THE SYMBOL OF THE TREE AND HELLENISTIC DYING/RISING GODS

THE SYMBOL OF THE TREE

AND

HELLENISTIC DYING/RISING GODS

COURSE: Symbol, Myth and Ritual in Religion

Dr. Sandra Zimdars-Swartz

Eleanor M. Cooley

December 5, 1980

The symbol of the tree was used in several religions in the ancient Eastern Mediterranean area. Various terms for the tree are present in the various cultus, in part to establish the uniqueness of each religion. There was considerable sharing of myth systems over a very long period of time, with various meanings of the tree drifting from myth to myth. This study will examine the tree symbol as used in the myth, and, where appropriate, the ritual, in the worship of the Goddess, the young God, and the dying/ rising God. This will be primarily a linguistic study of the Greek terms for the various "Trees" of the cultus. Special attention will be given to the word xnlon as traced through the Septuagint (hereafter noted as LXX) into the New Testament and the Church Fathers.

The first word examined is associated with the myth of Adonis and Aphrodite (Venus). This word mnrikh (murika), which refers to the tamerisk in all of its species and is associated with Adonis[i]. The spelling of the myrtle, however, in the Greek μnrtin (murtin) is sufficiently close that there may have been confusion in the ancient world. Thus, Adonis could have been identified with either tree. In the myth, as presented by Ovid in The Metamorphoses, Adonis is born from the Myrrha tree after his mother was transformed into the tree following an incestuous relationship with her father[ii]. The myth goes on with two variations, including Adonis spending half the year with Presephone in the underworld and half with Aphrodite following a judgement by Zeus that he must be shared. The ending of the myth is the same, as Adonis is killed by a boar while hunting. The mourning over his death is equated with the mourning over Tammuz by the women of Jerusalem in Ezek 8:14. Several sources say he is one and the same character[iii]. The only association with any tree is in the myth. In the ritual a wax image of Adonis was made and laid on a scarlet cloth. Myrra incense was burned[iv] and little plants of various descriptions were sown in earthen pots to represent various grains. These were called 'gardens of Adonis (but not trees) and were used in the rites[v].

The next word associated with the tree is in the Isis/Osiris cultus. In the myth of Isis/Osiris the coffin, in which Osiris is sealed by his brother Set, is magically protected and brought to share at Byblos where the xreikh (erika) tree grows up around it extremely fast and encloses the coffin in its trunk. The king of Byblos sees it and wants it as a pillar to support a roof in his home. The tree is cut down and taken to his palace. When Isis, who had been searching for her brother's body, hears of it, she goes immediately to Byblos and sits by the wall crying. She speaks to no one until the king's handmaidens come. She greets them, braids their hair and breaths on them a wonderous perfume. When the queen sees the braided hair and smells the perfume, she sends for the woman and her nurse her son. Included in this, myth is a tale of Isis trying to make the child immortal but failing when the mother finds the child in the flames. After this, Isis reveals who she is and asks for the tree. The coffin is cut out. The tree is then wrapped in fine linen, ointment poured on it, and the tree given to the king and queen. Then Isis went back to Egypt, but the tree remained at Byblos and was worshipped[vi].

In the Greek myth presented by Plutarch the word ereikh is used for the tree. This is defined in Hellenistic Greek as the Heather plant. In the commentary on Plutarch it is argued, and I believe rightly so, that this cannot be correct. The Heather plant is not big enough to enclose a coffin as it reportedly did in the myth. More likely, this is a misunderstanding of the Semitic word erinu or the Hebrew WT?!, which is translated cedar. Plutarch's sources may have used one of these words, and it may have been changed by a Greek intermediary into the similarly sounding word ereskh. The word used by the Egyptians in the myth was Cš and was not a cedar, strictly speaking, but may have been a juniper, fir, or pine[vii].

