Herakles = Heracles, Hercules.
C.J Bleeker, Historia Religionum, Vol. 1 Religions of the Past [1988], p.205:
Hōrōn is a Canaanite deity known from personal names and place-names from ca.1900 down to ca.600 B.C. The Book of Joshua mentions two places called Beth-Horon (Horon's house, or temple), a prince by the name of Haurān-abum 'Horon is Father’ is cursed in an Egyptian text from the 12th C. BC. Egyptian texts mention Horon together with Reshef and the goddess ‘Anat. He is invoked in a cutse by Keret in a Ugaritic text and in a Phoenician incantation from Arslantash (7th C. BC). He is also known as the patron of the city of Jamnia, and an ostracon found just north of Tel Aviv mentions “gold for Horon’s temple”. He is supposed to have been a chthonic deity, but there is no certain evidence for this.
Where active Horon worship probably dates 2000-100 BC (cited as Hauron of Jamnia), the longevity of this obscure Canaanite god is truly extraordinary.
Another Lebanese example is less well-known, recent. There is debate whether Theos Orounos is 'Ouranos' or 'Horon'; see Julien Aliquot, La Vie religieuse au Liban sous l'Empire romain [2009]; Link:
The Healing Gods
The deities of Lebanon specialized in therapeutic activities are Satrapes, Orounos {=Auronos/Horon?} perhaps, Asclepius and Hygieia. Rarely attested, all are venerated on the maritime side of Mount Lebanon, where their cult seems to perpetuate the cult tradition of Phoenician healing gods such as Shadrafa, Horon and Eshmun. ...
The minor paredra of the great god of Maad could be assisted by another deity fulfilling the same functions as him. Indeed, at the site, a limestone stele used as a replacement as part of a window lintel bears a full Greek inscription that boils down to the name of a topical god: Orounos of Osmoda.
9 Chausson & Nordiguian 1996, pp. 45-46, no. 4 (SEG 46, 1784), cf. Gatier, Bull. ep. 1998, 507: Θεοῦ | Ο[υ]ρουνου | Οσμοδων. L. 2: on the suggestion of J. Teixidor, F. Chausson understands that the text mentions the name of the god Ouranos in the genitive, Ο[ὐ]ρανοῦ, assuming a deformation of Α into ΟΥ; this hypothesis does not convince P.-L. Gatier, and rightly so. L.3: F. Chausson considers Οσμοδων either as the name of the author of the dedication, in the nominative singular, or as a toponym or ethnic in the genitive plural. According to this second solution, preferred by P.-L. Gatier, we would find the name of the inhabitants of Osmoda possibly preserved in the modern toponym Maad. Rey-Coquais (2005), who considers the dedication of Maad in an unpublished text, also suggests recognizing the god's name as 'Horon'. {See Jean-Paul Rey-Coquais 'Tyr aux derniers siècles paléochrétiens: autour du synode de 518'?? [2005], p.88}
10 Lipiński 1995, pp.363-66, points in particular to the fragment of a sphinx or lion from the vicinity of Ismailia (Egypt) bearing the mention of a "Horon of Lebanon" (ḥwrwn rmn). To date, the Hellenistic dedication from Delos naming Herakles and Horon as the gods of Iamnia (ID 2308) is considered the most recent evidence of Horon's cult, with the spelling Αυρωνας perhaps reflecting the way the god's followers from Idumea pronounced his name in Hellenistic times.
The deities of Lebanon specialized in therapeutic activities are Satrapes, Orounos {=Auronos/Horon?} perhaps, Asclepius and Hygieia. Rarely attested, all are venerated on the maritime side of Mount Lebanon, where their cult seems to perpetuate the cult tradition of Phoenician healing gods such as Shadrafa, Horon and Eshmun. ...
The minor paredra of the great god of Maad could be assisted by another deity fulfilling the same functions as him. Indeed, at the site, a limestone stele used as a replacement as part of a window lintel bears a full Greek inscription that boils down to the name of a topical god: Orounos of Osmoda.
9 Chausson & Nordiguian 1996, pp. 45-46, no. 4 (SEG 46, 1784), cf. Gatier, Bull. ep. 1998, 507: Θεοῦ | Ο[υ]ρουνου | Οσμοδων. L. 2: on the suggestion of J. Teixidor, F. Chausson understands that the text mentions the name of the god Ouranos in the genitive, Ο[ὐ]ρανοῦ, assuming a deformation of Α into ΟΥ; this hypothesis does not convince P.-L. Gatier, and rightly so. L.3: F. Chausson considers Οσμοδων either as the name of the author of the dedication, in the nominative singular, or as a toponym or ethnic in the genitive plural. According to this second solution, preferred by P.-L. Gatier, we would find the name of the inhabitants of Osmoda possibly preserved in the modern toponym Maad. Rey-Coquais (2005), who considers the dedication of Maad in an unpublished text, also suggests recognizing the god's name as 'Horon'. {See Jean-Paul Rey-Coquais 'Tyr aux derniers siècles paléochrétiens: autour du synode de 518'?? [2005], p.88}
10 Lipiński 1995, pp.363-66, points in particular to the fragment of a sphinx or lion from the vicinity of Ismailia (Egypt) bearing the mention of a "Horon of Lebanon" (ḥwrwn rmn). To date, the Hellenistic dedication from Delos naming Herakles and Horon as the gods of Iamnia (ID 2308) is considered the most recent evidence of Horon's cult, with the spelling Αυρωνας perhaps reflecting the way the god's followers from Idumea pronounced his name in Hellenistic times.
Order: | Byblos 1000 BC: | Jamnia 1000 BC: | Jamnia 0150 BC: | Jamnia 0025 BC: |
---|---|---|---|---|
Father: | Baal-Shamem | Theos Orounos | Orounos/El (?) | Baal Zeboul |
Mother: | Baalath-Gebal | Thea Ourounia | Aphrodite Palaistine | Ashtoreth |
Son 1: | Baal-Hadad | Melqart | Herakles | Baal-Rimmon |
Son 2: | Adon | Shadrafa | Hauronas | Baal-Gad |
Order: | Phoenician: | Egyptian: | Greek: | Jewish: |
---|---|---|---|---|
Father: | Baal Hadad | Seth-Baal | Zeus | On/ El |
Mother: | Aphrodite Ourania | Astarte ?? | Aphrodite Palaistine | El Shaddai |
Son 1: | Melqart | xxx | Herakles | Baal Zeboul |
Son 2: | Eshmun | Hauron | Iolaos | Baal Rimmon |
Hypothesis:
Philo Judaeus says the Therapeutae worship 'Being', = 'On', the Canaanite god who might the Fathe-god at Beth Horon? Horon/Hauron must have been the Tutelary God of that Judean fortress town. Horon is called 'Father' in Palestinian inscriptions, c.1900 BC; Horon is equivalent to El/Shaddai at the earliest recorded stage, then Horon (Warrior's God) emigrated to Egypt (c.1600 BC?) with numerous Canaanite & Phoenician mercenaries. In desert fortresses at Egypt's Eastern Frontier, Horon becomes a Semitic god of healing/salvation: the Young God, Hor-achte/Horus. The Semitic mercenaries settle in the Coastal Delta (the Seriad), Horon is further syncretized w/ Phoenician-Egyptian Seth-Baal mythos: the Savior Son, corresponding to Rimmon/ Eshmun/Asclepius/Harpocrates. The Greek Ptolemies suppressed Hauron's Semitic Warrior God elements by c.300 BC; Horon-Iolaos-Helios survived only in relic form, partnered generically w/ Apollo-Herakles worship. In Seth-Baal zones (i.e. the Siriad), Hauron conceptually straddled and was generally subsumed by Egyptian Asclepius-Imhotep, Sethian Egyptian Judaism, or Judaism (conversion) 150 BC.
Conclusion:
Did Hauron worship persist, as a (Sethian) Gnostic Jewish Mystery Cult into the First C. AD? This would explain Philo's enigmatic Therapeutae as heterodox healing 'Jews' with their own Hermetic cult and evolving theosophical culture.
We can presume that by syncretism Semitic Hauron (of unspecified origin) -- either a Fighting God or Savior God -- adopted local Libyan features by 1150 BC or within three generations after the settlement of Semitic warriors on Egypt's Western Frontier c.1270 BC. If the Heroon (Temple of Heron/Hauron?) of Rhakotis was for this god, appropriated lately by the Greeks as 'Soter' (250 BC), the cult must have been local to 'Alexandria' for over 600 years.
