18. T(t5? or "&?, ne'seJc, and ilSS'^, massekah', are evidently- synonymous (Isa. xli, 29 ; xlviii, 5 ; Jer. x. 14) in later Hebrew, and denote a " molten" image. ]\Ias- sekah is frequently vised in distinction from pesel or j;e- silim (Deut. xxvii, 15 ; Judg. xvii, 3, etc.). The golden calf which Aaron made was fashioned with " the grav- er" (l^'^t], cJieret), but it is not quite clear for what pur- pose the graver was used (Exod. xxxii, 4). The clieret (comp. xa()drTio) appears to have been a sharp-pointed instrument, used like the stylus for a writing implement (Isa. viii, 1). Whether then Aaron, liy the help of the chcret, gave to the molten mass the shape of a calf, or whether he made use of the graver for the purpose of carving hieroglyphics upon it, has been thought doubt- ful. The S\T. has tupso (jvttoq), " the mould," for clie- ret. But the expression '^^^^, vay-yatsar, decides that it was by the chei-et, in whatever manner employed, that the shape of a calf was given to the metal. See Molten.
(iii.) In the New Test, the Greek of idol is tiBuikov, which exactly corresponds with it. In one passage (iKuiv is the "image" or head of the emperor on the coinage (Matt, xxii, 20). See also Alisgema.
II. A ctual Forms of Idols. — Among the earliest ob- jects of worship, regarded as symbols of deity, Averc the meteoric stones which the ancients believed to have been the images of the gods sent down from heaven. See Diana. From these they transferred their regard to rough unhewn blocks, to stone columns or piUars of wood, in which the divinity worshipped was supposed to dwell, and which were consecrated, like the sacred stone at Delphi, by being anointed with oil, and crowned with wool on solemn days (Pausan. Phoc. 24, § 6). Ta- vernier (quoted by RosenmilUer, A It. and N. 3Io7j/enlund, i, § 89) mentions a black stone in the pagoda of Benares which was daily anointed with perfumed oil, and such are the " Lingams" in daily use in the Siva worship of India (compare Amobius, i, 30 ; Min. Felix, c. 3). Such customs are remarkable illustrations of the solemn con- secration bj' Jacob of the stone at Bethel, as showing the religious reverence with which these memorials were regarded. Not only were single stones thus hon- ored, but heaps of stone ivere, m later times at least,
IDOL
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IDOLATRY
considered as sacred to Hermes (Homer, Oct. xvi, 471 ; comp. the Vulg. at Prov. xxvi, 8, '• Sicut qui mittit lapi- dem in acervum JMcrciirii"), and to these each passing traveller contributed his offering (Creuzer, Si/mh. i, 24). The heap of stones which Laban erected to commemo- rate the solemn compact between himself and Jacob, and on which he invoked the gods of his fathers, is an instance of the intermediate stage in which such heaps were associated with religious observances before they became objects of worship. Jacob, for his part, dedi- cated a single stone as his memorial, and called Jehovah to witness, thus holding himself aloof from the rites em- ployed liy Laban, which may have partaken of his an- cestral iiiiilatry. See Jegar-Sahauutiia.
Oftlie forms assumed by the idolatrous images we liavc 111 It many traces in the Bible. Dagon, the fish-god of thf Philistines, was a human' figure terminating in a fish [see Dagox]; and that the S_>Tian deities were represented in later times in a symbolical human shape \7e know for certainty. See also Niskocii. The He- brews imitated their neighbors in this respect as in oth- ers (Isa. xliv, 13 ; Wisd. xiii, 13), and from various allu- sions we may infer that idols in human forms were not uncommon among them, though tliey were more an- ciently symbolized by animals (Wisd. xiii, 14), as by the calves of Aaron and Jeroboam, and the brazen serpent which was afterwards applied to idolatrous uses (2 Kings xviii, 4; Rom. i, 23). When the image came from the hands of the maker it was decorated richly with silver and gold, and sometimes crowned (Epist. Jer. 9), clad in robes of blue and purple (Jer. x, 9), like the draped im- ages of Pallas and Hera (Muller, Hand. d. A rcli. d. Kiatsf, § 69), and fastened in the niche appropriated to it by means of chains and nails (Wisd. xiii, 15), in order that the influence of the deity which it represented might be secured to the spot. So the Ephesians, when besieged by Croesus, connected the wall of their city bj' means of a rope to the temple of Aphrodite, \v-ith a view to in- suring the aid of tlie goddess (Herod, i, 26) ; and for a similar object the TjTians chained tlie stone image of Apollo to the altar of Hercules (Curt, iv, 8, § 15). Some images were painted red (Wisd. xiii, 14), like those of Dionysus and the Bacchantes, of Hermes, and the god Pan (Pausan. ii, 2, § 5 ; ^IliUer, Hand. d. Arch. d. Kttust, § 69). This color was formerly considered sacred. Pliny relates, on the authoritj' of Yerrius, that it was custom- arj^ on festival days to color with red-lead the face of the image of Jupiter, and the bodies of those who cele- brated a triumph (xxxiii, 36). The figures of Priapus, the god of gardens, were decorated in the same manner (" rube?- custos," Tibull. i, 1, 18). Among the objects of worship enumerated by Arnobius (i, 39) arc bones of el- ephants, pictures, and garlands suspended on trees, the "rami coronati" of Apuleius {de Mag. c. 56).