MEMORIALS AND SACRED STONES.
Scope of the Subject (§1). The Mazzebah (§ 4).
In Non-Semitic Territory (§ 2). Hebrew Usage (§ 5). Among Semites (§ 3). Cultic Importance (§ 6).
Among cultic objects preserved among practically all primitive peoples and often continued in use in an advanced state of society are pillars and sacred stones. Regard for these objects is in part attributable to fetishistic or animistic concepts (see Comparative Religion, VI., 1, a, 1-3, 7; Fetishism) ; in part to superstitious regard of what was, at the time when sacredness first attached
i. Scope to the object, inexplicable or mysterof the ious ; and in part to later association
Subject, with divine powers. Sometimes the reasons for which these objects became sacred have long been lost and are now irrecoverable— such a case is presented by the sacred stone at Delphi, to explain which a myth was invented (see Comparative Religion, VI., 1, a, §7). For many of the occurrences found in the Semitic field, especially the monoliths regarded as deities, the animistic basis is evident. Other monuments, such as those at crossroads or on boundaries, received their sacred character through being regarded as representing the god of highways or of boundaries. Among the classes of objects to be considered in this article are such reminders of past events as were set up by Jacob (Gen. xxxi. 45 sqq.) and Joshua (Josh, iv., xxiv. 6-7), or such as marked a grave (Gen. xxxv. 20), or which at some time received veneration as embodying a god or as marking the haunt of deity (Gen. xxviii. 18, xxxv. 14; Judges vi. 20). These objects include menhirs (single stones or rude undressed columns), dolmens (stone tables, possibly used as altars, one stone supported by two or more), cromlechs or circles of stones like that at Stonehenge, England, sometimes having a menhir in the center, and cairns or heaps of stones; besides these should be mentioned the figures developed from these originally rough and unshaped forms. These monuments are traceable all the way across the continents of Asia and Europe, and as far west as Ireland.
Because of the abundant remains of Greek
Memorials and Sacred Stones
THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
literature, the number of sacred stones in Greece appears to have been exceptionally large; but it may be taken for granted that that country is simply illustrative of a certain stage of civilization. Examples taken from this field are the sacred stone at Hyettos, the thirty stones which
2. In Non- the Pharaeans worshiped, that in Semitic Boeotia which figured in the sacred
Territory, festivals, and the image of Artemis in Ephesus. Theophrastus (373-283 B.C.) illustrates the frequency of these monuments when he satirically describes a superstitious Greek performing his devotions before the sacred stones along the road, a part of the worship consisting of anointing them with oil (Characteres ethici, xvi.). The form of these early monuments was that of a rough monolith set upright. But it was not to be expected that the artistic Greek would continue to be content with such crude monuments : accordingly the pillar was chiseled into smooth quadrangular form and surmounted later by a sculptured head, originally that of Hermes (whence these pillars bore the name Hermce or Hermuli) but later that of other deities. The reference to these in Pausanias is frequent; cf. Frazer's ed. on viii. 34, § 3, x. 24, § 6. The origin of these Hermse is quite distinctly traced to the rough blocks of stone which marked roads or boundaries and bore the name of hermeia or hermakes; these in turn may have developed from the cairn, to which respect was shown by the passer-by in the addition of a stone to the heap. The Hermse passed over to the Romans in the shape of termini, having the same general form. Egyptians and Assyrians extended the usage by erecting stelai and pillars to mark the bounds of their conquests. It is noteworthy that this development of the monolith into the statue does not appear among the Semites. Among the sacred places of the Greeks were those known as bsetyli (a name formed from the Hebrew Bethel), the center of which were usually sacred stones, some of them meteoric, like that of Artemis mentioned above (cf. Acts xix. 35). There was a sacred meteorite at Tyre (reported by Philo Byblius, q.v.), and one in the temple of Heliogabalus at Emesa. It is probable that in many cases the sanctity of the stone was due to its emblematic character, as when it figured a holy mountain in a Canaanitic high place or a Babylonian ziggurat (see High Places). For citations of sacred stones over a larger area and among both primitive and more highly cultured peoples, cf. E. B. Tylor, Primitive Culture, chap. xv. (London, 1903), where examples are cited from western Europe as late as the middle of the nineteenth century.
