Lucian of Samosata De Syria dea 13

At Gezer, not far from Jerusalem, “there is a living tradition that the waters of the flood burst forth in the neighbourhood” (Cook, p. 107). Likewise at Athens, within the enclosure of Olympian Zeus, in the precinct of Olympian Earth: ‘here the ground is cloven to a cubit’s width; and they say that after the deluge which happened in Deucalion’s time the water ran away down this cleft. Every year they throw into it wheaten meal kneaded with honey” (Pausanias 1, 18, 7, Frazer’s translation).

Further details of this rite are given in ¢. 48. Frazer's note on Pausanias l.c. compares an Athenian Hydrophoria connected with the memory of the flood; also the annual water-pouring in the Temple at Jerusalem on the Feast of Tabernacles. The performance was not simply commemorative; the offering at Athens of meal and honey was chthonic, and so was the water-pouring there (Cleidemus in Athenaeus 5, p. 410a). At Hieropolis the object was to quell evil spirits, according to Melito. “But touching Nebo, which is in Mabug, why should I write to you; for lo! all the priests which are in Mabug know that it is the image of Orpheus, a Thracian Magus. And Hadran (i.e. Hadaranes, a double of Hadad) is the image of Zaradusht, a Persian Magus, because both of these Magi practised Magism to a well which is in a wood in Mabug, in which was an unclean spirit, and it committed violence and attacked the passage of every one who was passing by in all that place in which now the fortress of Mabug is located; and these same Magi charged Simi, the daughter of Hadad (cf. c. 33), that she should draw water froin the sea, and cast it into the well, in order that the spirits should not come up,” etc. (Cureton, Spicil, Syr. 44 sq.) Early modern travellers have seen seawater poured into a brook (Baudissin, Studien, ii, p. 181), and it is perhaps significant that nowadays the Jans are angry if water is spilled on the hearth (Baldensperger, Jmmovable East, p. 85). Cf. Baudissin, p. 437, 3.