See Jeffrey P. Emanuel, Black Ships and Sea Raiders: The Late Bronze and Early Iron Age Context of Odysseus’ Second Cretan Lie (Greek Studies: Interdisciplinary Approaches), p.77:
Regarding Ramesses II's claims to have settled captured foes in areas distant from those whence they came (easterners in the west, westerners in the east, northerners in the south, etc.: An example of such a claim can be found on the southern wall of the Great Hall in the temple at Abu Simbel, where a representation of the pharaoh smiting Libyans is accompanied by text claiming that the Shasu of Canaan (northeast of Egypt) were stationed in the west by the pharaoh, and the Libyan *ḫnw Tjehenu sent east: He has placed the Shasu in the Westland and has settled the Tjehenu on the ridges. Filled are the strongholds he has built, with the plunder of his puissant arm/sword (Kitchen, 1996, p.67). A reference to the Canaanite god Horon at el Gharbaniyat, one of Ramesses II s western fortresses ca. 70 km west of Alexandria, may also support this. While Horon was venerated in Egypt from the 18th dynasty due to a syncretistic relationship with Horus (Helck, 1971, p.454; Stadelmann, 1967, p.81; Van Duk, 1989, pp ), Habachi (1980, p.29) has suggested that this reference may signal such a stationing of troops from the eastern Delta or Palestine in this western fort. When considered in this context, 'the Sherden whom thou hast taken in thy might' being sent against the tribes of the desert in Papyrus Anastasi II may support the stationing of these warriors in one of Ramesses II's western fortresses, particularly if they originated from an Aegean, Anatolian, or Levantine location. Given this context, Zawiyet Umm el Rakham is even more of an interesting case. As noted above, evidence from the site demonstrates a level 56 {p.67} of cooperation and interaction between the personnel stationed there and the indigenous Libyans (Snape, 2010, pp.). This, combined with the fact that these western fortresses did not survive beyond the end of Ramesses II's reign, may suggest that some occupants of this outpost perhaps some of the Sherden who had been dispatched against the tribes of the desert were swept up in the Libyan movement that culminated in the famous battle of Merneptah's fifth year {c.1205 BC} (Emanuel, 2012a, pp.6-7).57
Since Juan de Mariana Historiae de rebus Hispaniae[1592] or Alonso de Villadiego Bascuñana y Montoya's Forum Antiquum Gothorum [1600], the "Egyptian Hercules called Libyan Hauron" has been known in Europe. This means that Renaissance scholars believed that Egyptian Herakles migrated to Libya as 'Hauron', whereas in Libya (c.700-500 BC?) it was Graeco-Egyptian Herakles (the newer import) who became associated with andvassilated to an aspect of Phoenicio-Egyptian Hauron (i.e. the prior god). Information from Athenaeus (undoubtedly centuries older) but see also Zenobius (c.130 AD) identifies the 'Libyan' pair of Herakles-Iolaos (Phoenicio-Egyptian Herakles-Hauron) in an explicitly Resurrectionist and Salvationist mythos. Again, the close proximity to the homeland of the Therapeutae is richly suggestive for origins.
At the smell of roast quail -- recalling the seasonal Animal Holocaust recorded by Lucian (Dea Syra, p.49: c.150 AD) as the ‘Pyre-‘ or ‘Torch Festival’ -- Herakles is brought back to life by Charioteer Iolaos, a corruption of Hauron (= Tammuz/Eshmun-Adon or later, Asclepius; see George A. Barton "The Genesis of the God Eshmun" 1900). For a general summary, see L.R. Farnell, Greek Hero Cults and Ideas of Immortality [1921], p.168:
The Phoenician legend preserved by Athenaeus {c.200 AD} that Herakles was slain by Typhon in Libya and restored by smelling a quail, might be taken to indicate that the tradition of his death on the pyre was not universally prevalent in Phoenicia. It may not have been universal, but the evidence we have gleaned is sufficient to incline us to the belief that the worship of the Tyrian Herakles or Melqart included a periodic burning on the pyre, followed by a resurrection or ascension, which could without any real inconsistency be designated an ἔγερσις {egersis} or 'awakening'.
Jacobus van Dijk "The Canaanite God Ḥauron and his Cult in Egypt" [1989]: Link
"It was not until the middle of the 1930's that he was recognized as a Canaanite deity worshipped In New Kingdom Egypt. At that time Montet had found a large statue at Tanis showing a falcon-god Hauron protecting Ramesses II, depicted as a child-god. Montet's publication of the statue in 19352 was Immediately followed by an important article by Albright3 who was the first to try to make a synthesis of what was at that time known about the god from both North-West Semitic and Egyptian sources. Unfortunately, this was very little indeed and, although Albright's theories were as brilliant as their spiritual father, they were nevertheless conjectural and speculative.
[...]
Finally, there is a Greek votive inscription of ca. 100 B.C. found on the island of Delos14; seafarers from the harbour of lamnia {Jamnia /Yavneh} on the Palestinian coast express in this Inscription their gratefulness to their native gods Herakles (Melqart) and Αὐρωνας (Hauron), possibly for a safe journey.
[...]
it is clear that Hauron appears here as the magician among the gods who has power over snakes and other dangerous animals. In addition to this, we learn something about the god's abode: Hauron Is said to dwell... usually in the desert or in the mountains ... {with} reference to the Underworld, the realm of the dead.
[...]
Hauron was associated with the Punic god {Şid?}, whose name means "Hunter" {Ussous?}... and who is equated with Herakles-Melqart, the god of the Underworld.
[...]
Hauron's name is almost certainly related to the root ... already surmised by Albright, a root meaning 'depth, 'bottom' {Abyss},
[...]
The Egyptian sources concerning Hauron can be divided into three categories. The first of these consists of material from Upper Egypt, I.e. mainly from the Theban West Bank. Here Hauron was Identified with the god Shed, "the Saviour", a hypostatization of an aspect of Horus. Amulets from Deir el-Medina show both Hauron and Shed, who are given the double names of Hauron-Shed and Shed-Hauron, respectively.
[...]
Hauron-Harmakhis ...
[...]
Finally, there is a Greek votive inscription of ca. 100 B.C. found on the island of Delos14; seafarers from the harbour of lamnia {Jamnia /Yavneh} on the Palestinian coast express in this Inscription their gratefulness to their native gods Herakles (Melqart) and Αὐρωνας (Hauron), possibly for a safe journey.
[...]
it is clear that Hauron appears here as the magician among the gods who has power over snakes and other dangerous animals. In addition to this, we learn something about the god's abode: Hauron Is said to dwell... usually in the desert or in the mountains ... {with} reference to the Underworld, the realm of the dead.
[...]
Hauron was associated with the Punic god {Şid?}, whose name means "Hunter" {Ussous?}... and who is equated with Herakles-Melqart, the god of the Underworld.
[...]
Hauron's name is almost certainly related to the root ... already surmised by Albright, a root meaning 'depth, 'bottom' {Abyss},
[...]
The Egyptian sources concerning Hauron can be divided into three categories. The first of these consists of material from Upper Egypt, I.e. mainly from the Theban West Bank. Here Hauron was Identified with the god Shed, "the Saviour", a hypostatization of an aspect of Horus. Amulets from Deir el-Medina show both Hauron and Shed, who are given the double names of Hauron-Shed and Shed-Hauron, respectively.
[...]
Hauron-Harmakhis ...
Of course, I am curious about offerings to Herakles-Melqart (Herakles-Israel?) and -- or: as? -- the mysterious Savior-God "Hauron". I suspect this god (or pair) is virtually identical to the Horus of Kasios, the 'Young God of Pelusion' often mislabeled or reduced to "Apollo" or maybe 'Apollo Soter' by Romans and other outsiders.
In the older Egyptian form, Ra-Harmakhis (Har-em-akhet, “Horus in the Horizon”); Her-em-akhet (or Horemakhet, Haremakhet) - represented the dawn and early morning sun. "I am thy Father, Harmakhis-Khepri-Re-Atum" etc. Hor-em-Khuti? Re-Harakhty? O Tem-Heru-Khuti (Tem-Harmakhis) ; Nero's reference to Armachis, Overseer and Savior. In Naville [1890] p.71, a lineage of this god
1) Ra-Harmakhis
2) Shu
3) Soped
Phoenician Hauron = Egyptian Harmakhis "Lord of the Desert" like both Seth and Yahweh. Re: Hauron-Harmakhis, Hauron-Shed appears to be the same god in his juvenile "savior" form = Harsiese-Horus, Son of Isis.
