Lucian on the temple at Heliopolis

Kaizer, Ted

Abstract

his paper focusses on two lines in what counts as our best available literary source for the study of religious life in the Roman Near East. In paragraph 5 of Περὶ τῆς Συρίης Θεοῦ (On the Syrian Goddess), a treatise professing to describe the temple and cult at Hierapolis, a place in northern Syria also known by its indigenous names of Manbog or Bambyce, the author writes: ἔχουσι δὲ καὶ ἄλλο Φοίνικες ἱρόν, οὐκ Ἀσσύριον ἀλλ’ Αἰγύπτιον, τὸ ἐξ Ἡλίου πόλιος ἐς τὴν Φοινίκην ἀπίκετο. ἐγὼ μέν μιν οὐκ ὄπωπα, μέγα δὲ καὶ τόδε καὶ ἀρχαῖόν ἐστιν. The Phoenicians have another temple, not Assyrian, but Egyptian, which came to Phoenicia from Heliopolis. I have not seen it, but it too is large and ancient.

Citation

Kaizer, T. (2016). Lucian on the temple at Heliopolis. Classical Quarterly, 66(1), 273-285. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0009838816000094

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jul 30, 2015
• Online Publication Date: Mar 31, 2016
• Publication Date: May 1, 2016
• Deposit Date: Sep 22, 2016
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 23, 2016
• Journal: Classical Quarterly
• Print ISSN: 0009-8388
• Electronic ISSN: 1471-6844
• Publisher: Classical Association
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 66
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 273-285
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/s0009838816000094
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1397099