Osiris was originally a vegetation deity, possible Syrian. Trees were prominent in the funerary rites of Osiris and were revered in a special way. He has been associated with the pine, sycamore, tamerisk and acacia trees. However, the planting of trees in burial precincts was common in Egypt: "My 'ba' alights on the branches of the funerary garden which I have made: I am refreshed under my sycamore”[viii] This may have been the reason why an association developed between Osiris and trees[ix]. Emphatically, worshippers of Osiris were forbidden to destroy a cultivated tree dendron (dendron).[x]

Next to be dealt with is the word δενδρον. This is the generic Greek word for tree. It is used throughout the New Testament when referring to trees, with the notable exception of references to the cross as tree (see below). One of the reasons for the New Testament never using δενδρον for the cross is this word's association with the cult of Cybele/Attis.

In the myth, which varies slightly depending on the source, Attis was a shepherd beloved by Cybele, though originally he may have been a vegitation god[xi]. Cybele chose him to be her priest and imposed a vow of celibacy on him. He broke the yow and espoused the daughter of the river Sangarius. Cybele struck him with frenzied delerium, in the course of which he mutilated himself. When he recovered from his madness, he was preparing to kill himself when Cybele changed him into a fir tree[xii]. In other versions of the myth, he died from the mutilation he inflicted on himself and then Cybele changed him into a pine or fir tree. The worship of Cybele and Attis originated in Phrygia but was brought to Rome in 204 B.C. Under Claudius (41-54 A.D.) it was made the established religion of Rome[xiii].

In the ritual connected with the cultus a pine tree is cut down on the first day of the ceremony (Mar. 22). The pine tree-trunk is brought to the sanctuary of Cybele and wrapped in linen like a corpse. Following this; an effigy of Attis is hung on it. All this is done by a special group or guild of priests called SevSpopopia (dendroporia) which meant tree-bearers. The effigy of Attis was then carried in procession through the streets of Rome[xiv]. The remainder of the ceremony included burying the tree and then digging it up the next evening representing Attis' resurrection[xv]. Interestingly enough, the sanctuary of Cybele/ Attis was on what is now Vatican Hill[xvi]. I will deal with some of these implications later.

The last word to be studied is ξυλοv (xylon). In classical writing this word had several meanings. Commonly it referred to living or dead wood hewn from the stem. The reference to it as living wood was rare, for example in Xenophon, An. 6, 4 and 5, but much more often it means dead wood. It is wood for building, commercial timber or fuel. ξυλοv can also refer to a weapon or an instrument of punishment as a heavy wooden collar, or stocks. Thus in secular Greek by the 5th century B.C. (Aristophanes) the word ξυλοv took on the sense of something disgraceful or shameful. "From this, by way of the Septuagint, it was but a step to the New Testament sense of "cross.[xvii]" In the LXX the sense of living wood is much more common than in profane literature. Fruit trees, forest-trees, and trees of the field are called ξυλοv[xviii]. The tree of life in the Garden of Eden is also called by this name, but this whole myth-understanding is different than the intent of this paper and beyond its scope.

The LXX uses the word ξυλοv numerous times. Four examples that are important for this discussion will be presented here. In Deut 21:22 it is used in the sense of gallows, "And if a man has committed a crime punishable by death, and you hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but you shall bury him the same day, for a hanged man is accursed by God;" (Deut 21:22-23a) It is this passage which Paul refers to in Galatians to be discussed later.

In Judges ξυλοv is used in the sense of idolatry:

That night the Lord said to him, 'Take your father's bull, the second bull seven years old, and pull down the altar of Ba'al which your father has, and cut down the Ashe'rah that is beside it; and build an altar to the Lord your God on the top of the strong- hold here, with stones laid in due order; then take the second bull, and offer it as a burnt offering with the wood, of the Asherah which you shall cut down." (Judges 6:25-26)

In this passage ξυλοv is the wood of the pole of Ashe'rah, wood which

has been hewn to make an idol. The word ξυλοv is used in a similar sense in Jerimiah 3:6 referring to the high places. "The Lord said to me in the days of King Josi'ah; 'Have you seen what she did, that faithless one, Israel, how she went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and there played the harlot?" and again in Jer 6:13. "Only acknowledge your guilt, that you rebelled against the Lord your God and scattered your favors among strangers under every green tree and that you have not obeyed my voice, says the Lord.' In these passages the word ξυλοv is used referring to green trees; (ξυλοv) definitely in the sense of idolatry.

