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Other inscriptions have a religious or votive character and demonstrate the interaction between Semitic and Mesopotamian cults and Greco-Roman religion. A group of inscriptions from a site about 60 kilometers southeast of Edessa, Sumatar Harabesi, attest to the continuation of the cult of Sin (the Mesopotamian god of the moon, also venerated in nearby Harran) and are part of a sanctuary area where altars, reliefs (As 27/28), and betyls were erected in honor of the god; no trace of the cult of Sin, however, survives in inscriptions from Edessa itself (Healey 2019). Other inscriptions make reference to Maralahe, the “Lord of the gods,” in a funerary setting (As 20), or to record the erection of votive pillars, thanks to the involvement of local governors and cultic personnel (As 36, As 37). Hints about concepts of an afterlife might come from funerary inscriptions that use the term “house of eternity” for a tomb (As 7, As 9, As 59, Am 1, Am 2, Am 3, Am 5, Am 6, Am 7, Am 10), or from curses upon anyone removing the bones of the deceased (As 20, Bs 2). A religious character, possibly also related to the afterlife, has been suggested for some funerary mosaics with Greco-Roman mythological subjects, such as two mosaics representing Orpheus playing the lyre (Am 7; Healey 2006), which have been connected to the cult of Orpheus, and a mosaic representing a phoenix standing on a funerary stele beside an (empty?) sarcophagus (Am 6; Healey 2017: 5–6, 2019: 60–62).

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