Editing Sabazios

{{Short description|A deity of Phrygian origin also favoured in the Balkans}}
<!--this article has used the BCE/CE convention-->[[Image:HandOfSabazius.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Bronze hand used in the worship of Sabazios ([[British Museum]]).<ref name="britishmuseum">{{cite web|url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=463786&partId=1&people=94919&peoA=94919-1-9&page=1|publisher=britishmuseum.org|title= British Museum Collection |access-date=2017-03-06}}</ref> Roman 1st–2nd century CE. Hands decorated with religious symbols were designed to stand in sanctuaries or, like this one, were attached to poles for processional use. Another similar bronze hand found in the 16th/17th century in [[Tournai]], Belgium, is also in the [[British Museum]].<ref name="britishmuseum2">{{cite web|url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=465292&partId=1&people=94919&peoA=94919-1-9&page=1|publisher=britishmuseum.org|title= British Museum Collection |access-date=2017-03-06}}</ref>]]

'''Sabazios''' ({{langx|grc|Σαβάζιος|translit=Sabázios}}, {{small|modern pronunciation}} ''Savázios''; alternatively, ''Sabadios''<ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Rudy |editor1-first=Stephen |title=Contributions to Comparative Mythology: Studies in Linguistics and Philology, 1972-1982 |date=14 December 2010 |publisher=Walter de Gruyter |isbn=978-3-11-085546-3 |page=7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gsucH7YYr7kC&pg=PA7 }}</ref>) is a deity originating in [[Asia Minor]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Vitas |first=Nadežda Gavrilović |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv1gt94hj |title=Ex Asia et Syria: Oriental Religions in the Roman Central Balkans |date=2021 |publisher=Archaeopress |pages=77–91|doi=10.2307/j.ctv1gt94hj |jstor=j.ctv1gt94hj }}</ref> He is the horseman and [[sky father]] god of the [[Phrygians]] and [[Thracians]].<ref>{{cite journal | url=https://oxfordre.com/classics/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.001.0001/acrefore-9780199381135-e-5642 | title=Sabazius | journal=Oxford Classical Dictionary | date=7 March 2016 | last1=Parker | first1=Robert | doi=10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.013.5642 | isbn=978-0-19-938113-5 | url-access=subscription }}</ref>

Sabazios gained prominence across the [[Roman Empire]], particularly favored in the [[Central Balkans]] due to Thracian influence. Scholarly debate has long debated Sabazios' origins, with current consensus leaning towards his Phrygian roots.<ref name=":0" />

Though the [[Ancient Greece|Greeks]] [[Interpretatio graeca|interpreted]] Phrygian Sabazios<ref>Variant spellings, like ''Sawadios'' in inscriptions, may prove diagnostic in establishing origins, [[Ken Dowden]] suggested in reviewing E.N. Lane, ''Corpus Cultis Jovis Sabazii'' 1989 for ''The Classical Review'', 1991:125.</ref> as both [[Zeus]] and [[Dionysus]],<ref>See ''[[interpretatio Graeca]]''.</ref> representations of him, even into [[Ancient Rome|Roman]] times, show him always on horseback, wielding his characteristic staff of power.

== Epigraphic evidence ==
According to scholars, the deity's name is variously written in epigraphy: Σεβάζιος, Σαβάζοις, Sabazius, Sabadius, Σαβασεἷος.<ref>Tacheva, Margarita. ''Eastern cults in Moesia Inferior and Thracia (5th century BC-4th century AD)''. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1983. pp. 183-184.</ref>

==Thracian/Phrygian Sabazios==
It seems likely that the migrating Phrygians brought Sabazios with them when they settled in [[Anatolia]] in the early first millennium BCE, and that the god's origins are to be looked for in [[Macedonia (region)|Macedonia]] and [[Thrace]]. The ancient sanctuary of [[Perperikon]] in modern-day [[Bulgaria]], uncovered in 2000,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.novinite.com/articles/121245/Bulgarian+Archaeologist+Shows+Off+Perperikon+Finds |title=Bulgarian archaeologist shows off Perperikon finds |date=October 18, 2010 |website=Novinite.com |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20220323081632/https://www.novinite.com/articles/121245/Bulgarian+Archaeologist+Shows+Off+Perperikon+Finds |archivedate=2022-03-23|url-status=live }}</ref> is believed to be that of Sabazios.{{cn|date=December 2022}} 