Of most interest for this discussion is the passage in Numbers 21:6-9, for it is in this passage that the pole with the bronze serpent is introduced:

Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israil died. And the people came to Moses, and said, We have sinned for we have spoken against the Lord and against you; pray to the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us. So Meses prayed for the people, and the Lord said to Moses, Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole, and every one who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live. So Moses made a bronze serpent, and set it on a pole; and if a serpent bit any man, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.

The pole in this passage is denoted by the word ξυλοv and the serpent is definitely an idol credited to Moses, which goes against the commandment to make no graven images (Ex 20:4). There is no question about the snake being associated with Ashe’rah or Astarte for she is depicted holding snakes in many bas-relief pictures[xix]. Until quite late, Yahweh was. considered to have Asherah for his consort in the popular religion[xx]. In fact, on the wall at Mizpah North of Jerusalem, temples of Ashe'rah and Yahweh appear to have stood together in the ninth century B.C. and to have survived until the city was destroyed. that the Astarte sanctuary was the center of the Goddess cult. It would seem that the worship of Yahweh was closely associated with the Goddess cult. If this were so, goddesses with Canaanite names such as Anath-Yahu can hardly have been an innovation. In Jer 44:20ff the people are blaming all their misfortunes, especially the fall of Jerusalem, on the fact that the cult of the "Queen of Heaven" had been suppressed. The prophet's. answer could only be that they were the result of apostasy from Yahwehism[xxi].

There is no doubt that the serpent cult was an integral element in Yahwehism up until Hezikiah's reforms (c.701 B.C.). II Kings 18:4 records Hezikiah's attempts to eradicate the vestiges of the cult in Jerusalem. and elsewhere saying: "He removed the high places, and broke the pillars, and cut down the Ashe'rah. And he broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the people of Israel had burned incense to it; it was called Nehush'tan." In fact, this did not eradicate Yahweh's consort, for it was only after the return of the exiles in 538 B.C ff. that most the Canaanite and Mesopotamian accretions were either eliminated once and for all or transformed into uncompromisingly monotheistic Yahwist institutions[xxii]. It can be theorized from the above that the ritual connected with the serpent certainly had to do with healing. The belief appears to have been that the ξυλοv had the power to heal, one supposes, not just snake bite, but later on, any malady.

Thus, the use of the word ξυλοv in the LXX came to refer to things fashioned of wood for cultic purposes, ie., idols. It had a negative sense but, as we shall see, the writers of the New Testament and some of the Church Fathers (Barnabas in particular) reversed this meaning.

The next step is to see the various ways this word is used in the New Testament and in the Church Fathers. This section will be divided into five parts based on usage. (1) The first is Paul's use in Galatians 3:13, followed by (2) John's in John 3:14 and then its use in (3) Acts, (4) I Peter, (5) and the Church Fathers.

Paul in Galatians 3:13 is the earliest of the New Testament writers, probably writing this letter around 55 A.D. This passage reads:

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us--for it is written, ‘Cursed be everyone who hangs on a tree’-- that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith” (Gal 3:13-14)

This, of course, is a direct quotation from Deut 21:23 from the LXX, but he is using it to give a new understanding. Using rabbinical logic, Paul passes from one meaning of curse the curse on any man who does not observe all the Laws prescriptions, to a specific curse uttered in the Law against a man hung on a tree. This verse must be seen in conjunction with Gal 2:19 in which Paul says Christ was crucified "through the Law.” In dying as one on whom a curse of the Law fell, Paul sees. Christ embodying the totality of the Law's curse "for us." Henceforth according to Paul, Mosaic observances and Christian living are incompatible.[xxiii]"

In the Gospel of John, a direct reference is made to the Serpent. that Moses lifted up in the wilderness, saying: "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted, up that whoever believes in him may have eternal life." (John 3:14) Only in one other place, the Wisdom of Solomon 16,6ff, is the idea of the serpent being lifted up a sign of salvation (ie, in the Biblical tradition). John may well have known this passage, for in both cases the idea that salvation has come through a raising up" is presented. John is the only New Testament writer to see the serpent raised up by Moses as type of Christ's death and, significantly, he was one of the last writers of the New Testament. Thus John's more allegorical method of understanding was characteristic and followed by the Church Fathers early in the next century. It is important to John's theology that the raising up has a double significance. Jesus is both raised up on the cross and glorified at the same time. Jesus’ glorification begins with the cross, though it finds its climax in his resurrection and ascension to the Father[xxiv].

