Baetyl
A baetyl (also betyl), literally "house of God" (from Semitic bet el; compare Bethel, Beit El) is a sacred stone (sometimes believed to be a meteorite) or a pillar that was venerated and thought to house a God or deity.[1] The most famous example is the Omphalos stored in the Temple of Apollo at the Greek town of Delphi.[2] Baetyls were popularly used in the ancient Near East and Greek religion and Roman religion.
The exact definition of a baetyl is usually vague in ancient and modern sources.[3][4] In some contexts, especially relating to Nabataean sites like Petra, the term is commonly used for shaped and carved stelae.[5]
In general the baetyl was believed to have something inherent in its own nature which made it sacred, rather than becoming sacred by human intervention, such as carving it into a cult image. Some baetyls were left in their natural state, but others were worked on by sculptors.
History[edit]
Ancient Near East[edit]
With various other sites around the Mediterranean, they were a feature of the Neolithic temple site of Tas-Silġ and other sites on Malta and Gozo.[6]
The Hittites had sacred stones known as huwasi installed into temples and open-air sanctuaries. Information about them comes from inventories from the time of the Hittite king Tudhalya IV.
In the Book of Genesis, a story (28:10–22) concerning a baetyl concerning the patriarch Jacob. 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 as Jacob'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 that would function as God's house.[7]
In Minoan religion, it has been suggested that rubbing, lying, or sleeping on a baetyl could summon a vision of the god, an event which appears to be depicted on some gold Minoan seal rings, where the stones are large oval boulders.[8] A small serpentinite boulder was excavated very close to the Palaikastro Kouros, the only known Minoan cult image, destroyed around 1450 BC; perhaps it was its baetyl.[9]
In the Phoenician mythology related by Sanchuniathon, one of the sons of Uranus was named Bethel.[10] The worship of baetyls was widespread in the Phoenician colonies, including Tyre, Sidon, and Carthage, even after the adoption of Christianity, and was denounced by Augustine of Hippo.
A similar practice survives today with the Kaaba's Black Stone, which was sacred to the polytheists before Islam.[11]
Ancient Greece and Rome[edit]
In ancient Greek religion and mythology, the term was specially applied to the Omphalos of Delphi ("navel"),[2] the stone supposed to have been swallowed by Cronus (who feared misfortune from his own children) in mistake for his infant son Zeus, for whom it had been substituted by Gaea.[12] This stone was carefully preserved at Delphi, anointed with oil every day and on festive occasions covered with raw wool.[13]
In Rome, there was the stone effigy of Cybele, called Mater Idaea Deum, that had been ceremoniously brought from Pessinus in Asia Minor in 204 BC.[10] The emperor Elagabalus who reigned from 218 until 222 (and was probably a teenager for all his reign) came from Syria and was already the hereditary high priest of the cult of the god Elagabalus there. Once made emperor he brought the god's baetyl to Rome with great ceremony, and built the Elagabalium to 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: thus Apollo Agyieus was represented by a conical pillar with a pointed end, Zeus Meilichius in the form of a pyramid.
According to Tacitus, the simulacrum of the goddess at the temple of Aphrodite Paphia at her mythological birthplace at Paphos, on Cyprus, was a rounded object, approximately conical or shaped like a meta (a turning post on a Roman circus) but "the reason for this" he noted, "is obscure".[14]
Other famous baetylic idols were those in the temples of Zeus Casius at Seleucia Pieria, and of Zeus Teleios at Tegea. Even in the declining years of paganism, these idols still retained their significance, as is shown by the attacks upon them by ecclesiastical writers.[10]
See also[edit]
- Asherah pole, Canaanite sacred tree or pole honouring Asherah, consort of El
- Bema and bimah, elevated platform
- Bethel (god)
- Benben
- Black Stone, the venerated stone at Kaaba
- Ceremonial pole
- High place, raised place of worship
- List of Greek mythological figures
- Kami, central objects of worship for Shinto, some of which are natural phenomena and natural objects such as stones.
- Lingam, abstract representation of the Hindu deity Shiva
- Banalinga, stones naturally worn to ovoid shapes in river beds in India
- Matzevah
- Menhir
- Pole worship
- Shaligram, river-bed fossils in India, considered holy
- Stele, stone or wooden slab erected as a monument
- Turbah, small clay or earthen slabs used by Twelver Muslims
References[edit]
Citations[edit]
- ^ "Baetyl". Livius. Retrieved 2024-05-16.
- ^ a b Doniger 2000, p. 106.
- ^ Pagolu 1998.
- ^ Marinatos 2010, p. 87.
- ^ Wenning 2001.
- ^ Vella, Horation C. R., in Archaeology and Fertility Cult in the Ancient Mediterranean, p. 315, 1986, Gruner, ISBN 9789027272539
- ^ Marinatos 2004.
- ^ Marinatos 2004, p. 32–39.
- ^ MacGillivray & Sackett 2000, p. 166.
- ^ a b c public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Baetylus". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 3 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 191–192. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the
- ^ Ibn Ishaq (1964). The life of Muhammad. The Folio Society.
- ^ Chisholm 1911 cites Etymologicum Magnum, s.v.
- ^ Chisholm 1911 cites Pausanias X. 24.
- ^ Tacitus. Histories. Vol. 2. Translated by Moore, Clifford H. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. pp. 164–165. ISBN 0-674-99039-0. OCLC 11108482.
Sources[edit]
- Doniger, Wendy (2000), Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of World Religions, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, p. 106, ISBN 0-87779-044-2
- MacGillivray, Alexander; Sackett, Hugh (2000). "The Palaikastro Kouros: the Cretan god as a young man". British School at Athens Studies. 6: 165–169.
- Marinatos, Nanno (2004). "The Character of Minoan Epiphanies". Illinois Classical Studies. 29: 25–42.
- Marinatos, Nanno (2010). Minoan Kingship and the Solar Goddess: A Near Eastern Koine. University of Illinois Press.
- Pagolu, Augustine (1998). "Sacred Pillars". The Religion of the Patriarchs. A&C Black. pp. 135–170.
- Palmer, Robert Everett Allen (1997), Rome and Carthage at Peace, Stuttgart: F. Steiner, p. 99, ISBN 3-515-07040-0
- Wenning, Robert (2001). "The Betyls of Petra". Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research. 324 (1): 79–85.
Further reading[edit]
- "Baetyl" Jona Lendering, Livius.org
- Uta Kron: "Heilige Steine", in: Kotinos. Festschrift für Erika Simon, Mainz 1992, S. 56–70, ISBN 3-8053-1425-6