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The live stones (1)

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Topics (move over topic to see place in topic list) Ninurta and Asakku (Lugal ud melambi nirgal) 04 Religious and philosophical literature and poetry 04.01 Myths 04.01.09 Ninurta myths 04.01.09.02 Ninurta and Asakku (Lugal ud melambi nirgal) Stones 02 Religious and ideological symbols and iconographic motifs 02.03 Mineral symbols 02.03.02 Stones	Keywords magic naming stones
Period 1st century CE 2nd century CE 6th century CE Roman Empire Byzantine Empire	Channel Byzantine philosophers and scholars Helleno-Roman philosophers and scholars Roman philosophers and scholars

Text
Philo, who retold the Phoenician version of Theogony according to Sanchuniathon, mentions the divine Baitylos among the sons of Ouranos and also speaks of Ouranos devising baitylia, described as ‘live stones’ (λίϑοι ἔμψυχοι), as a weapon against Kronos (FGrHist 790.F.2.23). Applied to magical stones with the power of motion, the word is also found in Pliny NH 37.135 and Damascius, Vita Isidori 94.203, who reports of them seen at Heliopolis in Syria.

Sources (list of abbreviations) (source links will open in a new browser window)
Damascius, Vita Isidori 94.203
Philo of Byblos, FGrHist 790.F.2.23
Pliny the Elder, Naturalia Historia 37.135

Bibliography

West 1997, 294n48

West, Martin L. The East Face of Helicon. West Asiatic Elements in Greek Poetry and Myth. Oxford: Clarendon Press 1997.

Amar Annus

URL for this entry: http://www.aakkl.helsinki.fi/melammu/database/gen_html/a0001394.php

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