Bernard Bruyère, Rapport sur les fouilles de Deir el Médineh (1935-40), FIFAO 20.3 [1952], p.165ff:
However our stele n°118 and especially the amulet n° 472 of Turin specify that Shed is the Prince of the Deserts: ... (of the foreign countries we say W also) title in which one would recognize gladly the appellation given by the Egyptians to the invaders coming from the East. Harsiese, who is not a Hyksos, is adorned on stele n° 119 with an analogous title for the meaning if not for the pronunciation: and Harsiese is none other than Shed. Thus catalogued by the pastoral crook of the Libyan shepherds as an autochthonous prince, and by the three mountains, as governing the desert sands which surround the valley of the Nile, Shed could not be arbitrarily regarded as an Asian immigrant introduced into Egypt by the Shepherds in spite of the text of the stele n° 118: ....
Apart from his own personality, other clues or even evidence of his nationality may come from the enumeration of his family members.
The information on his kinship given by his monuments are the following. The stele of Tell el-Amarna acquired by the Egypt Exploration Fund, the stele n° 119, the stele J. C. 1 gives him for mother Isis; the amulet of Turin would allot to him Isis of Latopolis, the lioness Menhit.
The stelae no. 119, 238, J.C. 1 present an artificial triad composed of a father god: Harsiese, a mother goddess: Isis and a son god: Shed.
The Turin amulet gives the paternal role to Khnum, a southern variant of Ptah-Hapi, creator god and Nile god like Osiris.
These are only those combinations, so numerous in Egyptian mythology, in which a god can become his own father or his own son or even the husband of his mother. They are the result of purely intellectual speculations to meet an accidental need to populate a new sanctuary or to satisfy a requirement of doctrine.
In reality the primitive father of Shed is Osiris, since Shed is Hor-si-Isis {= Har-si-Ese} or Harpocrates; but then each theological school, always claiming the least {p.166}
1. B. Bruyère, Rapport de fouilles à Deir el Medineh Village, 1934-1935, p.307, fig. 178; G. Daressy, Bulletin de l'Institut français, t. XI, p.99. The sarcophagi of El Kantara: Roman period. The Pasha of Zarou, prince of the countries of Khent Abet: … The sign of Nefertem is placed on the left of Harpocrates, the left being according to the Egyptian orientation the east where Nefertem reigns, the right or the west is marked by a papyrus column Wadj surmounted by a falcon. In the Book of the Dead, Horus is sometimes called Wadj: the green one. Here it is Horus the Great: Haroeris {the elder Horus} whose temple at Edfu is on the western bank. The texts of the magic steles say for information of Nefertem: "Nefertem which protects the two lands, seals the mouth of any biting reptile, on the earth, exerts its charms for Osiris in all its residences". For the sign of Horus: "Horus the Great, Master of the Sky, who exercises his charms on the water and the earth and seals the mouth of all reptiles that are there". Sometimes the Wadj column and the falcon crowned with two high straight feathers are replaced by a hierocephalic mumiform genie standing with its head surmounted by a solar disk. Harpocrates usually holds a lion on the left and a gazelle on the right with two snakes in each hand or two snakes and a scorpion. He walks on two crocodiles facing each other or intertwined, turning his head which is impossible for the saurians. ….
{p.166} advantage in favor of its demiurge and its celestial court and monopolizing any novelty capable of increasing the prestige of its pantheon; on the one hand, he attends taking of possession of Shed at Heliopolis where then, assimilated to Shu, he becomes the son of Atum-Re and more simply of Re.
The independent school of Memphis could not remain indifferent; it also seized Shed and declared dogmatically that Shed was engendered by Ptah or formed by him, as the amulet n° 9.27 of the museum of Cairo teaches us ... This was all the easier since Shed was identified with Nefertem in Shedenu { } (Horbeit-Pharbaitos) and that Ptah already had as an adopted son Nefertem of Horbeit whose sign is always placed to the left of Harpocrates on the magical stelae of the low period W. Heliopolis also claimed this incarnation of the second life of Atum (the word ‘nefer’ meaning here ‘young’ to attest the rejuvenation of Atum by reason of divine perennity).
These adoptions of heirs in the various theogonies were all based on the Osirian filiation of Busiris and all the divine offspring were only variants of Horus, son of Isis. Shed or Hor-Shed, who became the heir son of Re in Heliopolis is thus identical to Nefertem.
Of all these links of kinship which testify for Shed to an Egyptian nationality whereas Reshep, Bes and the other immigrants could never be attached to a native genealogy, the to a native genealogy, one of the most interesting from the point of view of the prophylactic role of the savior god seems to be that which made him the son of Ptah.
Obviously, from his mother Isis, the great of magic, he held, by his Osirian side, the occult science of enchantments; from his assimilation to Shu, he acquired the the same gifts of charmer in inheritance from Re; but it is especially his entry in the family of the great thaumaturgist which allowed him to join the line of of magicians, first Nefertem and later Imhotep, doctors of bodies and souls and souls, skilled in subduing the harmful forces of Set hidden under the animal forms. The epithet: to the numerous transformations that the stele no. 119 applies {p.167} …
(1) Texts from the temples of Deir el Bahri, Deir el Medina, Kasr el Agouz, Karnak, etc. say that Imhotep was also created by Ptah for the same redemptive purpose as Shed. Imhotep, who was originally an epithet of Ptah ("he who comes to pacify"), dissociated himself and personified himself at the earliest in the New Kingdom, perhaps after Shed. To come in peace or as a peacemaker is the preferred meaning of this name rather than that of coming as an offering, although the gift made by a god of his beloved son to save the human race is in fact a gift. to save mankind is at the same time a pledge of peace between the divinity and humanity, a true offering up to the point of sacrifice. Khonsu-Neferhotep is another divine incarnation of this same spirit of philanthropy and the Baktan stele consecrates the healing gifts of this son of Amun-Re. The epithet An-hotep: often applied on stelae from Deir el Medina to Ptah, Thoth, Shu, Harmakhis, places them among the peacemakers and the great thaumaturges. Amenhotep I , Amenhotep son of Hapu who also have the word Hotep in their name, were also considered as holy healers. holy healers. Later in Athribis Zedher was also called the savior xxxx (G. Daressy, Annales, XIX, p. 66).
{p.167} to Shed is a laudatory qualification freely given to many deities in imitation of the sun god who, between sunset and sunrise, undergoes successive and varied metamorphoses in his nocturnal cycle. It is for Shed, by identification with Khepri of Heliopolis, an affirmation of the power that he holds, to give himself over to metempsychoses without number to overcome the enemies of his father. It is confirmed, on the Saite stelae, by the gorgoneion of Bes, which Harpocrates can mask and thus resemble the statuettes of Thebes and Fayum representing a naked child with the head of Bes (1). It is even more so by the disguise of the god Pantheos with multiple aspects borrowed from the whole areopagus of the celestial powers most solicited in case of danger (2) and by the long list of these gods figured on Horus steles with crocodiles or mentioned in the magical Papyrus Harris. When he says of himself, or when he is said to be Ptah, Thoth, Amun, Harakhte, Anubis, Hauron or any other divine personage (3), he takes from each of these the virtues which are proper to him, guises himself in their appearance and uses their particular power to defeat the adversary and save the one who implores him.
The best artifice that the charmer can bring into play is the Wadjat with which his mother provided him in Djebat-Aarit and with which, on the stele n°118, he comes to chase away all hostile evil from the two northern and southern halves of the temple (oriented East-West):
Apart from his own personality, other clues or even evidence of his nationality may come from the enumeration of his family members.
The information on his kinship given by his monuments are the following. The stele of Tell el-Amarna acquired by the Egypt Exploration Fund, the stele n° 119, the stele J. C. 1 gives him for mother Isis; the amulet of Turin would allot to him Isis of Latopolis, the lioness Menhit.
The stelae no. 119, 238, J.C. 1 present an artificial triad composed of a father god: Harsiese, a mother goddess: Isis and a son god: Shed.
The Turin amulet gives the paternal role to Khnum, a southern variant of Ptah-Hapi, creator god and Nile god like Osiris.
These are only those combinations, so numerous in Egyptian mythology, in which a god can become his own father or his own son or even the husband of his mother. They are the result of purely intellectual speculations to meet an accidental need to populate a new sanctuary or to satisfy a requirement of doctrine.
