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Abaetyl (/ˈbiːtɪl/; alsobetyl), literally "house of god", is a sacred stone (sometimes believed to be ameteorite) that was venerated and thought to house a god or deity.[1] The most famous example is theOmphalos stored in theTemple of Apollo at theGreek town ofDelphi.[2]
The term baetyl was used inancient Near Eastern sources, in the form of "beth-el", as well as in Greek and Roman sources, as abaitylos. In the former, the term was used to refer to the names of gods or places. Examples includeBethel, a location described in theHebrew Bible, and the deityBethel,[3] who was mentioned in texts likeEsarhaddon's Treaty with Ba'al of Tyre and theElephantine papyri. In the latter, the word was used to describe a round stone that had fallen from the sky (i.e. a meteorite).[4]
The wordbaetyl has taken on a vague use in modern writing.[5][6] It has been debated both how ancient and modern usage of this word compare with one another. And, among modern historians, concerns have risen over the precision, accuracy, and generalizing tendency of the usage of this term in describing ancient texts and material objects.[7][8] The term has been used expansively, referring to any cultic stone regardless of the type or shape of stone that it was, such as whether it was a rounded stone (or ovoid), a pillar, or astele (standing stone).[9][10] This generalization has been criticized as not corresponding to ancient use of the term itself and resulting in a projection of the modern sense of the word (a sacred stone containing the presence of a deity) onto a wide variety of cultic stone objects where little evidence exists for such an understanding, as in the case of theNabataeans.[11]
The term baetyl is a derivation of the Greekbaetylus/baitylos (βαίτυλος), itself being derived from theSemitic termbytʾl (or "beth-el", "house of god"), where it appears to have referred to open-air sanctuaries.[8][12]
The earliest known evidence for the baetyl concept in the ancient near east, where it designated either the name of a place or a god, comes from the 8th century BC, from theSefire steles, a set of threeAramaicstelae discovered at the site ofSfire. In the first half of the 7th century BC, a Phoenician-Aramaic god known asBethel is first attested.[8]
TheBook of Genesis records a story (28:10–22) concerning the patriarchJacob. According to the story, Jacob went to sleep after laying his head on a certain rock. It was in this instance that he had the vision known asJacob's Ladder, which included an appearance of God. When he awoke, Jacob declared that God was in the location he was in. He declared the place to be the "house of God" (and so named it Bethel) and took the stone that he was laying his head on and set it up as a sacred pillar.[13] Though this narrative has been appealed to in some discussions of baetyls, the term Bethel ("House of God") is not used to refer to the stone but to the new name of the town as a whole. Furthermore, the Hebrew word for "pillar",maṣṣebah, was translated into Greek in theSeptuagint asoikos theou ("house of god"), and notbaitylos, further indicating a lack of connection between this narrative and the baetyl concept. The stone itself is also not the actual location of God's presence, but is a memorial for the vision and vow. Its sacred status is a result of its status as Jacob's pillar.[14]
The first Greek usage of thebaitylos comes from a first-century text, but only as the name of a slave, not as a stone or a god. The next usage comes from the same century, in thePhoenician History byPhilo of Byblos, where it refers to the name of one of the sons ofOuranos andGaia. Philo then refers to a magical stone he calls abaitylia, which was invented when Ouranos first rained them from heaven (making it a meteorite; this is a common mythological etiology for the origins of these sacred stones[8]). Philo's discussion is only extant in quotations fromEusebius, who lived in the fourth century.[15] Another first-century reference is fromPliny the Elder, who describes thebaitylos in the following manner:[16]
Sotacus distinguishes also two other varieties of the stone, a black and a red, resembling axe-heads. According to him, those among them that are black and round are supernatural objects; and he states that thanks to them cities and fleets are attached and overcome, their name being baetuli while the elongated stones are cerauniae.
A much later reference occurs in the works ofDamascius, a 6th-centuryNeoplatonist, according to later quotations of his text byPhotios I of Constantinople in hisBibliotheca. There, it is a spherical stone that originated from the sky and was discovered by a certain man named Eusebius. Eusebius finds that this stone is prophetic and becomes its interpreter.[17]
It is only in theLater Roman Empire and in the period oflate antiquity when the termbaitylos came to take on connotations that combined its connotations of divinity from the Semitic tradition with the connotations of its function as an object in the Greek tradition. This fusion was a product of the dual influence of both Semitic and Greek tradition on the Roman Near East, particularly in northernSyria andLebanon.[18]
In the study of theancient Near East, the term 'baetyl' is usually broadly used to describe cultic stones.[19] Evidence for such cultic stones comes from theNeolithic temple site ofTas-Silġ,[20] texts from theAmorite siteMari where the termsikkanum designated a stone used in cultic ceremony,[21] thehuwasi stones installed into the temples and open-air sanctuaries of theHittites,[6] and among the Phoenicians. In studies ofPhoenicia andPunic religion, the term baetyl is typically used to refer to a fairly small object that is ovoid or conical.[22] Some early stelae from Phoenicia inscribeovoid-shaped objects, which may prefigure the later appearance of actual baetyls.[23] In Phoenician theogony as described byPhilo of Byblos, there was a god named Baitylos, who was one of the four sons of Ouranos.[3]
TheMeccan sanctuary, theKaaba, has been referred to inpre-Islamic Arabic poetry as "God's house" (bayt allāh). According to later sources, theBlack Stone (a baetyl) was moved to this location from a nearby mountaintop in order to augment the sacred nature of the site when the area was under control of theQuraysh.[24] Such baetyls can be described with the Arabicnuṣub (pl.anṣāb), typically referring to sacrificial stone altars (mentioned several times in theQuran: 5:3, 90; 70:43) which is distinct from terms likeṣanam andwatham, which refer to manufactured statues.[25] Some historians have compared the Black Stone to the description of a black, rounded stone said to have descended from heaven as described byHerodian.[26]
Inancient Greek religion andmythology, the term was specially applied to theOmphalos of Delphi ("navel"),[2] the stone supposed to have been swallowed byCronus (who feared misfortune from his own children) in mistake for his infant sonZeus, for whom it had been substituted byGaea.[27] This stone was carefully preserved atDelphi, anointed with oil every day and on festive occasions covered with raw wool.[27]
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InRome, there was the stone effigy ofCybele, calledMater Idaea Deum, that had been ceremoniously brought fromPessinus in Asia Minor in 204 BC.[28] The emperorElagabalus who reigned from 218 until 222 (and was probably a teenager for all his reign) came fromSyria and was already the hereditary high priest of the cult ofthe god Elagabalus there. Once made emperor he brought the god's baetyl to Rome with great ceremony, and built theElagabalium to house it. It seems to have been a conical meteorite.
According toTacitus, thesimulacrum of the goddess at the temple ofAphrodite Paphia at her mythological birthplace atPaphos, on Cyprus, was a rounded object, approximately conical or shaped like ameta (a turning post on aRoman circus) but "the reason for this" he noted, "is obscure".[29]
Other famous baetylic stones were those in the temples ofZeus Casius atSeleucia Pieria, and ofZeus Teleios atTegea. Even in the declining years ofpaganism, these cultic symbols retained their significance, as is shown by the attacks upon them by ecclesiastical writers.[28]
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Baetylus".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 3 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 191–192.
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