There are only four other references to the cross as the tree using the word ξυλοv the New Testament. Three of these are in Acts (5:30; 10:39 & 13:29) and one in I Pet 2:24. In the Act's passages Luke's theological purpose is brought about by allusion to Deut 21: 22 which stressed the guilt of the perpetrators (the Jews) and to bring out the shame of the crucifixion[xxv]. This is quite different than Paul's purpose in using Deut 21:23 cited above. The passage in I Pet 2:24 has the purpose of showing that Christ fulfilled the role of the suffering servant of Isaiah 53:4, 12 undergoing the curse for men. Again, this is a reference to Deut 21:23 with a somewhat similar purpose as what Paul had in mind[xxvi]. In fact, this was probably under Pauline influence since when I Peter was written between 90-95 A.D. the Pauline corpus was extant[xxvii].

It is in the Church Fathers that the allegorical, method is extensively applied. Using ξυλοvfor tree and using it as a typology for the cross, though, is done exclusively in the "Epistle of Barnabas. He uses for tree in his typology in two places. First, in chapter 7 & 8 he discusses the scapegoat with the scarlet wool wrapped around its head and with which it is tied to a tree in the wilderness so it won't return. He says that both the goat and the tree it is tied to are types, the goat of Christ and the tree of the Cross, as he says: "Then there is the placing of the wool on the tree This means that the kingdom of Jesus is on the cross, and that they who set their hope on Him shall live for ever.[xxviii] The second example is referring to the serpent Moses made. Barnabas says:

Again Moses maketh a type of Jesus, how that He must suffer, and that He Himself whom they shall think to have destroyed shall make alive in an emblem when Israel was falling. For the Lord caused all manner of serpents to bite them, and they died (forasmuch as the transgression was wrought in Eve through the serpent), that He might convince them that by reason of their transgression they should be delivered over to the affliction of death. Yea and further though Moses gave the commandment; Ye shall not have a molten or a carved image for your God, yet he himself made one that he might shew them a type of Jesus. So Moses maketh a brazen serpent, and setteth it up conspicuously, and summoneth the people by proclamation. When therefore they were assembled together they entreated Moses that he should offer up intercession for them that they might be healed. And Moses said unto them; Whensoever, said he, one of you shall be bitten, let him come to the serpent which is placed on the tree, and let him believe and hope that the serpent being himself dead can make alive; and forthwith he shall be saved. And so they did. Here again thou hast in these things also the glory of Jesus, how that in Him and unto Him are all things. (Epistle of Barnabas 12)[xxix]

Thus in Barnabas we have typology with a vengeance. A thought system only hinted at in the Gospel of John is carried out to its logical conclusion in Barnabas, and, in interpreting other passages, the other Church Fathers as well. What was in the Old Testament used as a cultic symbol for the goddess has become in Christian thinking a type of Jesus, the cross and salvation. This is a fascinating reversal!

The secular Greek, therefore, can use dενdρον ξυλον rather interchangeably for tree, though ξυλον is far more likely to refer to a wooden object. The state of the wood, ie. whether still in tree form or in some manner processed for use tends to determine whether dενdρον or ξυλον is used, though dενdρον used by the worshippers of Cybele to refer to the pole upon which the Attis effigy is strapped for their particular cultus. In the LXX and Christian usage, ξυλον acquires somewhat of a religious technical sense, being used for the tree of life, pagan worship centers utilizing trees, the pole with the snake credited to Moses, the gallows cursed in Deuteronomy, and, in the last quarter of the first century and later, for the cross, both as a type and a historical reality. Therefore we should not look or expect the pagan writers and the Jewish and Christian writers to use dενdρον and ξυλον in the same manner, since there appears to be a subtle but significant change in the meaning in usage of these two thought systems. To a Jew acquainted with the LXX the word ξυλον would more likely mean specifically an object of worship or a cultic symbol as opposed to dενdρον which was simply a generic tree. The pagan world would not differentiate this usage in relationship to the Jewish concept of "Idol."

