Mountain god

Mountain gods are the personifications of certain mountains. The worship of mountain gods could be associated with a particular sacred mountain - such as Mount Olympus - or it took place on the heights themselves (see e.g. the Garizim in Samaria ).

Europe

There are numerous summit shrines in Minoan Crete . From the Central European Bronze and Iron Ages there are sacrificial sites, e.g. B. in the high altitudes of the Alps.

Some variants of the Greek Zeus , such as Zeus Kasios and the Roman Jupiter, are mountain gods.

Tmolos , the god of the mountain range of the same name in Lydia (today Boz Dağı ), emerges very vividly from his mountain figure in Ovid's Metamorphoses in order to be the arbiter in the musical competition between Phoebus-Apollo and Pan .

middle East

The Hittites worshiped mountain gods. Mountain gods, for example, are depicted on the reliefs in Yazılıkaya . The god Aššur the Assyrians was a mountain god who was connected to the mountain Ebiḫ ( Jebel Machul ) before he became the god of empire and war .

The Urartians worshiped mountain gods and made sacrifices to them, as evidenced by the inscription by Meher Kapısı . Examples are the Eidoru mountain near Rusaḫinili ( Ayanıs ), probably the Süphan Dağı and ^d Qilibani, the Zımzımdağ east of Van . ^d Adarutta was the god of Mount Andarutta near Hipparna on the border between Urartu and Musasir .

Some variations of the Syrian Ba'al were associated with specific mountains:

South East Asia

Numerous Indian temples are built in the shape of mountains. Often they are supposed to depict Mount Meru , which represents the world axis .

far East

Numerous mountain gods were and are worshiped in China. Sacrifices were made to them. The most important are the mountains that mark the four cardinal points ( yue ). The mountain god San-sin is worshiped in Korea . The spirits of individual mountains, the female yŏ-sansin , protect travelers and are also invoked to have children.

New world

The Inca made human sacrifices to certain sacred mountains .

Examples

literature

Naumann, Nelly : Yama no Kami: the Japanese mountain deity. , in: Asian Folklore Studies 22, 1963, 133–366.

Individual evidence

↑ z. B. Miloslav Chytráček, Ondřej Chvojka, Jan John, Jan Michálek, Halštatský kultovní areál na vrchu Burkovák u Nemějic / Hallstatt period cult area on Burkovák near Nemějice, Archeologické Rozhledy 61, 2009, 183–217
↑ Herbert Jankuhn (ed.), Prehistoric sanctuaries and sacrificial sites in Central and Northern Europe, Göttingen 1970
↑ Pauly's Real Encyclopedia of Classical Classical Studies: New Editing by August Friedrich von Pauly, George Wissowa , p. 1770, 1963
↑ Book XI , 150–193
↑ Volkert Haas : Hittite mountain gods and Hurrian stone demons: Rites, Cults and Myths, 1982.
↑ Miroj Savini, The historical background of the Urartian monument of Meher Kapısı. In: Altan Çilingiroğlu, DH French (Ed.), Anatolian Iron Ages 3. British Institute of Archeology at Ankara Monograph 3, Ankara 1994, 207; Altan Çilingiroǧlu, Recent excavations a the Uratian Fortress of Ayanıs. In: Adam T. Smith, Karen S. Rubinson (Eds.), Archeology in the Borderlands, 208
^ TG Pinches, Sargon 's Eighth Campaign. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, 1913, 599
↑ Michael W. Meister, Mountain Temples and Temple-Mountains: Masrur. Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 65/1, 2006, 26-49
^ Evan Eisenberg, The Mountain of the Gods. Northeastern Naturalist 8, 2001, 109-120
↑ Terry F. Kleeman, Mountain Deities in China: The Domestication of the Mountain God and the Subjugation of the Margins. Journal of the American Oriental Society 114/2, 1994, 226-238
↑ James Huntley Grayson, Female Mountain Spirits in Korea: A Neglected Tradition. Asian Folklore Studies 55/1, 1996, 119-134
↑ Constanza Ceruti, Human Bodies as Objects of Dedication at Inca Mountain Shrines (North-Western Argentina). World Archeology 36/1, 2004, The Object of Dedication, 103-122

[1] z. B. Miloslav Chytráček, Ondřej Chvojka, Jan John, Jan Michálek, Halštatský kultovní areál na vrchu Burkovák u Nemějic / Hallstatt period cult area on Burkovák near Nemějice, Archeologické Rozhledy 61, 2009, 183–217

[2] Herbert Jankuhn (ed.), Prehistoric sanctuaries and sacrificial sites in Central and Northern Europe, Göttingen 1970

[3] Pauly's Real Encyclopedia of Classical Classical Studies: New Editing by August Friedrich von Pauly, George Wissowa , p. 1770, 1963

[4] Book XI , 150–193

[5] Volkert Haas : Hittite mountain gods and Hurrian stone demons: Rites, Cults and Myths, 1982.

[6] Miroj Savini, The historical background of the Urartian monument of Meher Kapısı. In: Altan Çilingiroğlu, DH French (Ed.), Anatolian Iron Ages 3. British Institute of Archeology at Ankara Monograph 3, Ankara 1994, 207; Altan Çilingiroǧlu, Recent excavations a the Uratian Fortress of Ayanıs. In: Adam T. Smith, Karen S. Rubinson (Eds.), Archeology in the Borderlands, 208

[7] TG Pinches, Sargon 's Eighth Campaign. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, 1913, 599

[8] Michael W. Meister, Mountain Temples and Temple-Mountains: Masrur. Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 65/1, 2006, 26-49

[9] Evan Eisenberg, The Mountain of the Gods. Northeastern Naturalist 8, 2001, 109-120

[10] Terry F. Kleeman, Mountain Deities in China: The Domestication of the Mountain God and the Subjugation of the Margins. Journal of the American Oriental Society 114/2, 1994, 226-238

[11] James Huntley Grayson, Female Mountain Spirits in Korea: A Neglected Tradition. Asian Folklore Studies 55/1, 1996, 119-134

[12] Constanza Ceruti, Human Bodies as Objects of Dedication at Inca Mountain Shrines (North-Western Argentina). World Archeology 36/1, 2004, The Object of Dedication, 103-122