In reality the primitive father of Shed is Osiris, since Shed is Hor-si-Isis {= Har-si-Ese} or Harpocrates; but then each theological school, always claiming the least {p.166}
1. B. Bruyère, Rapport de fouilles à Deir el Medineh Village, 1934-1935, p.307, fig. 178; G. Daressy, Bulletin de l'Institut français, t. XI, p.99. The sarcophagi of El Kantara: Roman period. The Pasha of Zarou, prince of the countries of Khent Abet: … The sign of Nefertem is placed on the left of Harpocrates, the left being according to the Egyptian orientation the east where Nefertem reigns, the right or the west is marked by a papyrus column Wadj surmounted by a falcon. In the Book of the Dead, Horus is sometimes called Wadj: the green one. Here it is Horus the Great: Haroeris {the elder Horus} whose temple at Edfu is on the western bank. The texts of the magic steles say for information of Nefertem: "Nefertem which protects the two lands, seals the mouth of any biting reptile, on the earth, exerts its charms for Osiris in all its residences". For the sign of Horus: "Horus the Great, Master of the Sky, who exercises his charms on the water and the earth and seals the mouth of all reptiles that are there". Sometimes the Wadj column and the falcon crowned with two high straight feathers are replaced by a hierocephalic mumiform genie standing with its head surmounted by a solar disk. Harpocrates usually holds a lion on the left and a gazelle on the right with two snakes in each hand or two snakes and a scorpion. He walks on two crocodiles facing each other or intertwined, turning his head which is impossible for the saurians. ….
{p.166} advantage in favor of its demiurge and its celestial court and monopolizing any novelty capable of increasing the prestige of its pantheon; on the one hand, he attends taking of possession of Shed at Heliopolis where then, assimilated to Shu, he becomes the son of Atum-Re and more simply of Re.
The independent school of Memphis could not remain indifferent; it also seized Shed and declared dogmatically that Shed was engendered by Ptah or formed by him, as the amulet n° 9.27 of the museum of Cairo teaches us ... This was all the easier since Shed was identified with Nefertem in Shedenu { } (Horbeit-Pharbaitos) and that Ptah already had as an adopted son Nefertem of Horbeit whose sign is always placed to the left of Harpocrates on the magical stelae of the low period W. Heliopolis also claimed this incarnation of the second life of Atum (the word ‘nefer’ meaning here ‘young’ to attest the rejuvenation of Atum by reason of divine perennity).
These adoptions of heirs in the various theogonies were all based on the Osirian filiation of Busiris and all the divine offspring were only variants of Horus, son of Isis. Shed or Hor-Shed, who became the heir son of Re in Heliopolis is thus identical to Nefertem.
Of all these links of kinship which testify for Shed to an Egyptian nationality whereas Reshep, Bes and the other immigrants could never be attached to a native genealogy, the to a native genealogy, one of the most interesting from the point of view of the prophylactic role of the savior god seems to be that which made him the son of Ptah.
Obviously, from his mother Isis, the great of magic, he held, by his Osirian side, the occult science of enchantments; from his assimilation to Shu, he acquired the the same gifts of charmer in inheritance from Re; but it is especially his entry in the family of the great thaumaturgist which allowed him to join the line of of magicians, first Nefertem and later Imhotep, doctors of bodies and souls and souls, skilled in subduing the harmful forces of Set hidden under the animal forms. The epithet: to the numerous transformations that the stele no. 119 applies {p.167} …
(1) Texts from the temples of Deir el Bahri, Deir el Medina, Kasr el Agouz, Karnak, etc. say that Imhotep was also created by Ptah for the same redemptive purpose as Shed. Imhotep, who was originally an epithet of Ptah ("he who comes to pacify"), dissociated himself and personified himself at the earliest in the New Kingdom, perhaps after Shed. To come in peace or as a peacemaker is the preferred meaning of this name rather than that of coming as an offering, although the gift made by a god of his beloved son to save the human race is in fact a gift. to save mankind is at the same time a pledge of peace between the divinity and humanity, a true offering up to the point of sacrifice. Khonsu-Neferhotep is another divine incarnation of this same spirit of philanthropy and the Baktan stele consecrates the healing gifts of this son of Amun-Re. The epithet An-hotep: often applied on stelae from Deir el Medina to Ptah, Thoth, Shu, Harmakhis, places them among the peacemakers and the great thaumaturges. Amenhotep I , Amenhotep son of Hapu who also have the word Hotep in their name, were also considered as holy healers. holy healers. Later in Athribis Zedher was also called the savior xxxx (G. Daressy, Annales, XIX, p. 66).
{p.167} to Shed is a laudatory qualification freely given to many deities in imitation of the sun god who, between sunset and sunrise, undergoes successive and varied metamorphoses in his nocturnal cycle. It is for Shed, by identification with Khepri of Heliopolis, an affirmation of the power that he holds, to give himself over to metempsychoses without number to overcome the enemies of his father. It is confirmed, on the Saite stelae, by the gorgoneion of Bes, which Harpocrates can mask and thus resemble the statuettes of Thebes and Fayum representing a naked child with the head of Bes (1). It is even more so by the disguise of the god Pantheos with multiple aspects borrowed from the whole areopagus of the celestial powers most solicited in case of danger (2) and by the long list of these gods figured on Horus steles with crocodiles or mentioned in the magical Papyrus Harris. When he says of himself, or when he is said to be Ptah, Thoth, Amun, Harakhte, Anubis, Hauron or any other divine personage (3), he takes from each of these the virtues which are proper to him, guises himself in their appearance and uses their particular power to defeat the adversary and save the one who implores him.
The best artifice that the charmer can bring into play is the Wadjat with which his mother provided him in Djebat-Aarit and with which, on the stele n°118, he comes to chase away all hostile evil from the two northern and southern halves of the temple (oriented East-West):
Passing mention in Elias Bickerman Der Gott der Makkabäer: Untersuchungen über Sinn und Ursprung der makkabäischen Erhebung [1937], p.95:
On Delos, Isis or Anubis were worshipped yetnot Baal, rather the "Poseidon" of Berytos. The merchants of Tyre officially called their god "Herakles" in Greek, though of course, for them he also remained "Baal of Tyre" or simply the "King" (Melqart). Even among Greek appellatives, these gods were still the 'paternal gods.' They were also worshipped abroad in a domestic manner, as is shown, for example, by the construction of the sacred precinct on Delos which was consecrated to "Herakles and Auron", the owners of Iamnia.
So when it is said that the temple of Jerusalem was named after "Zeus Olympios", it does not mean that a new lord, a Greek god, moved in on Zion, but that the previous owner of the sanctuary the "anonymous" Jewish god, was listed in the Greek records of the new polis as "Zeus Olympios".
So when it is said that the temple of Jerusalem was named after "Zeus Olympios", it does not mean that a new lord, a Greek god, moved in on Zion, but that the previous owner of the sanctuary the "anonymous" Jewish god, was listed in the Greek records of the new polis as "Zeus Olympios".
In a follow-up to his 1936 article, Prof. Albright at Johns Hopkins noted that Hauron was also considered a Father-God in Palestine c.1800 BC. See W. F. Albright, "The Egypto-Canaanite Deity Haurôn" in The Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, No. 84 (Dec.1941), pp.7-12:
The Ugaritic passage shows that there was a close relation between Hauron and Astarte, who scarcely ever appears in the Ugaritic texts, her place being taken by Anath. This relationship suggests another possible reason for the amalgamation of Hauron with Horus in Egypt: Hauron may have been considered as Astarte's son as well as her youthful lover. As son of Astarte, Hauron could the more easily be identified with Isis' son, Horus. The enmity between Baal and Hauron squared exactly with that existing, according to the Egyptians, between Seth and Horus. It now appears that the equation of Horus with Hauron may be as old as that of Seth with Baal.
In 1939 Count du Mesnil du Buisson published a very curious gypsum tablet from Arslan Tash in northwestern Mesopotamia, containing a Canaanite (Hebrew) incantation which had been partly adapted to Aramaic use. Just two years ago the writer studied it in the BULLETIN (No.76, pp.5-11), offering revised dating and interpretation. He found that the palaeography required a date in the seventh century B.C. On the rim of the tablet the Canaanite text includes among the deities called upon to validate the incantation against evil spirits: "the goddesses (who are) wives of Hauron, (the god) whose utterance is true, and his seven concubines and the eight wives of Baal" (xxxxxxxxxx). The numerical gradation "seven-eight" is found in Hurro-Hittite as well as in Ugaritic, from which it passed on to later Canaanite (Phoenician). It seems to be a reasonable deduction that Hauron appears here as a peer of Baal himself. The expression "whose utterance is true" suggests that he was particularly revered as patron of justice and giver of laws.
In the October BULLETIN, finally, we discussed the new execration texts from the late Twelfth Dynasty, published last year by Posener, and we called attention to two occurrences of the personal name Hauranu-'abum, "Hauron is Father," borne by two Palestinian princes in the nineteenth century B.C.13 These occurrences of the name prove that the god Hauron was well-known in Palestine over four hundred years before the earliest Egyptian reference, with which we have dealt above. The fact that Hauron was called "Father" suggests that he may have been identified with the supreme deity El. One must, of course, expect to find many strange oscillations in the personality of any Canaanite divinity. Thus Anath was both life-giver and destroyer; Rashap (Resheph) was both god of death and god of fertility, like Nergal, with whom he shared many features.
