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Aphrodite Ourania at Hierapolis in Phrygia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 September 2015

W. H. Buckler
Affiliation:
1, Bardwell Road, Oxford

Extract

On the site of Hierapolis ad Lycum a massive wall said to have been discovered in 1933 preserves among other ancient fragments part of an inscribed pedestal probably dating from the latter half of the second century A.D. To the kindness of a correspondent I owe the photograph (Fig. 1) of this marble block. The dimensions are lacking, but if, as seems probable, the letters are about 0.03 m. high, the inscribed surface measures about o.66 by 0.40. The present transcription gives, I believe, the first ancient text found at Hierapolis since the publication in 1898 of Judeich's corpus.

Type
Notes
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1936

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References

page 237 note 4 C. Humann, C. Cichorius, W. Judeich, F. Winter, Altertumer v. Hierapolis; Jahrbuch, Ergänzungs heft iv. Our text, if there inserted, would be no. 49a.

page 237 note 5 The monument in the Verona Museum (CIG 3157), published as being from Smyrna but doubtful as to provenance and authenticity, offers, so far as I know, the sole evidence of the cult elsewhere in Asia.

page 237 note 6 Cf. Theocr. Epigr. v (Ahrens); Pausanias (ix, 16, 2) and Artemidorus (Onirocr. ii. 37Google Scholar) draw the same distinction as that in the epigram.

page 238 note 1 For A. Ourania in the following places, see Paus. i, 14, 7 and 19, 2 (Athens); ii, 23, 8 (Argos); iii, 23, 1 (Cythera); vi, 20, 6 (Olympia) and 25, 2 (Elis); vii, 26, 7 (Aegira); viii, 32, 2 (Megalopolis); ix, 16, 2 (Thebes). Cf. also IG iv2, 283 (Epidaurus); IG v, 559. 23 (Sparta); IG vii, 1828 (Thespiae: epigram by Hadrian); IG xiv, 287 (Segesta); CIG 2109b (Panticapaeum).

page 238 note 2 Broneer, (Hesperia i, 1932, p. 53Google Scholar; cf. iv, 1935, p. 574) has shewn that Aphrodite Ourania came from Cyprus, and the Cypriote goddess was originally identical with the Phoenician (Roscher, , Lex. i, 653)Google Scholar; research has thus so far confirmed in part the opinion of Pausanias (i, 14, 7) that ‘the first people to worship the Heavenly Goddess were the Assyrians, and next to these were the inhabitants of Paphos in Cyprus and the Phoenicians of Ascalon in Palestine, (tr. Frazer).’

page 238 note 3 Jeremiah vii, 18; xliv, 17; Cook, S. A., The Old Testament, p. 149 f.Google Scholar

page 238 note 4 See Garstang, J.-Strong, H., The Syrian Goddes (1913), p. 45Google Scholar. A representation of Aphrodite Ourania with nimbus has been found at Dura; Excav. at Dura, 6th Rep. (1936), p. 281, note 4.Google Scholar

page 238 note 5 They might readily have accepted her since, as Ed. Meyer points out (Roscher, , Lex. i, 655)Google Scholar, the cult of the Phrygian ‘Mother’ was full of Semitic features.

page 238 note 6 CIG 3948; IGR iv. 862Google Scholar.

page 238 note 7 AM xxvii, 1902, p. 93, no. 83.Google Scholar Cf. the examples cited by Robert, L., BCH lx, 1936, p. 196Google Scholar.

page 238 note 8 Durrbach-Roussel, Inscr. de Délos, Fragm. actes divers, 1412.32; 1414, a ii. 10; 1417, A ii. 12; 1426, B ii. 14; 1442, B. 32.