first available record of a voyage by Ulrich Jasper Seetzen1, via the classic 1938 volume by Krencker & Zschietzschmann, Römische Tempel in Syrien, to Aliquot’s own five epigraphic missions in the noughties, which resulted in the discovery of nineteen new inscriptions included here2. It is then rightly accentuated that, in the Roman period, the Hermon “apparaît … comme un pays de villages associés à des sanctuaires”3, before an important section is dedicated to the problem of the various eras used in the dating formulae of the inscriptions, due to the fact that the many villages were divided over the territories of Sidon, Damascus and Paneas.

3No doubt as a matter of political expediency (cf. p. 15), the collection is nominally that of inscriptions from the territories of Lebanon and Syria (with the names of both countries even formally forming part of the book’s title) whereas material from those areas which are now considered as part of the state of Israel appears only as an appendix on the southern Hermon. The main body of the set comprises of fifty-five inscriptions, seventeen from the western Hermon and thirty-eight from the eastern part, geographically divided to acknowledge their belonging to the Lebanese and Syrian lands respectively, but numbered uninterruptedly (nos 1‑55). The twenty-five inscriptions from the southern slopes receive a separate system of numbering (nos A/1-A/25), and so does an additional list of references to Paneas in inscriptions from elsewhere (nos T/1-T/7).

4The epigraphic corpus (or rather corpora) is/are presented with full references to previous publications, information about collation, splendid photographs where possible, translations and sometimes very lengthy commentaries. In what follows I will simply point out specifics that appear in the inscriptions and that have drawn my particular (and no doubt arbitrary) interest.

  • 4 It has often been forgotten that the Latin dedication to Mater Matuta from Deir el-Qal’a, in the hi (...)
  • 5 As had been suggested originally by R. Mouterde, « Cultes antiques de la Cœlésyrie et de l’Hermon » (...)
  • 6 In addition to the examples given by Aliquot, one could think with regard to Aramaic epigraphy of t (...)
  • 7 His long commentary on this fascinating inscription builds on his article, « Leucothéa de Segeira » (...)

5The first inscription, from Haloua (no 1), is immediately of great peculiarity. It concerns an inscription from ad 156 set up ‘on the command (διαταγῇ) of the holy god [probably ‘of’] Remala(s)’, which as Aliquot writes may well have been the ancient name of the site, and ‘following the order (ϰατὰ ϰέλευσι[ν]) of the god angel Melicertes’. The fascinating replication of directives on the part of the divine is explained by Aliquot as the result of an “idée d’une hiérarchie dans le pantheon local”, with Melicertes in the messenger’s role subordinated to “une grande divinité cosmique” (p. 28). In any case, the mention of Melicertes of course fits well with the popularity of his mother Leucothea elsewhere on the Hermon, especially at Rakhlé (for the inscriptions from her cult site there, see nos 20-30)4. Aliquot rejects the once fancied and certainly ingenious restoration of no 20, from ad 60, as an allusion to ‘the goddess of the myth of the drowned child’ —θεᾶς μοίθου τοῦ ϱαι(σ)[θέντος π]αιδό(ς)—5, and supports the rather more mundane reading of this text as a reference to ‘the goddess of Moithos, son of Raios’ (θεᾶς μοιθου τοῦ Ραιο[υ]). Although there are of course plenty of examples of a deity designated as that ‘of’ an individual worshipper (and hence by extension of his immediate family) from elsewhere in the Near East which could serve as parallels6, I have to admit that I still feel more inclined to go with the former reading and interpretation, considering the imperative role that mythology could play in the endless processes by which Classical modes of religious culture were bred and regenerated. But, since the inscription has never been found again and the basis of any discussion is the original transcription made by O. Puchstein (cf. p. 51), the problem must remain unsolved. With regard to the dedication to Leucothea ‘of the Segeiroi’ from Ain el-Bourj (no 39) that refers to someone τοῦ ἀποθεωθέντος ἐν τῷ λέβητι διοὗ αἱ ()οϱταὶ ἄγωνται, Aliquot discards the “interprétation ritualiste et initiatique” (p. 69) of this text, namely that the person in question had been initiated in a kettle in an otherwise unknown rite in association with those versions of the myth in which Melicertes was thrown in a kettle by either of his parents. Instead, he proposes a convincing explanation based on “l’existence d’une cérémonie funèbre liée au culte de Leucothéa” (p. 69)7.

  • 8 Aliquot interprets this as « généralement léger, mobile et dépourvu de dossier » (p. 32), the oppos (...)

