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Edward Lipinski's "El's Abode: Mythological Traditions Related to ...

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28 E. LIPE&SKI<br />

ated under the name of ©gos peyiaros also on Hermdn's summit,<br />

where a sanctuary has been discovered with an oval precinct enclosed<br />

by a wall of hewn s<strong>to</strong>nes 70. To the north-west of the precinct, in the<br />

place called d-Mutabhiydt, Ch. Warren has found the following Greek'<br />

inscription 71, which is conserved in two pieces in the Museum of the<br />

Palestine Exploration Fund, in London : Kara KfXevmv Oeov ^eytWow<br />

K(al) ay<strong>to</strong>v v( = ol) opvvovres evrevdev, « By order of the greatest<br />

and holy god, those who swore — from here»: This text has been<br />

deciphered and commented by Ch. Clermont-Ganneau 72. The adverb<br />

evrevdev, he thinks, probably indicates the place from which the<br />

sworn devotees had <strong>to</strong> proceed in procession. The mention of these<br />

6fji,vvovT€s is important. Indeed, the cultual oath so alluded <strong>to</strong> in the<br />

inscription has rightly been related by Ch. Clermont-Ganneau 73 <strong>to</strong><br />

the episode of the Ethiopia Book of Enoch or I Enoch, chapters VI<br />

<strong>to</strong> XI, where Mount Hermon appears precisely as the mountain of<br />

the oath.<br />

The sons of God were attracted by the beauty of the daughters of<br />

men and decided <strong>to</strong> take them as wives (comp. Gen. 6,1-4). But their<br />

chief Semyaza feared that they would renounce <strong>to</strong> accomplish their<br />

decision :<br />

« And it came <strong>to</strong> pass when the children of men had multiplied that in those<br />

days were bom un<strong>to</strong> them beautiful and comely daughters. And the angels, the<br />

of things,...; through her the firmament is made beautiful in the evening*; cf. A.W. SJG-<br />

BERG - B. BERGMANS, The Collection of the Sumerian Temple Hymns (Tests from Cuneiform<br />

Sources, HI), Gliickstadt - New York, 1969, p. 36. However, the name of Aeut<strong>to</strong>Bea.<br />

was applied in Homeric times <strong>to</strong> Ino, the daughter of Kadmos (cf. Odyssey, V, 333-334),<br />

and this use is still attested in the Orphic Hymn, I, 35. The temple of Ino on the Delos<br />

island was called AevKoQiov (PrsrDARUS, Pythiae, XI, 2).<br />

70 The spot has been described by Ch. WARREN, Summit of Herman, in Palestine<br />

Exploration Fund. Quarterly Statement, 1, 1869-1870, p. 210-215, and by V. QUIRES,<br />

Description geographique, his<strong>to</strong>rique et archeologique de la Palestine, III, Galilee, II,<br />

Paris, 1880, p. 290-295.<br />

71 Cf. Ch. WABEBN, in Palestine Exploration Fund. Quarterly Statement, 1, 1869-1870,<br />

p. 213, 239, 241, 328.<br />

72 Ch. CLSRMOiST-GANJsraATT, Le Mont Hermon et son dieu ffapres une inscription<br />

inedite, in Eecueil d'archeologie orientale, Y, Paris, 1903, p. 346-366 and pi. Yin. Cf.<br />

Jahrbuch des Kaiserlich-Deidschen Archaologischen Institute, 19,1904, p. 215; F.-M. ABEL,<br />

Oeographie de la Palestine, I, p. 348.<br />

73 Ch. CLERMONT-GAWNEAU, art. cit., p. 354-366. Cf. also A. LOBS, La chute des<br />

anges. Origine et portee de cette speculation, in Revue d'his<strong>to</strong>ire et de philosophic religieuses,<br />

1, 1927, p. 295-315 (see p. 306-307).<br />

#-<br />

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