In 1939 Count du Mesnil du Buisson published a very curious gypsum tablet from Arslan Tash in northwestern Mesopotamia, containing a Canaanite (Hebrew) incantation which had been partly adapted to Aramaic use. Just two years ago the writer studied it in the BULLETIN (No.76, pp.5-11), offering revised dating and interpretation. He found that the palaeography required a date in the seventh century B.C. On the rim of the tablet the Canaanite text includes among the deities called upon to validate the incantation against evil spirits: "the goddesses (who are) wives of Hauron, (the god) whose utterance is true, and his seven concubines and the eight wives of Baal" (xxxxxxxxxx). The numerical gradation "seven-eight" is found in Hurro-Hittite as well as in Ugaritic, from which it passed on to later Canaanite (Phoenician). It seems to be a reasonable deduction that Hauron appears here as a peer of Baal himself. The expression "whose utterance is true" suggests that he was particularly revered as patron of justice and giver of laws.
In the October BULLETIN, finally, we discussed the new execration texts from the late Twelfth Dynasty, published last year by Posener, and we called attention to two occurrences of the personal name Hauranu-'abum, "Hauron is Father," borne by two Palestinian princes in the nineteenth century B.C.13 These occurrences of the name prove that the god Hauron was well-known in Palestine over four hundred years before the earliest Egyptian reference, with which we have dealt above. The fact that Hauron was called "Father" suggests that he may have been identified with the supreme deity El. One must, of course, expect to find many strange oscillations in the personality of any Canaanite divinity. Thus Anath was both life-giver and destroyer; Rashap (Resheph) was both god of death and god of fertility, like Nergal, with whom he shared many features.
John Gray, The Legacy of Canaan: the Ras Shamra texts and their relevance to the Old Testament [1957], p.133:
That he was worshipped already in the XVIIIth Dynasty in Egypt is demonstrated by POSENER 2 ) who cites the Papyrus Ermitage, and by ALBRIGHT on the evidence of certain foundation deposits of faience tiles from the temple in the proximity of the great sphinx at Gizeh. A further connection between this deity and Palestine may be suggested by an inscription from Delos in the 2nd centuury B.C. where the god Auronas is associated with Herakles as a deity of Jamnia3. Now the companion of Herakles is normally Iolaos, who appears at Carthage as Asclepius the healing deity 4 ) As one with power over life and death then, Horon, if the identification Auronas-Horon is correct, is quite in character in Krt's imprecation on his rebellious son. We note further in this connection that in the vicinity of Beth-Horon there was a site Yirpeel 'God heals', (Joshua xviii, 27). *) ALBRIGHT, on the other hand, believes that Horon was a chthonic deity identified with Rešef or Sulman, the Canaanite hypostasis of the Babylonian Nergal, the deity of pestilence and the underworld. 3) As a further explanation, it may be noted that in Arabic XXX is found referring to the plane Jupiter, which refers in Mesopotamian incantation texts to Nergal . It has been claimed that Jahweh himself is ...
Abraham Schalit, Zur Josephus-Forschung [1973], p.268:
When some merchants from Iamnia on Delos consecrate an altar "to the gods who possess Iamnia", they simply translate the term "Baalim" into Greek. But when they write in Greek they add the names of these Baalim: Herakles and Auron. Since they did not know a single Greek equivalent for the latter, they transcribed his native name. But the Herakles of this inscription is as much a Phoenician god as Auron-Horon.82 Thus, by having their god named Zeus, the Samaritans neither introduced a Greek cult in the temple on Garizim nor did they change their ancestral religion. If the minister of a Nabataean king calls in Greek the "Zeus Dusares"83, this does not at all mean the abandonment of the national religion. Here there is only a kind of translation of a title into Greek, which incidentally is not compelling : mostly, one designated Dusares as Dionysos in Greek. This Greek interpretation of a native designation remains without any influence on the handed down cult: whether or not Dionysos or Zeus-Dusares always remained the same unshaped fetish. The "Baal of Sidon" always bore this name in Phoenician, even among the Sidonians who lived in Athens,84 while in Greek and for Greeks he was called "Zeus." In the same way, "El", the anonymous "god" from Garizim,166 was named "Zeus": for the use of the Greeks. At first glance, it seems surprising if this act of naming required royal authorization. But we know, on the one hand, that the Hellenistic state strictly controlled indigenous cults and retained a supervisory right over ecclesiastical-
82 Exploration de Délos XI, 279: Ηρακλή και Αυρωνα Θεοίς Ιάμνειαν zaténovou .
82 Exploration de Délos XI, 279: Ηρακλή και Αυρωνα Θεοίς Ιάμνειαν zaténovou .
Passing notes, TBE
The Journal of Hellenic Studies, Vol. 72 (1952), p.22:
R. Dussaud deals 59 with new occurrences in Phoenician texts of the god Hauron, identified in Egypt with Harmakhis, and comments on G. Posener's view 60 that Hauron was the name given by Syrians under the New Empire to the Sphinx. J. Gray also discusses 61 this Semitic divinity, who makes his last appearance in Delian inscriptions as the god Auronas of Jamnia, seeing in him primarily a healing god akin to Asclepius and Eshmun.
René Dussaud
1 (Paris, 1939), 421-434
Dussaud, Syria, XVIII, 404
see Corinne Bonnet, Melqart: cultes et mythes de l'Héraclès tyrien en Méditerranée, Vol. 8 [1988], pp.129-130:
Auronas is probably a Greek spelling for the Semitic god Horon. This one is attested in Egypt and in Syro-Palestine from the II millennium 82. Assimilated to the Egyptian god Horus, he plays a role of protector often in the royal sphere. In Ugaritic texts, he appears as a god of magic and the art of healing, having the power of life and death, his specialty being to render inoperative the venom of snakes and scorpions... The homophony between Horon, pronounced "Haurôn", and Auronas in Greek, as well as the Syro-Palestinian origin of the dedicators, plead in favor of the identity between these two theonyms. A third argument, which was once put forward, must however be discarded. In the Ugaritic poem of Keret, Horon is followed by the term ybn, in which some have believed to recognize the locality of Jamnia 84. This interpretation must be replaced by that which translates ybn as "my son".
In the second dedication, Herakles is associated with the ἄνω θεοί {gods above}, in which we must see either the traditional designation of the Olympians or the evocation of the gods of nearby Cynthe. But what interests us here primarily is to try to find out whether the Herakles honored by the citizens of Jamnia overlaps with Melqart, for the Philistine plain was strongly influenced by Phoenician 85. But the main information on the pantheon of Jamnia we must seek in the Bible: this is what I. Lévy 86. The second book of the Maccabees tells us that in order to face the perils of war, certain Jews wore amulets "of the false gods of Jamnia" ... In the second century B.C., Jamnia is considered the capital of the region, whereas before it depended on Ekron. Now, in the Book of Kings, the principal god of Ekron, Baal-Zebub, appears, which can be understood as the "Master of the Flies", but which is more certainly a depreciative distortion of Baal-Zebul, "Baal the Prince" 88
In the second dedication, Herakles is associated with the ἄνω θεοί {gods above}, in which we must see either the traditional designation of the Olympians or the evocation of the gods of nearby Cynthe. But what interests us here primarily is to try to find out whether the Herakles honored by the citizens of Jamnia overlaps with Melqart, for the Philistine plain was strongly influenced by Phoenician 85. But the main information on the pantheon of Jamnia we must seek in the Bible: this is what I. Lévy 86. The second book of the Maccabees tells us that in order to face the perils of war, certain Jews wore amulets "of the false gods of Jamnia" ... In the second century B.C., Jamnia is considered the capital of the region, whereas before it depended on Ekron. Now, in the Book of Kings, the principal god of Ekron, Baal-Zebub, appears, which can be understood as the "Master of the Flies", but which is more certainly a depreciative distortion of Baal-Zebul, "Baal the Prince" 88
Where Baal-Zebul = Adoni-Zedek (Hebrew: קדצ־ינדא Ăḏōnî-ṣeḏeq) or Adoni-zedec the name originally meant "Ṣedeḳ is lord," one after Melchizedek, Baal-Zebul would be God's secular Power. Hauron does not have identical characteristics: Horon should be the Healer beside the Fighter.