6The corpus from the Hermon adheres to the patterns known from elsewhere in the Near East, namely that nearly all the temples and other public buildings are the result of donations made by local benefactors, often in some sort of family affair, as in no 14 from Ain Horché, which records a restoration by someone ‘and his cousins’ (ϰαὶ ἀνεψιοὶ). Not only from those dedications, but from the wide range of inscriptions in general, related to a variety of aspects, the leading role of the priesthood in the local societies of the Hermon stands out (e.g. nos 13, 19, 22, 24, 27, 38). It may be noted that whereas a text from Ain Aata (no 15) from ad 265 describes a certain Iulius Kanthouros as εἱεϱαίος, “sans doute pour ἱεϱέως (gén.), au lieu du nominative ἱεϱεύς” (p. 42), the conventional term rather than the divergent one for which we have this parallel is chosen by Aliquot in his restoration of what seems to be an epitaph of the same man from the same site (no 16): [Ἰούλιος] Κά[ν]θο[υϱος ἱεϱεὺς θεοῦ ---]ου ϰαὶ θεὰς [---], on a block which intriguingly combines a Gorgon’s head with the fatalistic final line οὐδεὶς ἀθάνα[τος]. No A/13, from Caesarea-Paneas, uses the “equivalent poétique” (p. 100) ἀϱητήϱ, in a dedication ϕιλευήχῳ Διόπανι of what probably was a statue of Echo. And at Deir el-Aachaiyer, a δίϕϱος8 was installed under the auspices of the ἀϱχιεϱεύς θεῶν Κιβοϱειας (no 4), according to an inscription that hints at the existence of a sacerdotal pecking order also in the rural areas of the Near East.

  • 9 C. Hopkins, in The Excavations at Dura-Europos. Preliminary Report of Fifth Season of Work, New Hav (...)

7In addition to local benefactions, temple building projects could also be funded otherwise. A lintel from Aaiha (no 7) records how the local sanctuary was built ἐϰ τῶν ἱεϱατιϰῶν, and the same formula appears in a partly damaged inscription from Hiné (no 46), where the work paid for by the sacred funds is supervised by epimeletai, but seemingly ordered by the later emperor Pertinax: “le seul témoignage syrien de l’activité de Pertinax en tant que gouverneur de la province”, and likewise special in that it records “l’intervention d’un gouverneur dans la construction d’un sanctuaire” (p. 83). Also from Hiné comes a text (no 47) that testifies how four epimeletai have built something ἐϰ τῶν πϱ[οs]όδων τοῦ θεοῦ, but apparently after their own advance: [πϱ]ο[α](ν)ηλώσαν[τες], “ayant avancé (l’argent par eux-mêmes)” (p. 83). Similarly, in no 42 from Arné, the adornment of the temple of the local god is sponsored by that god himself (ἐϰ τῶν τοῦ αὐτοῦ τοῦ θεοῦ). Here, the god in question is designated as that of the village (ἐϰοζμήθη ναὸς θεοῦ Διὸς ϰώμης Ωϱνεας), in a manner that ought to call to mind the appearance at Dura-Europos both of Zeus Theos and of the god Aphlad (the latter said to have been λεγομένου θεοῦ τῆς Ἁναθ ϰώμης Εὐϕϱάτου).9

  • 10 Cf. p. 75, with n. 70-1, for all references to the complete dossier of this deity.
  • 11 Cf. Fr. Briquel-Chatonnet, « Un cratère palmyrénien inscrit : nouveau document sur la vie religieus (...)

8Further inscriptions provide new instances of the worship of long-known divinities, sometimes from unexpected angles. A dedication of a temple to the enigmatic Theos Andrios comes from Rimé, from ad 198/9 (no 41),10 and the large inscribed tub from Hiné (no 52), which records its dedication by a local temple treasurer, is perhaps similar to the smaller mixing-basins from Palmyra, equally inscribed around the rim.11 No 45 is an inscription spread over four sides of an altar from Kafr Hawar. In contrast to Lucian’s On the Syrian Goddess, where the indigenous name of the goddess is conspicuously absent, this concerns a dedication Θεᾷ Συϱίᾳ Ἱεϱα-[π]ολιτῶν by a certain Lucius, who first identifies himself as the goddess’ δοῦλος, and then goes on to describe himself as εὐσεβὴς ϰαὶ πεμϕθεὶς ὑπὸ τῆς ϰυϱίας Ἀταϱγάτη[ς]. From Banias comes a funerary text (no A/23) that applies uncommon (as far as the Near East is concerned) poetic language to state that the deceased has been led prematurely to the Hades (εἰς [Ἀΐ]δαο) by Moira. Finally, there is the Hellenistic bilingual from Tel Dan (no A/12), of which the Aramaic counterpart could perhaps be restored as l’[lh’ dy bdn] (‘to the god who is in Dan’) rather than l’[lh’ dn] (‘to the god of Dan’), since according to the Greek this is a dedication Θεῶι τῶι ἐν Δανοις.