SYNCRETISTIC TENDENCIES

The symbol of the tree is more widespread and significantly more involved than has been shown within the limits of the above four terms in the Greek language. In the second millennium and much of the first half of the first millennium B.C. one or more major goddesses in a pantheon common to many Semitic speaking peoples was represented by a tree. In the second millennium B.C. there is a shift in religious emphasis to male deities[xxx]. Hence we can find the tree standing for the male deity, and at the same time for the source of birth (Adonis) or rebirth (Osiris) of the male deity. With the exception of the Biblical heritage, there is an identification of the evergreen trees with the dying/rising gods, as exemplified by Attis, Adonis and Osiris. Furthermore, gods responsible for agricultural fertility either originate with or become identified with trees, whether fruit bearing or evergreen, as Dionysius and Ba'al, who may also take part in a Semitic dying/rising cycle as Tammuz.

Whether of common or separate myth origin, the symbol of the tree, associated with these various gods, leads, with the increasingly common language and culture of the hellenistic world, to an inevitable and complex syncretism. Thus, as Aphrodite was clearly borrowed from the Canaanitic and Phoenician pantheon by way of Cyprus and incorporated into the Greek cultus[xxxi], so Balal, commonly called Adoni or lord by his devotees in the Semitic world, becomes Adonis, though with substantially reduced powers on Olympus. The remembered knowledge in the Greek myth of Adonis being born of a tree probably reflects a Semitic original of Ba'al being identified with the pine-cedar of Lebanon, or more likely, the remembrance that in the Canaanite pantheon his mother was Ashe'rah who was represented by a tall pine tree. In a similar manner Dionysius, whatever his Semitic origin, becomes identified with all fruit-bearing plants and hence fruit trees[xxxii]. Thus it is natural that Dionysius will acquire attributes of the dying/rising tree gods of both Attis and Adonis/Ba'al.

The Egyptian connection with Byblos for trading, culture, and a quality of timber unknown in Egypt would infer that in the Egyptian myth Byblos was noted for big trees. Hence whatever Plutarch may have understood, the tree which held Osiris's coffin was of a type and magnitude which could serve as a house support or pillar and be treated with at least the respect the royal family would give their household dieties. Osiris was protected by a tree god, or reborn by a tree god, or was a tree god before being brought back to Egypt. Borrowings, both of second millennium and first millennium B.C. vintage between Canaanitic trees and tree gods and the Egyptian are taking place.

The presence of snakes with one or more of the Canaanitic pantheon of Asherah, Anat, and Astarte in literature and in art on the mainland of Canaan, into Egypt, Cyprus and probably Crete, and of these goddesses healing or life-giving ability is beyond question. The literary and archeological evidence for the precise attributes of which Canaanitic goddess or under what local name is somewhat confusing. Nevertheless, the idea was sufficiently widespread and entrenched that the bare-breasted, snake-holding goddesses of Crete may well be a localized representation of the same goddess wrapped in snakes that Hezekiah had destroyed and thrown out of the temple[xxxiii] and which in another millennium becomes the type of the dying/rising healer from Nazareth. Certainly, though, in Jerusalem, the goddess was still represented by the pole or tree (ξυλον).

Just as the tree in Byblos which had held the body of Osiris was wrapped in linen and deified, so the pine trunk carried in Rome by the dενdροjorna (tree-bearers) was wrapped in linen and carried as a tree and furthermore as a symbol of the god. In the Attis cult in Rome the figure of the god was actually strapped to the tree, an obvious type for the Church who later created the crucifix and thus carried the tree in procession with the figure of its dying and rising god strapped to it. The Church conveniently preserved its innocence by acknowledging that it's tree was a ξυλον not a dενdρον. The fact that the LXX translators used the term ξυλον to refer to the pole of Ashe'rah somehow or other got lost in the shuffle. So in this sense, like Osiris and Adonis, the tree gives birth to the god. The iconoclastic theme of the early church in pointing out the follies of the pagan idols carved out of wood (xyloned) and therefore incapable of living whereas their resurrected Lord was represented as having died on the tree (xylon) is apparently carried into modern science fiction in the character of the robot cylons made by hands in the series "Battlestar Galactica."