Possible early conflict between Sabazios and his followers and the indigenous mother goddess of Phrygia ([[Cybele]]) may be reflected in [[Homer]]'s brief reference to the youthful feats of [[Priam]], who aided the Phrygians in their battles with [[Amazons]]. An aspect of the compromise religious settlement, similar to the other such mythic adjustments throughout Aegean culture, can be read in the later Phrygian King [[Gordias]]' adoption "with Cybele"<ref>Later Greek mythographers reduced Cybele's role to "wife" in this context; initially Gordias will have been ruling in the Goddess's name, as her visible representative.</ref> of [[Midas]].

One of the native religion's creatures was the [[Lunar Bull]]. Sabazios' relations with the goddess may be surmised in the way that his horse places a hoof on the head of the bull, in a Roman marble relief at the [[Boston Museum of Fine Arts]].<ref name="mfa">{{cite web|url=http://www.mfa.org/collections/object/zeus-sabazios-151211|publisher=mfa.org|title= Zeus Sabazios at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston |access-date=2017-03-06}}</ref> Though Roman in date, the iconic image appears to be much earlier.

[[File:Roman - Hand of Sabazius - Walters 542453.jpg|200px|right|thumb|This copper alloy Roman hand of Sabazios was used in ritual worship. Few hands remain in collections today. [[Walters Art Museum]], [[Baltimore]].]]

==God on horseback==
{{Further|Thracian horseman}}
[[File:Sabazios MNIR IMG 6299.JPG|thumb|left|Thracian horseman, [[National Museum of Romanian History]]]]
More "rider god" steles are at the Burdur Museum, in [[Turkey]]. Under the Roman Emperor [[Gordian III|Gordian&nbsp;III]] the god on horseback appears on coins minted at Tlos, in neighboring Lycia, and at Istrus, in the province of Lower Moesia, between Thrace and the Danube. It is generally thought that the young emperor's grandfather came from an Anatolian family, because of his unusual cognomen, Gordianus.<ref name="ancients">{{cite web |publisher=mihalkam.ancients.info |series=Gordian III Lycia  |title=Sabazios on coins, illustrated in the M. Halkam collection |url=http://mihalkam.ancients.info/giiilycia.html |access-date=2017-03-06}}</ref> The iconic image of the god or hero on horseback battling the [[chthonic]] serpent, on which his horse tramples, appears on [[Celt]]ic votive columns, and with the coming of [[Christianity]] it was easily transformed into the image of [[Saint George and the Dragon]], whose earliest known depictions are from tenth- and eleventh-century Cappadocia and eleventh-century Georgia and Armenia.<ref>See [[Saint George and the Dragon]]</ref>

==Iconography, depictions, and Hellenistic associations==
[[File:Sabazios_hand.jpg|thumb|View from various angles.]]
Among Roman inscriptions from Nicopolis ad Istrum, Sabazios is generally equated with [[Jupiter (mythology)|Jove]] and mentioned alongside [[Mercury (mythology)|Mercury]].<ref name="Tacheva-Hitova The Cult of Sabazios">{{cite book |doi=10.1163/9789004295735_004 |chapter=The Cult of Sabazios |title=Eastern Cults in Moesia Inferior and Thracia (5th Century B.C.-4th Century A.D.) |year=1983 |pages=162–189 |isbn=978-90-04-06884-1 |first1=Margarita |last1=Tacheva-Hitova }}</ref> Similarly in Hellenistic monuments, Sabazios is either explicitly (via inscriptions) or implicitly (via iconography) associated with Zeus. On a marble slab from Philippopolis, Sabazios is depicted as a curly-haired and bearded central deity among several gods and goddesses. Under his left foot is a ram's head, and he holds in his left hand a sceptre tipped with a hand in the [[benedictio latina]] gesture.<ref name="google3">{{cite book|title=Corpus Cultus Iovis Sabazii (CCIS): the hands |author=Vermaseren, M. J.|date=1983 |publisher=Brill|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WwwVAAAAIAAJ&dq=benedictio+latina&pg=PA16|page=16|isbn=978-90-04-06951-0 }}</ref> Sabazios is accompanied by busts on his right depicting Luna, Pan, and Mercury, and on his left by Sol, Fortuna, and Daphne.<ref name="Tacheva-Hitova The Cult of Sabazios"/> According to Macrobius, Liber and Helios were worshipped among the Thracians as Sabazios;<ref name="Tacheva-Hitova The Cult of Sabazios"/> this description fits other Classical accounts that identify Sabazios with [[Dionysos]]. Sabazios is also associated with a number of archeological finds depicting a bronze, right hand in the benedictio latina gesture. The hand appears to have had ritual significance and may have been affixed to a sceptre (as the one carried by Sabazios on the Philippopolis slab). Although there are many variations, the hand of Sabazios is typically depicted with a pinecone on the thumb and with a serpent or pair of serpents encircling the wrist and surmounting the bent ring and pinky fingers. Additional symbols occasionally included on the hands of Sabazios include a lightning bolt over the index and middle fingers, a turtle and lizard on the back of the hand, an eagle, a ram, a leafless branch, the [[thyrsos]], and the [[Thracian horseman|Mounted Heros]].<ref name="Tacheva-Hitova The Cult of Sabazios"/>