9The volume is completed with a section on onomastics, drawing attention to the division between the mountain’s villages where Semitic nomenclature dominates and Paneas where the personal names are mostly Classical, and with very fully indices, concordance and bibliography. The clarity of the beautifully produced maps which appear throughout the book is especially commendable. In conclusion, then, this volume will serve as an invaluable tool for further exploration of all aspects of the Hermon region and the Phoenician lands in particular, and of the study of the Roman Near East in general. It occupies a worthy place in the IGLS series, further progress of which is keenly anticipated and can be checked at http://www.hisoma.mom.fr/​Programme_epigraphie/​JB_YON/​IGLS_intro.html.

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Notes

1 It may be added to p. 11, n. 32, that the most recent edition of this text is now that by A. Lichtenberger: U. J. Seetzen, Unter Mönchen und Beduinen. Reisen in Palästina und angrenzenden Ländern 1805-1807, Stuttgart/Vienna, 2002.

2 Aliquot had already published three of those previously, in an article which appeared in BAAL, 8 (2004), p. 301-314. Note that Haloua, from which these inscriptions come, was then still described as “situé dans la partie septentrionale de l’Hermon” (p. 301); in the present volume, where the texts are nos 1-3, they are grouped with the documents from the western part of the mountain.

3 Cf. J. Aliquot, « Sanctuaries and villages on Mt Hermon during the Roman period », in T. Kaizer (éd.), The Variety of Local Religious Life in the Near East in the Hellenistic and Roman Periods, Leiden/Boston, 2008, p. 73-96.

4 It has often been forgotten that the Latin dedication to Mater Matuta from Deir el-Qal’a, in the hinterland of Berytus, ought to be tied in with this corpus too. Cf. T. Kaizer, « Leucothea as Mater Matuta at colonia Berytus. A note on local mythology in the Levant and the Hellenisation of a Phoenician city », in Syria, 82, 2005, p. 199-206, and now also J. Aliquot, « Cultes locaux et traditions hellénisantes du Proche-Orient : à propos de Leucothéa et de Mélicerte », in Topoi, 14, 2006, p. 245-264, esp. p. 250-251.

5 As had been suggested originally by R. Mouterde, « Cultes antiques de la Cœlésyrie et de l’Hermon », in MUSJ, 36, 1959, p. 78-81.

6 In addition to the examples given by Aliquot, one could think with regard to Aramaic epigraphy of the worship of the Gad of Ramgu at Hatra (cf. Hatra-inscriptions H406, 408-9, 413ii-iii) or of that of the goddess of Hayyan son of Naybat at Petra (cf. J. F. Healey, The Religion of the Nabataeans. A Conspectus, Leiden, 2001, p. 139).

7 His long commentary on this fascinating inscription builds on his article, « Leucothéa de Segeira », in Syria, 79, 2002, p. 231-248. For the alternative view, see C. Bonnet, « De l’histoire des mentalités à l’histoire des religions : à propos de Leucothéa et de trois petits cochons », in SEL, 14, 1997, p. 91-104.

8 Aliquot interprets this as « généralement léger, mobile et dépourvu de dossier » (p. 32), the opposite of the static θϱόνος, of which he sees the cultic throne at the Phoenician healing sanctuary of Eshmoun as a key example, and also the passage in On the Syrian Goddess 24. It is supposed that the δίϕϱος was similar to the ‘procession vehicle’ depicted on coins issued by Sidon under Elagabal.

9 C. Hopkins, in The Excavations at Dura-Europos. Preliminary Report of Fifth Season of Work, New Haven, 1934, p. 112-113, no 416.

10 Cf. p. 75, with n. 70-1, for all references to the complete dossier of this deity.

11 Cf. Fr. Briquel-Chatonnet, « Un cratère palmyrénien inscrit : nouveau document sur la vie religieuse des Palmyréniens », ARAM, 7, 1995, p. 153-163.

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Ted Kaizer, « Julien Aliquot, Inscriptions grecques et latines de la Syrie 11, Mont Hermon (Liban et Syrie) »Syria, 87 | 2010, 441-443.

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Ted Kaizer, « Julien Aliquot, Inscriptions grecques et latines de la Syrie 11, Mont Hermon (Liban et Syrie) »Syria [En ligne], 87 | 2010, mis en ligne le 01 juillet 2016, consulté le 29 mars 2024. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/syria/844 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/syria.844

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