Among Semites the existence of a cult of sacred stones has long been known. The two sacred stones of the Kaaba (q.v.) are merely illustrative of a wealth of sacred objects of this character among pre-Mohammedan Arabs. Lampridius speaks of " stones which were called gods "
3. Among at Syrian sanctuaries, perhaps the Semites, menhirs, dolmens, and the like referred
to above. Wustenfeld (ZDMG, xviii. 452, 1864) notes that the Arab geographer Yakut about 1200 a.d. knew of a stone near Aleppo said to mark the tomb of a prophet upon which, pilgrims
(Moslems, Jews, and Christians) poured rosewater. Renan (Mission de Phenice, pp. 399—400, Paris, 1864) speaks of a milestone near Sidon which was anointed with oil. Niebuhr is reported to have heard of a stone venerated by the Jacobite sunworshipers of Mesopotamia (cf. D. Chwolson, Die Ssabier, i. 153, Leipsic, 1856). Among the Arabs sacred pillars (menhirs) were numerous, the most celebrated being the Allat stones (Smith, Kinship, pp. 292 sqq.; C. M. Doughty, Arabia Deserta, ii. 515 sqq., Cambridge, 1888), looked upon as deities. E. A. T. W. Budge (Egyptian Magic, chap, hi., London, 1899) shows that Egyptians believed that the statue of a god contained the deity's spirit; hence the superstitious Christianized Egyptians endeavored to shatter the image in order to make the spirit homeless. In this respect the conceptions of Egyptians and Arabs alike rest upon an animistic basis. For a notice of Canaanitic pillars see Gezer, § 3. The place of such a pillar was a " Bethel " (cf. Gen. xxviii. 18-19), a word which passed over into the Greek baitylos or baitylion (ut sup.), cf. the Greek temenos, Hebr. 'admath kodesh, " holy ground," Arab, haram. It implied a manifestation of deity by theophany, vision, dream, release from peril, victory, or the like. Into the idea of such a place there enters the notion of taboo (see Comparative Religion, VI., 1, c) and consecrates the spot to the deity resident or manifest there. Possibly the Hebrew prohibition against using tools on the altar-stones (Ex. xx. 25) was due to this animistic conception and the desire not to disturb the numen in the stone.
The most general name in the Semitic field for the pillar is derived from a root nzb (Hebr. mazzebah, pi. mazzeboth, the most general word, muzzabh, nezibh, cf. Gen. xix. 26; I Sam. x. 5, xiii. 3-4, where for " garrison " should be read " memorial pillar " as the context clearly implies; Arab, nuzub, manzab,
nuzb, pi. anzab, Phenician mazzebeth,
4. The Aramaic nzb; the Hebrew also em-
Mazzebah. ploys the terms ammudh, Gen. xix. 26,
Jer. xxvii. 19, rendered by the Greek stele, stylos, kion; and hamman, a pillar for sunworship, Isa. xvii. 8, xxvii. 9; Ezek. vi. 4, 6; Lev. xxvi. 30; II Chron. xiv. 4, 7). The Phenician mazzebeth usually means a memorial at a grave (as in modern Jewish usage), but is also used of a pillar (not structural) in a temple, as at Sidon, and may possibly refer to a votive tablet. The Aramaic nzb applies to a statue, possibly at a grave. Before Phenician temples twin pillars, not structural, usually stood, as is indicated by coins. Herodotus, ii. 44, describes the two in the temple of Melkart- Heracles at Tyre, one of which he says was of pure gold and the other of emerald (glass? cf . Rawlinson's note on Herodotus, ii. 81, New York, 1875). Bronze pillars were in the temple of Baal-Heracles at Gades. These seem to have been round, though others of the Phenician cult were square with pyramidal tops. Through the spread of Phenician influence along the Mediterranean, the phrase " the pillars of Hercules " came to denote the extreme West, and to be applied to the mountains at the western end of the Mediterranean. The Phenician derivation of the two pillars in Solomon's temple is clear