==Sabazios in Athens==
The ecstatic Eastern rites practiced largely by women in Athens were thrown together for rhetorical purposes by [[Demosthenes]] in undermining his opponent Aeschines for participating in his mother's cultic associations:
<blockquote>On attaining manhood you abetted your mother in her initiations and the other rituals, and read aloud from the cultic writings&nbsp;... You rubbed the fat-cheeked snakes and swung them above your head, crying ''Euoi saboi'' and ''hues attes, attes hues''.<ref>Demosthenes, ''De corona'' 260; [[Attis]], serpent cult, Sabazios, Dionysus (Aeschines is characterised as "ivy-bearer" and "''liknos''-carrier"), and "cultic writings", which may have insinuated [[Orphic]] connections as well, are not otherwise linked in [[Cult (religion)|cult]], save in their foreignness in fifth-century Athens.</ref></blockquote>

==Transformation to ''Sabazius''==
[[File:Ivory_with_gold_miniature_of_Sabazios_from_the_tomb_of_Alexander_IV_at_Aigai,_311_BCE.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|Ivory figurine of Sabazios from the tomb of [[Alexander IV of Macedon]], [[Museum of the Royal Tombs of Aigai (Vergina)|Museum of the Royal Tombs of Aegae]].]]

Transference of Sabazios to the Roman world appears to have been mediated in large part through [[Pergamum]].<ref>Lane 1989.{{full|date=October 2022}}</ref> The naturally [[interpretatio graeca|syncretic approach]] of Greek religion blurred distinctions. Later Greek writers, like [[Strabo]] in the first century CE, linked Sabazios with [[Zagreus]], among Phrygian ministers and attendants of the sacred rites of Rhea and Dionysos.<ref>Strabo, ''Geography'', 10.3.15.</ref> Strabo's Sicilian contemporary, [[Diodorus Siculus]], conflated Sabazios with the secret 'second' Dionysus, born of Zeus and Persephone,<ref>[[Diodorus Siculus]], 4.4.1.</ref> a connection that is not borne out by surviving inscriptions, which are entirely to ''Zeus Sabazios''.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Lane |first1=Eugene N. |title=Towards a Definition of the Iconography of Sabazius |journal=Numen |date=1 January 1980 |volume=27 |issue=1 |pages=9–33 |doi=10.1163/156852780X00134 }}</ref><ref name=Vermaseren1983>{{cite book |doi=10.1163/9789004296510_020 |chapter=Études Préliminaires Aux Religions Orientales dans l'Empire Romain |title=Corpus Cultus Iovis Sabazii (CCIS), Volume 1 |year=1983 |pages=49–56 |isbn=978-90-04-06951-0 |first1=Maarten J. |last1=Vermaseren }}</ref> The Christian [[Clement of Alexandria]] had been informed that the secret mysteries of Sabazius, as practiced among the Romans, involved a [[Serpent (symbolism)|serpent]], a [[chthonic]] creature unconnected with the mounted skygod of Phrygia: {{"'}}God in the bosom' is a countersign of the mysteries of Sabazius to the adepts". Clement reports: "This is a snake, passed through the bosom of the initiates".<ref>Clement of Alexandria, ''[[Protrepticus (Clement)|Protrepticus]]'', 1, 2, 16.</ref>

