Bel’s temple Etemenanki in Babylon (1)

Text
Zeus = Bel = Marduk.

Diodorus Siculus 2.9.5-7:
Now the entire building was ingeniously constructed at great expense of bitumen and brick, and at the top of the ascent Semiramis set up three statues of hammered gold, of Zeus, Hera, and Rhea. Of these statues that of Zeus represented him erect and striding forward, and, being forty feet high, weighed a thousand Babylonian talents; that of Rhea showed her seated on a golden throne and was of the same weight as that of Zeus; and at her knees stood two lions, while near by were huge serpents of silver, each one weighing thirty talents. The statue of Hera was also standing, weighing eight hundred talents, and in her right hand she held a snake by the head and in her left a sceptre studded with precious stones. A table for all three statues, made of hammered gold stood before them, forty feet long, fifteen wide, and weighing five hundred talents. And there were censers as well, also two in number but weighing each three hundred talents.

Source (list of abbreviations)
Diodorus Siculus 2.9.5-7

Bibliography

Amar Annus

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