It has also been suggested the Herakles-Hauron combination represents/allegorizes a homosexual pairing (i.e. Batman and Robin), which is plausible in a masculine military fraternity; see Robert H. Allen, The Classical Origins of Modern Homophobia [2014], p.15:
In the Syrian-Palestinian religious context they reappear as a set of paired divinities: Melqart and Eshmun.78 The late addition to the epic of Enkidu suggests he was being assimilated to the dying and rising-again god of ancient Sumer at a very early period. We first glimpse Melqart in texts at Ugrit, on the sea-coast, where he is the god termed “the valiant shepherd” and named Hauron about 400 BCE.79 The term “valiant shepherd” opens upon a vast mythic realm. Tammuz or Damuzi was the dying and rising-again god of the Sumerians from before history, and his worship spread throughout the Semitic world at a very early date. There he was known as Adonis,80 and Adonis is very close to Eshmun, and both to Gilgamesh-Enkidu.81
In broad general terms the myth-pattern may be stated as follows. Two paired male deities were thought of as linked, often erotically. One was the sun god, daily resurrected; he was armed with a bow or spear or club as was the god who fought and defeated a serpent deity of chaos {i.e. Seth}. This sun god was associated with health, healing and purification; in the Semitic context he was called Melqart, Haroun and Ba'al, while in the Greek context he was called Herakles, and well as Apollo and Melikertes. The other god, often younger, was a vegetation deity, hence also a dying and rising-again god and associated with the flowers and fertility of spring. He was castrated by a wild animal, or in association with the Mother Goddess, and his sexuality was often thought of as effeminate, or bisexual; in the Semitic context he was called Eshmun or Adon while the Greeks called him Iolaos, Aesculapius, Atthis or Adonis,... and probably Dionysius...
In broad general terms the myth-pattern may be stated as follows. Two paired male deities were thought of as linked, often erotically. One was the sun god, daily resurrected; he was armed with a bow or spear or club as was the god who fought and defeated a serpent deity of chaos {i.e. Seth}. This sun god was associated with health, healing and purification; in the Semitic context he was called Melqart, Haroun and Ba'al, while in the Greek context he was called Herakles, and well as Apollo and Melikertes. The other god, often younger, was a vegetation deity, hence also a dying and rising-again god and associated with the flowers and fertility of spring. He was castrated by a wild animal, or in association with the Mother Goddess, and his sexuality was often thought of as effeminate, or bisexual; in the Semitic context he was called Eshmun or Adon while the Greeks called him Iolaos, Aesculapius, Atthis or Adonis,... and probably Dionysius...
The implication here is that the Man Shepherd's Hermetic paedeia of a young Iolaos/Asclepius (under an elder Herakles or Hauron) was a homophilic adoption. This also explains Philo's homosexual anxiety in describing the Alexandrian Therapeutae, DVC 6.52; the predatory nature of a few evil Sponsors is identified by this type, likewise.
Though a couple of sites have been located, it remains uncertain exactly where the Hauron cult originated. Was it Canaanite or Philistine? Perhaps the coastal capital Jamnia was the source. See Eliezer D. Oren, The Sea Peoples and Their World: A Reassessment [2000], p.214:
B. Mazar's suggestion that the god Horon was worshipped in Philistia is based on a reference to a certain delivery of gold to Beth Horon (“House of Horon”) in an Iron Age II (c.690 BC??) ostracon from Tell Qasile, as well as on a Hellenistic inscription from Delos that mentions the god Horon in relation to a dedication by the people of Jamnia (Yavneh) in Philistia (Maisler 1951: p.210). It is likely that the toponym Beth Horon mentioned in the Tell Qasile ostracon was the well-known place name on the ascent to Jerusalem (Joshua 10:10).
In Israel today, the coastal Yavne (Jamnia) to Beit Ur al-Fauqa (Beth Horon) is ~46km, exactly 2 days march in antiquity (Jerusalem would have been +1 day's march). Since both sites were military garrison towns, the Hauron cult appears to have been a mercenary fraternity, consistent with worship of Hauron at Egyptian military garrisons (c.1200 BC).
Where the Pentateuch was composed at Alexandria c.272 BC (following Gmirkin), it is no surprise the character of Moses should reveal as Herakles, Hero of the Heroon of Hauron (the elder Semitic god). Sweeney (2009) is correct but has missed another key fact: Egyptian Moses' elder brother Aaron = the elder god Hauron. Where Aaron is Hauron, Moses-Aaron = Herakles-Horon. See Emmet John Sweeney, Gods, Heroes and Tyrants: Greek Chronology in Chaos [2009], p.161:
In my Pyramid Age I examined the character of Moses in great detail and there produced manifold proofs showing him to be mythically identical to Herakles. Again, without going into the details, we should remember that Moses (the 'son') has a mysterious birth, as does Herakles (whose father is the Zeus, the Roman Jove — identical apparently to Moses' Jehovah/Yahweh); Moses is the enemy of the serpent — he destroys the two serpents of the pharaohs' magicians, whilst Herakles strangles the two serpents sent by Hera to destroy him in his cradle; Moses “pushes apart” the walls of water at the Sea of Passage, Herakles pushes apart the two rock pillars at Gibraltar; Moses does not die, but ascends the sacred mountain to his father; whilst Herakles ascends to his father Zeus at the top of Mount Oeta; and so on.
Like Moses, Herakles was credited with initiating a religious revolution: He was, above all, the hero responsible for ending human sacrifice.
Like Moses, Herakles was credited with initiating a religious revolution: He was, above all, the hero responsible for ending human sacrifice.
Where the surviving Greek myth has downgraded Hauron-Iolaos to a younger assistant and the Jewish myth makes Aaron an 'older brother', we may presume the Ptolemies were intentionally repressing and substituting the Hauron mythos with deliberate reason. The Alexandrian Romance has Alexander destroying ('rebuilding') the Heroon -- that (Philistine?) Semitic temple was a threat, somehow. If Egyptian Philistines were basically '(Proto-)Jews' by a different name, the creation of a new bible for them -- a syncretistic cult mythos, centered in Samaria -- suggests that Egypt's coastal people were the focus. And at Rhakotis, we can say they worshipped Hauron/'Agathodaimon' : the Lord of Snakes.
Hauron dispelled the harm of poisonous creatures, perhaps with the Nehushtan of Moses or Aaron's rod (which could become a serpent), and which symbolized the ritual of Palingenesis as far back as c.800 BC? (Unknown.) Where the Pentateuch was composed at Alexandria c.272 BC, and the Hauron/Heroon cult had been dismantled and re-configured around "Soter" by the Lagid dynasty c.300 BC, it should not be surprising if elements of the old Rhakotis Hauron cult were preserved in the Old Testament.
The oldest Phoenician traces will still be foreign to Egypt. See Meindert Dijkstra, "Moses the Man of God" in The Interpretation of Exodus: Studies in Honour of Cornelis Houtman [2006], p.25-8:
In the Levant, the weather god and even more the gods Koshar and Hauron were the chief dispellers of evil demons, dragons and snakes, and of dangerous pests like scorpions and mosquitos. In particular, the minor god Hauron was 'worshipped and glorified' for this quality in Syria-Palestine as far as Egypt and Anatolia.35 It is not exactly clear what kind of ritual Hauron performed with the juniper 'the Tree of Death', but it is obvious that a kind of imitative magic is implied and that the 'snakes' given by Hauron to Manatu (Fortuna) were made from the wood and other parts of the juniper-tree. The text perhaps implies that the juniper or branches from it, representing the snakes, were stripped of the scubbed bark and stalks with berries or flowers, representing the act of regeneration, as when a snake shed its skin. Without speculating too much about the details, it seems to be clear that an intrinsic relation is supposed between Hauron's spell on the 'Tree of Death'. Snakes made from juniper-wood were possibly given as votives to Manatu (Fortuna) ...
It remains uncertain whether such 'bronze serpents' given as a votive offering have any relationship with the Nehushtan, the caduceus of Moses. In general, the snake symbolism would have accorded with the traditional associations in the early religion of Israel, reason for many a Biblical story to be revised in the (dis)course of tradition. As said above, 'the bronze serpent' in Numbers 21:8-9, made by Moses after YHWH's command and put on a XX 'pole, stake' played only an incidental apotropaic role to convince the pious listener of YHWH's healing powers. ...
It remains uncertain whether such 'bronze serpents' given as a votive offering have any relationship with the Nehushtan, the caduceus of Moses. In general, the snake symbolism would have accorded with the traditional associations in the early religion of Israel, reason for many a Biblical story to be revised in the (dis)course of tradition. As said above, 'the bronze serpent' in Numbers 21:8-9, made by Moses after YHWH's command and put on a XX 'pole, stake' played only an incidental apotropaic role to convince the pious listener of YHWH's healing powers. ...