Much later, the Byzantine Greek encyclopedia, ''[[Suda]]'' ({{circa|10th century}}), flatly states <blockquote>Sabazios&nbsp;... is the same as Dionysos. He acquired this form of address from the rite pertaining to him; for the barbarians call the bacchic cry "sabazein". Hence some of the Greeks too follow suit and call the cry "sabasmos"; thereby Dionysos [becomes] Sabazios. They also used to call "saboi" those places that had been dedicated to him and his [[Bacchantes]]&nbsp;... Demosthenes [in the speech] "On Behalf of Ktesiphon" [mentions them]. Some say that Saboi is the term for those who are dedicated to Sabazios, that is to Dionysos, just as those [dedicated] to Bakkhos [are] Bakkhoi. They say that Sabazios and Dionysos are the same. Thus some also say that the Greeks call the Bakkhoi Saboi.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Sider |first1=David |title=Notes on Two Epigrams of Philodemus |journal=The American Journal of Philology |date=1982 |volume=103 |issue=2 |pages=208–213 |doi=10.2307/294253 |jstor=294253 }}</ref></blockquote>

In Roman sites, though an inscription built into the wall of the abbey church of San Venanzio at Ceperana suggested to a Renaissance humanist<ref>Antonio Ivani, writing to his fellow humanist Antonio Medusei, 15 July 1473; noted in Roberto Weiss, ''The Renaissance Discovery of Classical Antiquity'', 1969:116.</ref> it had been built upon the foundations of a temple to ''Jupiter Sabazius'', according to modern scholars not a single temple consecrated to Sabazius, the rider god of the open air, has been located.<ref name=Vermaseren1983/> Small votive hands, typically made of copper or bronze, are often associated with the cult of Sabazios. Many of these hands have a small perforation at the base which suggests they may have been attached to wooden poles and carried in processions. The symbolism of these objects is not well known.<ref name=Vermaseren1983/>

==Jewish connection==
The first Jews who settled in [[Rome]] were expelled in 139&nbsp;BCE, along with Chaldaean astrologers by Cornelius Hispalus under a law which proscribed the propagation of the "corrupting" cult of "Jupiter Sabazius", according to the epitome of a lost book of [[Valerius Maximus]]:
<blockquote>Gnaeus Cornelius Hispalus, [[Praetor Peregrinus|praetor peregrinus]] in the year of the consulate of Marcus Popilius Laenas and Lucius Calpurnius, ordered the astrologers by an edict to leave Rome and Italy within ten days, since by a fallacious interpretation of the stars they perturbed fickle and silly minds, thereby making profit out of their lies. The same praetor compelled the Jews, who attempted to infect the Roman custom with the cult of Jupiter Sabazius, to return to their homes.<ref>[http://www.fh-augsburg.de/~harsch/Chronologia/Lspost01/Valerius/val_fac1.html#03 (Valerius Maximus), epitome of ''Nine Books of Memorable Deeds and Sayings'', i. 3, 2], see ''EXEMPLUM 3''. [Par.]</ref></blockquote>

By this it is conjectured that the Romans identified the Jewish [[Names of God in Judaism#Tzevaot|YHVH Tzevaot]] ("sa-ba-oth", "of the Hosts") as [[Jove]] Sabazius.

This possibly mistaken connection of Sabazios and Sabaot was often repeated. In a similar vein, [[Plutarch]] maintained that the Jews worshipped [[Dionysus]], and that the day of [[Shabbat|Sabbath]] was a festival of Sabazius.<ref>Plutarch. ''Symposiacs'', iv, 6.</ref> Plutarch also discusses the identification of the Jewish God with the "Egyptian" [[Typhon]], an identification which he later rejects, however. The monotheistic [[Hypsistarian]]s worshipped the Most High under this name, which may have been a form of the Jewish God.

