Observations sur les representations du Pantheon Nabateen
Part of : Balkan studies : biannual publication of the Institute for Balkan Studies ; Vol.33, No.1, 1992, pages 5-50
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Pages:
5-50
Parallel Title:
Comments on the representations of the Nabataean Pantheon
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Articles
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Abstract:
On the steep sides of the narrow ravine of El-Siq which leads from thevast Jordanian desert into the heart of the secret Nabataean city of Petra,one can see, at intervals, several conchas that have been hewed out of therock, some of which are surrounded by arches and others by temple-likedecorations. Inside these conchas, there are various rectangular parallelepipeds,some of them single, others double, trible or even multiple, but notalways equivalent or of the same height. However, these conchas often containsingle hemispheric or omphaloid geometric figures (figures similar tothe delphic omphaluses, that is paraboloids of revolution). These are representationsof deities of the Nabataean Pantheon.By studying extracts from the Bible we can deduce that, in very ancienttimes, the stone-worshiping Nabataean Arabs represented the deities of thesemitic pantheon in the form of unshaped, natural slabs of rock (menhirs,bethels), and during the historic times in the form of prisms (pyramids,rectangular parallelepipeds, cubes, hemispheres or paraboloids of revolution).Dhu-Shara was the supreme deity of the Nabataeans and Alilat his femalecounterpart, and these appelations have been preserved in the ancient Greekliterature (Herodotus, Strabo, Hesychios and others). Herodotus and Strabohave recorded specific information on the Nabataean religion.This text contains all the related passages from the work of Pausanias,who, with his well-known curiosity to know and record all kinds of legendsand popular beliefs and, also, with the perceptiveness that characterizedhim, has recorded all the information he gathered during his visits to theoldest temples of the Greek world, so that we can see that the worship of thestatues of the Greek Pantheon replaced a very ancient (in some cases prehellenic)general stone worship.During that ancient period, amorphous or crudely worked stones representedmost of the primeval deities which were, later, identified with theOlympian gods (Cybele, Aphrodite, Zeus) and with other secondary but equally important ancient deities of fertility, such as Eros, in the form ofphalluses or hermaic columns.The Ancient Greeks believed that some rocks were the dwellings ofcertain gods and, in the end, the rocks were identified with these deities. Thereligious beliefs of the simitic peoples evolved in a somewhat similar way.The Bible contains many references to stone worship (op. cit. p. 26 ff.)where the significance of the erection of a s[ab of stone is explained (menhir,avadir, bethel, where the interpretation of the event is inherent in theappelation).As a matter of fact the word “bethel” derives from the hebrew wordbêt-elaha, which means “house of God”. But the Byzantine word for “brick”(tubulon, besalon) also derives from the same root and has the same meaning.The name of the Nabataean capital, too, which can he found in manyregions of greater Macedonia, where it designates “cols”, “passes” and“passages” is probably pre-hellenic; and it is particularly interesting that itappears in such a critical part of the nabataean world as its capital Petra.I believe that Petra had been the original name of the famous and very narrowpass which led to the secret capital of the Nabataean kingdom, which, formany centuries, had controlled the caravan routes, the land routes by whichthe Asian countries communicated with the West: in other words the passof EI-Siq.
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Nabataean Pantheon
Notes:
Το άρθρο περιέχει εικόνες.