CONCLUSION

This paper has attempted to show that in spite of the different names given various trees in the several cultuses discussed. we are dealing with an underlying symbol/myth system which pervaded the ancient Mediterranean area. It appears that whatever word used for the tree, whatever the name of the gods or goddesses involved, they are all based on a much more ancient mythological system and were simply changed to meet the demands of each various culture. The pride of believing that ones own myth/ritual was unique was picked up by the words used for the various trees in each cultus, but it has become evident from archeological, literary and artistic evidence that there was minimal uniqueness in any of the cults involved; for syncretism was involved in all of them.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Endnotes

  1. A Greek English Lexicon, comp by Henry George Leddell, and R. Scott., New Ed., Vol. II, (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1932) p. 1154. ↩
  2. Ovid, The Metamorphoses, trans by Horace Gregory, (NY: New American Library, 1958): pp. 294-295. ↩
  3. Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology, trans. by R. Aldington, et. al., (NY: Prometheus Press, 1959) p. 81. (hereafter cited as: Larousse, p.) ↩
  4. Sir James Frazer, Adonis, Attis, Osiris, Studies in the History of Oriental Religion, 3rd ed., (part IV of the Golden Bough), (New Hyde Park, NY: University Books, 1961) pp. 6-7. (hereafter cited as Frazer, AAO, P.) ↩
  5. Larousse, p. 81 ↩
  6. Plutarch's, De Iside et Osiride, ed and trans by J. Gwyn Griffiths, (Great Britain: Univ. of Wales Press, 1970), p.141f. (hereafter referred to as Plutarch, p.). ↩
  7. Plutarch, p.322 ↩
  8. Plutarch, p. 323, n. 5 ↩
  9. Plutarch, p. 323 ↩
  10. Plutarch, p. 35; 172 ↩
  11. Larousse, p. 174 ↩
  12. Larousse, p. 174 ↩
  13. Frazer, AAO, p. 266 ↩
  14. Frazer, AAO, p. 267, sa, Strabo 10. 3. 10 ↩
  15. S. Angus, The Mystery-Religions, (NY: Dover Publications, Inc., 1975) p. 60 ↩
  16. Frazer, AAO, p. 276 ↩
  17. Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, ed. by Gerhard Fredrick, trans. and ed. by G. W. Bromiley, (Grand Rapids, Mich: Wm. B. Eerdmans pub. comp., 1967), vol. V, p. 37. (hereafter referred to as Kittle, p.) ↩
  18. Kittle, p. 37 ↩
  19. John Gray, The Canaanites, (vol. 38 in "Ancient Peoples and Places"), (NY: Frederick A. Praeger, 1964) p. 229 ↩
  20. David Noël Freedmen citing new unpublished archeological finds in the Negab at the conference on "Recent Archeological Discoveries and the Bible," sunday-monday, April 20-21, 1980 at the Univ. of Kansas. ↩
  21. E. 0. James, The Ancient Gods, (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1960) p. 91-92. (hereafter cited as James, Ancient Gods, p.) ↩
  22. James, Ancient Gods, p. 92 ↩
  23. The Jerome Biblical Commentary. vol. I ed. by Raymond Brown, et. al. (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, Inc., 1968) p. 242. (hereafter cited as Jerome, p.) ↩
  24. Jerome, p. 430 ↩
  25. Kittle, p. 39; Jerome, p. 181 ↩
  26. Jerome, p. 366 ↩
  27. Kittle, p. 39 ↩
  28. The Epistle of Barnabas" 8:5 cited in J.B. Lightfoot, The Apostolic Fathers, ed. by J.R. Harmer, (Grand Rapids, Mich: Baker Book House, 1973) p. 145. (hereafter referred to by "Barnabas"). ↩
  29. Barnabas 12 ↩
  30. Merlin Stone, When God was a Woman, (NY: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1976) p. 62ff ↩
  31. Larousse, p. 142 ↩
  32. James G. Frazer, Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild, (part V of The Golden Bough) 3rd ed., vol 1, (London: Macmillan press, Ltd., 1912 (1976)), p. 3-4 ↩
  33. E. 0. James, Myth and Ritual in the Ancient Near East, (London: Thames and Hudson, 1958) p. 125ff ↩