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

44 S. LIPI&SKI
Alexander made his journey riding on young Libyan asses 15°. In fact,
the town inhabited by the Amazons is called Carthage 151. I. Levi
thinks that this city has been chosen because its name was derived
by folk-etymology from the Aramaic qartd3, «the town», and the
Greek ywTjj, « woman» 152. But also Diodorus of Sicily mentions the
Amazons dwelling «in the western parts of Libya, on the bounds of
the inhabited world» 153, though he knows too, from the legend of
Alexander the Great, that Amazons were living in «the .country
between the rivers Phasis and Thermodon » 154, in Asia Minor.
The Talmud records on the other hand a rabbinical statement that
Gehenna lies behind the land of darkness 155. This idea is not of biblical
origin. But the region of the underworld was popularly located by the
Greeks among the Cimmerians, believed to be deprived of the sight
of the sun 156, or among the Hyperboreans 157. The author of Odyssey,
XI, 14-19, describes the people and city of Cimmerians as wrapped
in darkness : « Never does the shining sun look at them with his rays,
neither when he turns his course toward the starry sky, nor when
from the latter he returns to the earth; but a baneful night spreads
over those unfortunate mortals »^ A thousand years later, the Orphic
3 ApyovavriKo.i58, a product of the II-IV century of our era, speaks
still of the same country as overshadowed by mountain ranges, which
shut from it the light of the sun. As that region was located among the
Cimmerians, or in other northern regions 1595 it is likely that the original
150 Babylonian Talmud, Tamid, 32a,
151 Cf. G. NEtfBATJEB, La Geographie du Talmud, p. 403-405; P. GBELOT, art. tit.,
in Revue Biblique, 65, 1958, p. 58-59.
152 I. LETTE, art. Alexander the Great, in The Jewish Encyclopedia, I, New York -
London, 1901, p. 341-343 (see p. 343).
153 DIODOBTJS, Bibliotheca Historica, III, 53.
I" Ibid., XVII, 77,1.
155 Talmud of Jerusalem, Hagtga, n,l (32b).
ise Nom-fus, Dionysiaca, XLY, 268-269; CICEBO, Academics,. Editio Prior, II, 19,
§ 61. Cf. C.F. LSHMASTN-HAUPT, art. Kimm&rier, in Paulys Real-Encydopadie der classischen
Altertiimsmssenschaft, XI/I, Stuttgart, 1921, col. 397-434 (see col. 425-434).
is? PINDAK, Pythian Odes, X, 29-30; BAOCHYLIDES, Epinicia, III, 58-59. Cf. O.
SCHEOEDEB, Hyperboreer, in Archiv fur Religionswissenschaft, 8, 1905, p. 69-84; A. KOB-
TE, Das Land der Hyperboreer, in Archiv fiir Religionswissenschaft, 10, 1907, p. 152-153;
P. GBELOT, art. cit., in Revue Bibliqne, 65, 1958, p. 51-52.
158 Cf. G. DOTTED Les Argonautiqiies d'Orphee, Paris, 1930, p. 44-45, vs. 1120-1142.
159 c£ O. GBUPPE, Oriechische Mythologie und Religionsgeschichte, Munehen, 1906,
p. 390, n. 4.
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