Golden Cobra (c.600 BC? 12.64 grams, 20.7 cms), found at Ekron c.1996:
Hauron was closely studied by a number of scholars contemporary to Ludwig Edelstein; for example, see Samuel A. B. Mercer, Horus, Royal God of Egypt [1942], p.134:
In Ptolemaic times Horus was worshipped under the forms Harbaithos ( Klio XII, 365), Harmais (Preisigke, Sammelbuch gr. Urk., 2610), Harmotes (Berliner Gr. Urkunden, 1216), and Herakles (Hondius, Suppl. Epigr. Gr., VIII, 546). In 1933 Montet and Bucher discovered at Tanis a granite group, now in the Cairo Museum, with a falcon-god Iwrwii, protecting Rameses 11.476 About the same time, Lefebvre brought to light, at Theadelphia (in the Fayum) in the temple of the crocodile-god, Pnepheros, two large pictures, one of which depicts a god on horseback, the other of the same subject, with a dedication to 'IIpwvi.48 There is another similar picture of a Hauron now in Cairo. This dedication dates from the reign of Euergetes II. Lefebvre thinks Hauron, or Horon, is the god Horus as a horseman. Rostovtzeff holds that Hauron was a creation of the Ptolemies, a military Serapis. Some scholars would see in Hauron the Hwrwn at Tanis and that at Delos of the Second Century B.C.50 Cumont is of the opinion that Hauron of Egypt is a Balkan god, naturalized in Egypt, for the liturgical character of the snake, in the picture, he thinks, connects it with the Balkans. There one often finds the term Hpwpi; in Latin Heroni; in Egypt 'Hpwv; in Thrace ' Hows, all equivalent to Hauron. In Ras Shamra poems one reads of a god called Hauron of Jabneh (=Jamnia/Jamnea). Since Hauron is associated both with a falcon and with Harachte (RB, April, 1935, pp.157ff., pls. V-VI ), since Delos, Ras Shamra and even Tanis would point to a Semitic origin, and since hurt is an Arabic word for the pilgrim falcon, it is possible to see in this god a falcon-deity, that is, a Horus god, or, at least a god ..."
Regarding the unnamed idols of Jamneia in the account of 2 Maccabees 12:40-45 (composed c.125 BC), see Christian Habicht, 2. Makkabäerbuch [1979], p.265:
38 And Judas gathered his army, and came to the city of Odollam. When the seventh day approached, they purified themselves according to custom and spent the Sabbath day there. 39 But on the following day, when it was already high time (?)*, Judas and his came to bring back the bodies of those who had fallen earlier and to bury them with their relatives in the family tombs. 40a But they found under the skirts of each fallen one amulets of the idols of Jamneia, from which the Law keeps the Jews away. It thus became clear to all that they had fallen for this reason, 41 and all praised the work of the righteously judging Lord, who makes visible that which is hidden, 42 and then turned to intercession and asked that the transgression they had committed be completely blotted out.
40 a) On the events described in 40-45, see Meyer, p. 227, note 3, and especially Isidore Lévy, “Les dieux de Iamneia” in Recherches esséniennes et pythagoriciennes [1965], pp. 65-69. Lévy, with the help of Delos Inscriptions nr. 2308-2309, two Greek dedications to the gods of Jamneia, Hauron and Herakles, identifies them as the Canaanite deities Horon and Ba'al Zebul (cf. ibid. J. Février et L. Robert, pp. 69-71). He considers the episode not to be historical but inserted in the first half of the 1st century AD by the Pharisaic editor of Jason, to proclaim the dogma of the resurrection and already vindicate it for Judas.
40 a) On the events described in 40-45, see Meyer, p. 227, note 3, and especially Isidore Lévy, “Les dieux de Iamneia” in Recherches esséniennes et pythagoriciennes [1965], pp. 65-69. Lévy, with the help of Delos Inscriptions nr. 2308-2309, two Greek dedications to the gods of Jamneia, Hauron and Herakles, identifies them as the Canaanite deities Horon and Ba'al Zebul (cf. ibid. J. Février et L. Robert, pp. 69-71). He considers the episode not to be historical but inserted in the first half of the 1st century AD by the Pharisaic editor of Jason, to proclaim the dogma of the resurrection and already vindicate it for Judas.
Zeus (=Baal/Bel; Hadad) was the Father of Herakles (=Melqart). Where 'Zeus Apomuios' was 'Lord of Flies', his Son was naturally Herakles Apomuios, 'Son of the Lord of the Flies'. Temples frequently held statues of the intermediary (Son) as a representative, so the Temple (of Bel/Zeus) would display a Statue of Herakles. Herakles Apomuios might also be 'Lord of the Flies' in the positive: 'the god who averts fly-strike' (i.e. plague) and the negative; Pestilent Swarm. See The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge [1908], p.26:
Baal-zebub was honored in Ekron, where he had a temple and an oracle, which was consulted by Ahaziah, king of Israel (II Kings i, 2, 3, 16). The name as it stands means “Lord of Flies”; the Septuagint calls the god directly “fly”; so also Josephus (Ant., IX, ii, 1). In classical mythology, there was a god who protected from flies. It is related that Hercules banished the flies from Olympia by erecting a shrine to Zeus Apomuios (“Averter of Flies”); and the Romans called Hercules Apomuios. A similar deity is mentioned as acting and honored in different places, the excuse for such worship being the plague {i.e. Fly-Strike} which flies cause in those warm countries. Both the sending of flies and the driving them away were referred to the same divinity. As may be inferred from the name Baal, the Baalzebub of the Philistines was essentially identical with the principal god or gods of the Phoenicians. He may have been lord of flies as sun-god, because flies are most numerous in midsummer, when the sun is hottest. And that he had an oracle is to be explained by a substitution of effect for cause. Flies come obedient to certain atmospheric conditions; hence the god was considered to have caused these conditions, and so at length his control was extended to other events, and accordingly he was consulted.
Though uncertain, the relationship of this Herakles to a Philistine "Hauron" is therefore significant. In the Delos Inscription, Herakles (=Melqart) appears superior (i.e. named first) as in Tyre, we know Melqart was the older Tutelary God, although Eshmun (the Second Son; the Healing God) became the popular god c.550 BC. From archaeological evidence, however, we know that Semitic/Phoenician Hauron was in Egypt c.1250 BC. Herakles and Hauron, therefore, appear to be two separate traditions which had become companions or substitutes in the Eastern Mediterranean at some earlier date, before c.400 BC.
If Hauron = Ba'al-zəbûl (in Arabic, the name is rendered as Baʿl-zabūl = بعلزبول), "Lord of the High Place" i.e., Heavenly Dwelling, then this older Semitic god might suggest one origin for Hekhalot mysticism ('Palace Wisdom"); "High Lord" may also imply something about the Ascent. Much later, in the First C. AD, Hauron/Baalzebub had been transformed into Lucifer: the 'Cosmocrator, corrupted' or 'the Devil'; see Matthew 12:24 ; Mark 3:22 ; Luke 11:15. In this scenario, Herakles would be an alternative, perhaps a complementary deity (where a Semite and Greek had a joint venture, they might make offerings/give thanks to both gods.)
Likewise, where 'Therapeutae' employed their ancestral barracks at Lake Mareotis, on the Western Frontier, the persistence of some prominent cultic features seems likely. For example, Hauron's association with the occult, the hidden (e.g. finger to mouth, the Child-God counsels secrecy) might in some way explain the Therapeuts' monasterion, or special closet.
Besides the (Sethian) Therapeutae, which other heterodox or antinomian Jews prayed to Iao/Ieuo = Baalzebul/Hauron/Soter in closets? Matthew 6:6, quoting Jesus to his Disciples: "But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly."
Mark 3:22: And the scribes who had come down from Jerusalem were saying, “He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and, “By the Prince of Demons he drives out demons.”
Matthew 12:24: But when the Pharisees heard this, they said, “Only by Beelzebul, Prince of Demons, does this man drive out demons.”
Luke 11:15: And some of them said, "By Beelzebul Prince of Demons he casts out the demons."
Matthew 9:34; 10:25: It is enough for a disciple to be like his teacher, and a servant like his master. If the head of house has been labelled Beelzebul, how much worse the members of his household!
Matthew 12:24: But when the Pharisees heard this, they said, “Only by Beelzebul, Prince of Demons, does this man drive out demons.”
Luke 11:15: And some of them said, "By Beelzebul Prince of Demons he casts out the demons."
