Keldag

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Keldag
Jebel Aqra (Kel Dağı, Mount Casius), 2008.jpg
height 1736  m
location Hatay province on the border with Syria
Coordinates 35 ° 57 '9 "  N , 35 ° 58' 10"  E Coordinates: 35 ° 57 '9 "  N , 35 ° 58' 10"  E
Keldağ (Turkey)
Keldag
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The Keldağ , Kel Dağı , (German: Kahler Berg ) also Kılıç Dağı (German: Schwertberg ), Arabic Jabal al-Aqra ( Arabic جبل الأقرع, DMG Ǧabal al-Aqraʿ  'Bald Mountain'; also transcribed Jabal al-Aqra or Jebel al-Akra ; also Cebeli akra ) or Kasios-Berg ( Armenian Կասիոս լեռը Kasios ler'y ' ; ancient Greek Κάσιον ὂρος Kásion óros ; Latin Casius Mons ) is a mountain on the border between Syria and Turkey , near the mouth of the Orontes into the Mediterranean Sea and around 40 Kilometers north of the Bronze Age city of Ugarit and 65 km southwest of modern Antakya . The 1736 meter high mountain is close to the coast and serves as a landmark for seafarers. From an administrative point of view, the Syrian part of the mountain lies in the area of ​​the Armenian -influenced small town of Kessab in the Latakia governorate , the Turkish part in the Yayladağı district of the Hatay province .

meaning

The Keldaġ was a sacred mountain that played a role in several religions.

Ḫazzi

The Hittites and Hurrites called the mountain Ḫazzi, which forms a pair of mountain gods with the non-localizable mountain Namni , who also functioned as oath deities . In the rock relief of Yazilikaya , the weather god Teššub is depicted standing on two bent mountain gods . In the Hurrian myth about the rock demon Ullikummi , the weather god Teššub climbed the mountain Ḫazzi with his siblings Tašmišu and Šauška to see the Ullikummi growing out of the sea.

Ṣapanu

In the Ugaritic myth, Mount Ṣapanu was the residence of the weather god Ba'alu , for whom the demiurge Koṯaru built a palace out of cedar wood, gold, silver and precious stones. When Baʾalu died fighting the god of the dead Motu , he was buried by his sister ʾAnatu on the Ṣapanu before she brought him back to life by defeating Motu . In Ugaritic lists of sacrifices, uapanu is the recipient of sacrificial animals.

Ṣāpôn

In the Old Testament , Ṣāpôn (also spelled Zaphon) is called a mountain in the north, e.g. B. in Isa. 14,13f. The Hebrew word ṣāpôn "north" is derived from the mountain name, as the mountain is north of Palestine. It may be compared to Mount Zion in Psalm 48: 2f. The designation as the mountain of the god Ba'al Ṣāpôn (בעל צפון; ( Exodus 14,2-4  EU )) refers to the southern Kasion .

Kasion

The Hellenization formed the Hittite name Ḫazzi to the Greek Kasion ( Greek  Κάσιον ), while Baal Sapon was worshiped as Zeus Kasios (Ζεύς Κάσιος) on the mountain until the 4th century. According to Pliny , the mountain is so high that at 3 a.m. from its summit one can see the rising sun in the east and the continuing night in the west at the same time. Aelius Spartianus , a possibly fictional author of the unreliable Historia Augusta , reports that the Emperor Hadrian spent a night on the mountain to experience this phenomenon, but an approaching storm prevented it. Even Julian is said to have visited the place of worship of Zeus. Since the mountain was clearly visible from the sea, Zeus Kasios was revered as the protective deity of the seafarers and thus found its way to Egypt and Greece. According to one version of the Typhonsage, Zeus fought the Typhon on the Kasion. It is even believed that the name Typhon comes from the name Ṣāpôn.

The southern Kasion

Pliny also names a mountain Kasion , which lies on the border of Egypt on the Sirbonian Sea , where Baal Sapon was worshiped. The fight between Zeus and Typhon is also located here as an alternative. Since the cult of Baal Sapon had also spread to Egypt, the name of the mountain may also have migrated.

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literature

  • Edward Boucher James:  Casius Mons . In: William Smith : Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. London 1854.
  • Carsten Colpe: Kasion. In: The Little Pauly (KlP). Volume 3, Stuttgart 1969, column 141.
  • Einar von Schuler : Asia Minor. The mythology of the Hittites and Hurrites , in gods and myths in the Middle East . Ernst Klett Verlag, Stuttgart 1965.

Individual evidence

  1. Turkey map of the Faculty of Geography at Ankara University