==References==
{{Reflist|2}}

==Further reading==
{{refbegin}}
* {{cite book |doi=10.1163/9789004296138_009 |chapter=Sabazios |title=Les religions orientales dans l'Espagne romaine |year=1967 |pages=73–81 |isbn=978-90-04-29613-8 |last1=García y Bellido |first1=A. }}
* {{cite book |doi=10.1163/9789004295711_013 |chapter=Der Sabazios-Kult |title=Die orientalischen Religionen im Römerreich |year=1981 |pages=316–340 |isbn=978-90-04-06356-3 |first1=Rudolf |last1=Fellmann }}
* {{cite book |last1=Fol |first1=Aleksandar N. |chapter=Pontic Interactions: the Cult of Sabazios |pages=79–84 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Mwpyc-QmhnwC&pg=PA79 |editor1-last=Tsetskhladze |editor1-first=Gocha R. |title=The Greek Colonisation of the Black Sea Area: Historical Interpretation of Archaeology |date=1998 |publisher=Franz Steiner Verlag |isbn=978-3-515-07302-8 }}
* {{cite book |last1=Kloft |first1=Hans |chapter=Dionysos – Sabazios |pages=27–42 |jstor=j.ctv1168m4s.6 |title=Mysterienkulte der Antike: Götter, Menschen, Rituale |date=1999 |publisher=Verlag C.H.Beck |isbn=978-3-406-73659-9 }}
* {{cite journal |last1=Picard |first1=Ch. |title=Sabazios, dieu thraco-phrygien: expansion et aspects nouveaux de son culte |journal=Revue Archéologique |date=1961 |volume=2 |pages=129–176 |jstor=41754824 }}
* Roller, L.E. "The Anatolian Cult of Sabazios". In: ''Ancient Journeys: A Festschrift in Honor of Eugene Numa Lane'' (C. Callaway and P.A. Draper, eds.). STOA, 2002. Online link: https://www.stoa.org/texts/2001/01/0008/
* {{cite book |doi=10.1163/9789004295650_006 |chapter=Sabazios |title=Les religions orientales dans la Pannonie Romaine |year=1980 |pages=250–257 |isbn=978-90-04-06180-4 |first1=Petar |last1=Selem }}
* {{cite book |doi=10.1163/9789004295902_010 |chapter=The Most High God and Sabazios |title=The Supreme Gods of the Bosporan Kingdom |year=1999 |pages=241–254 |isbn=978-90-04-11231-5 |first1=Yulia |last1=Ustinova }}
* {{cite book |last1=Vitas |first1=Nadežda Gavrilović |chapter=Sabazius |pages=77–91 |jstor=j.ctv1gt94hj.11 |title=Ex Asia et Syria: Oriental Religions in the Roman Central Balkans |date=2021 |publisher=Archaeopress |doi=10.2307/j.ctv1gt94hj.11 |isbn=978-1-78969-914-2 |s2cid=240642219 }}

; Sabazios and Judaism:
* {{cite journal |last1=Bodinger |first1=Martin |title=Deux problèmes d'histoire des religions au monde antique : i. Le dieu sabazios et le judaïsme |trans-title=Two Problems of the History of Religions in the Ancient World. I. The God Sabazios and Judaism |language=fr |journal=Archaevs |date=2002 |volume=6 |issue=1–4 |pages=121–139 |url=https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=86872 }}
* {{cite journal |last1=Lane |first1=Eugene N. |title=Sabazius and the Jews in Valerius Maximus: a Re-examination |journal=Journal of Roman Studies |date=November 1979 |volume=69 |pages=35–38 |doi=10.2307/299057 |jstor=299057 |s2cid=163401482 }}
* {{cite book |doi=10.1017/CBO9780511520464.009 |chapter=Theos Hypsistos and Sabazios – syncretism in Judaism in Asia Minor? |title=Jewish Communities in Asia Minor |year=1991 |pages=127–144 |isbn=978-0-521-40120-3 |first1=Paul R. |last1=Trebilco }}

{{refend}}

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[[Category:Phrygian gods]]
[[Category:Sky and weather gods]]
[[Category:Thracian gods]]
[[Category:Dacian gods]]
[[Category:Children of Dionysus]]
[[Category:Snakes in religion]]
[[Category:Horse deities]]