Matthew 9:34; 10:25: It is enough for a disciple to be like his teacher, and a servant like his master. If the head of house has been labelled Beelzebul, how much worse the members of his household!
Where 'Baalzebul' would mean 'Despicable Satan', the orthodox authorities held Jesus' Great Power to be Hauron/Baalzebul (a castigated deity of Minim). This presumes that Jerusalem rabbis knew popular healers of Hauron, or covert priests of Hauron (who were Jewish) -- that heterodox Jews could work extraordinary physical miracles in the name of a pagan healing god. This doesn't confirm that Jesus was a member of Judaic Hauron/ Baalzebul sect, but it suggests that such Jewish mantic operators were so known.
Furtheore, Jesus response in Matthew 10:25 might be a sort of play-on-words, the household w/ the Lord of the Mansion and servants (therapeuts) with the Semitic healing god.
Even today's Satanists have some intelligent observations; see especially Michael Ford, Dragon of the Two Flames - Demonic Magick & the Gods of Canaan [2012], p.216:
Incantations against various demonic beings and vampire-like predators on various amulets invoke Horon to keep them at bay, along with those who assist Horon namely his Seven Wives as well as Baal. Even in the Hellenic period around 100 B.C.E. seaferers had an inscription dedicated to the local god Melqart (Herakles) and Hauron invoking a prosperous and safe journey. Hauron is known in Upper Egypt at some point as the god ‘Shed’ that bears the epithet, ‘the savior’. As ‘Hauron-Shed’, the hawk form is assumed who can keep his legions of demonic spirits and venomous snakes from harming others. As Shed is a god of the desert who comes forth bearing the ‘Udjat-Eye’ to protect his temple or house we see ‘Hauron-Shed’ also as ‘Honis-Lord of the Desert’, ‘nb hst, hq, hst’ which draws a closer connection to Seth as well. The very powers of chaos of which Hauron directs and controls to an extent is a good representation of the nature of the spiritual work of the Luciferian; like Hauron we to various extents dive into the depths of darkness and those chthonic realms of power who would either raise us up and with a strong will shape chaos into our desired order or to devour us in the underworld. The Luciferian-like Hauron seeks an inner balance and maintains a clear and focused disciplined initiation towards the subjective goals we have determined for ourselves.
In the Egyptian Dwarf Bes and the miracle-working Child (Horus the Child = Harpocrates: Har-pa-khered or Heru-pa-khered) is probably where will find the origins of Bezalel:
John Gray, The Krt Text in the Literature of Ras Shamra [1964]p.78:
In hrn we have a deity whose power is over life and death. We think that he had a cultcentre at Beth-Horon in Palestine, in the vicinity of which there was a place named Yirpe'el (Joshua 18:27: Irpeel), probably modern Rafat, the name of which suggests a healing cult. The deity probably appears in an inscription from Delos of the 2nd century B.C. as Auronas. He is associated with Herakles, which suggests that he may be Graecised as Iolaos. Both are associated with Jamnia in Palestine in that inscription, and Jamnia at that time was probably a Tyrian colony. From Carthage we find that Iolaos or Asclepius was the Greek form of Eshmun, the Phoenician god of healing. Hence we have argued that Horon may be that deity, who does not appear by name in the Ras Shamra texts. For this thesis and the worship of Horon in Egypt since the XVIIIth Dynasty, see the writer's paper ("The Canaanite God Horon" JNES VIII, 1949, p.27-34). ALBRIGHT would identify Horon with Rešef, the deity of plague, death and the underworld ('The Canaanite God Hauron', AJSL LIII, 1936, pp.1-12). We should expect Rešef to be invoked in such a curse, but the fact remains that in an Egyptian magical papyrus (Papyrus Harris) Horon is mentioned along with Rešef, which suggests that they were not identical. The conception of Horon as the god of the underworld does not exclude that of him as a healing god. Reshef, the god who slew men in mass by plague or war, had also the power of life as well as death.
Where Horon = Eshmun (?) or merely an association in kind in Egypt, a connection with Thoth is also suspect; see Okasha El Daly, Egyptology: The Missing Millennium: Ancient Egypt in Medieval Arabic Writings [2009], p.108:
A Babylonian presence and worship is attested also in other parts of Egypt, a testimony to the religious tolerance and multicultural nature of ancient Egyptian society (Horn 1969: 39, 42). Horon was widely worshipped in the ancient Near East and traces of his cult may be found in the Phoenician god of healing named Eshmun (Gray 1949: 31; Gese et al 1970:145f), who may well be associated in the minds of medieval Arabs with Eshmun/Ashmun of Egypt (Hermopolis), where the god Thoth resided.
Where Iolaos (the Charioteer) may be the Young God Helios in certain contexts, it is still unclear why Hauron should be the Infant-God (i.e. Ramses II as the Horus-Child, later Harpocrates, above.) There is evidence of Tanit worship in Israel; so for this divine triad see Comte Eugène Goblet d'Alviella, The Migration of Symbols [1894] pp.227-8:
At Carthage the Caduceus is nearly always associated with the Sacred Cone on stelai dedicated either to Tanit "the face of Baal," or conjointly to Baal Hamman and Tanit. If it is likely that this Cone stands for the symbol of Tanit, would it be rash to assume that the Caduceus represents either the companion of the Great Goddess of Carthage, the Phœnician god of the sun, or of the solar heat, Baʿal Ḥammon — or the usual hypostasis of Baʿal Ḥammon {Lord of the Brazier}, his 'messenger' or 'angel,' Malakbel — or, finally, the third personage of the triad composed of Baal, Tanit, and Iol or Iolaos, the divine solar infant, lost and found by turns like Attis and Adonis elsewhere?
Seal of Tanit, from Israel (c.700 BC):
Wallace Bruce Fleming, The History of Tyre [1915], p.149:
Although a number of temples had twin pillars, the symbolism is obscure. The worship in the early centuries was probably without the use of an image of any kind. Herodotus {450 BC} mentions none at the time of his investigation {of the Temple of Melqart}. A century and a quarter after his visit the image seems to have come to have a place in worship, for in the city's distress during Alexander's siege the Tyrians, fearing that the gods were about to forsake the doomed city, chained the image of Apollo in the temple. It is probable that this image was used in the worship of Melqart, and that he as the sun-god was identified with Phoebus Apollo. As the Sun-God, the god of light and of fire, Melkart was worshiped by having a fire burn perpetually in his temple at Gades and we may assume that the illuminated pillar of the temple at Tyre had the same symbolism. His priests had their heads shaved;3 they were barefooted and wore garments of spotless white linen before his altar. They held pork in abomination. Married women were not allowed to approach the altar.
Festivals similar to those of Adonis at Byblus were held in the honor of Melkart twice a year. When the prolonged heat of the summer would burn everything up, he won for the earth the favor of the sky by offering himself a sacrifice to the sun. The festival of this sacrifice was kept at Tyre. In the month Peritius (February/March) the festival of the awakening or resurrection of Melqart, τοῦ Ερακλέους ἐγέρσις {awakening Herakles},8 was commemorated. It may be that the sarcasm of Elijah (1 Kings 18:27: At noon Elijah began to taunt them, saying, “Shout louder, for he is a god! Perhaps he is deep in thought, or occupied, or on a journey. Perhaps he is sleeping and must be awakened!”) has reference to this belief regarding Melqart. This festival was at the time of the year when the quail return to Palestine and it is claimed that the sacrifice of quail commemorated the awakening of Melqart. It has been suggested that the Arabic sumâna, quail, gave the name to the god Eshmun, Iolaos, who restored Herakles to life by giving him a quail to smell.10
Festivals similar to those of Adonis at Byblus were held in the honor of Melkart twice a year. When the prolonged heat of the summer would burn everything up, he won for the earth the favor of the sky by offering himself a sacrifice to the sun. The festival of this sacrifice was kept at Tyre. In the month Peritius (February/March) the festival of the awakening or resurrection of Melqart, τοῦ Ερακλέους ἐγέρσις {awakening Herakles},8 was commemorated. It may be that the sarcasm of Elijah (1 Kings 18:27: At noon Elijah began to taunt them, saying, “Shout louder, for he is a god! Perhaps he is deep in thought, or occupied, or on a journey. Perhaps he is sleeping and must be awakened!”) has reference to this belief regarding Melqart. This festival was at the time of the year when the quail return to Palestine and it is claimed that the sacrifice of quail commemorated the awakening of Melqart. It has been suggested that the Arabic sumâna, quail, gave the name to the god Eshmun, Iolaos, who restored Herakles to life by giving him a quail to smell.10
6000 Characters reached.