Greek city of Marathos in Phoenicia
Bronze 20mm (6.12 grams) Struck circa 130-93 B.C.
Reference: Sear 6042; HGC 10, 195
Laureate head of Zeus right.
Double cornucopia; to right, Phoenician date numerals; in field to left, Phoenician letters for Amrit.

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In the ancient Greek religion, Zeus was the “Father of Gods and men” who ruled the Olympians of Mount Olympus as a father ruled the family. He was the god of sky and thunder in Greek mythology. His Roman counterpart is Jupiter and Etruscan counterpart is Tinia.

Zeus was the child of Cronus and Rhea, and the youngest of his siblings. In most traditions he was married to Hera, although, at the oracle of Dodona, his consort was Dione: according to the Iliad, he is the father of Aphrodite by Dione. He is known for his erotic escapades. These resulted in many godly and heroic offspring, including Athena, Apollo and Artemis, Hermes, Persephone (by Demeter), Dionysus, Perseus, Heracles, Helen of Troy, Minos, and the Muses (by Mnemosyne); by Hera, he is usually said to have fathered Ares, Hebe and Hephaestus.

As Walter Burkert points out in his book, Greek Religion, “Even the gods who are not his natural children address him as Father, and all the gods rise in his presence.” For the Greeks, he was the King of the Gods, who oversaw the universe. As Pausanias observed, “That Zeus is king in heaven is a saying common to all men”. In Hesiod’s Theogony Zeus assigns the various gods their roles. In the Homeric Hymns he is referred to as the chieftain of the gods.

His symbols are the thunderbolt, eagle, bull, and oak. In addition to his Indo-European inheritance, the classical “cloud-gatherer” also derives certain iconographic traits from the cultures of the Ancient Near East, such as the scepter. Zeus is frequently depicted by Greek artists in one of two poses: standing, striding forward, with a thunderbolt leveled in his raised right hand, or seated in majesty.

The cornucopia (from Latin cornu copiae) or horn of plenty is a symbol of abundance and nourishment, commonly a large horn-shaped container overflowing with produce, flowers or nuts. The horn originates from classical antiquity, it has continued as a symbol in Western art, and it is particularly associated with the Thanksgiving holiday in North America.

Allegorical depiction of the Roman goddess Abundantia with a cornucopia, by Rubens (ca. 1630)

In mythology

Mythology offers multiple explanations of the origin of the cornucopia. One of the best-known involves the birth and nurturance of the infant Zeus, who had to be hidden from his devouring father Kronus. In a cave on Mount Ida on the island of Crete, baby Zeus was cared for and protected by a number of divine attendants, including the goat Amalthea (“Nourishing Goddess”), who fed him with her milk. The suckling future king of the gods had unusual abilities and strength, and in playing with his nursemaid accidentally broke off one of her horns, which then had the divine power to provide unending nourishment, as the foster mother had to the god.

In another myth, the cornucopia was created when Heracles (Roman Hercules) wrestled with the river god Achelous and wrenched off one of his horns; river gods were sometimes depicted as horned. This version is represented in the Achelous and Hercules mural painting by the American Regionalist artist Thomas Hart Benton.

The cornucopia became the attribute of several Greek and Roman deities, particularly those associated with the harvest, prosperity, or spiritual abundance, such as personifications of Earth (Gaia or Terra); the child Plutus, god of riches and son of the grain goddess Demeter; the nymph Maia; and Fortuna, the goddess of luck, who had the power to grant prosperity. In Roman Imperial cult, abstract Roman deities who fostered peace (pax Romana) and prosperity were also depicted with a cornucopia, including Abundantia, “Abundance” personified, and Annona, goddess of the grain supply to the city of Rome. Pluto, the classical ruler of the underworld in the mystery religions, was a giver of agricultural, mineral and spiritual wealth, and in art often holds a cornucopia to distinguish him from the gloomier Hades, who holds a drinking horn instead.

Amrit or Amrith, also known as Marathos or Marathus, was an ancient Phoenician city located near Tartus. Founded in the third millennium BC and abandoned during the second century BC, the city’s Phoenician ruins have been preserved in their entirety without extensive remodeling by later generations.

Overview

The city lies on the Mediterranean coast around 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) south of modern-day Tartus. Two rivers cross the city: Nahr Amrit, near the main temple, and Nahr al-Kuble near the secondary temple, a fact that might be linked to the importance of water in the religious traditions in Amrit. The city was probably founded by the Arvadites, and served as their continental base. It grew to be one of the wealthiest towns in the dominion of Arwad. The city surrendered, along with Arwad, to Alexander the Great in 333 BC. During Seleucid times the town, known as Marathus, was probably larger and more prosperous than Arwad. In 219 BC Amrit gained independence from Arwad, and was later sacked by forces from the latter city in 148 BC.

Excavation

Excavations of the site principally began in 1860 by Ernest Renan. Excavations were again carried out in 1954 by French archaeologist Maurice Dunand. Ceramic ware finds at Amrit indicated the site had been inhabited as early as the third millennium BC. Middle and Late Bronze Age “silo tombs” were also excavated, with contents ranging from weapons to original human remains. Excavations at the necropolis south of the town yielded several tomb structures. The funeral art found in some tombs with pyramidal-or cube-shaped towers, is considered some of “the most notable grave-monuments of the Phoenician world.” Excavations also uncovered the town’s ancient harbor, and a U-shaped stadium that dates back to the 4th and 3rd centuries BC and measures around 230 metres (750 ft) in length.

Temples

The Temple of Amrit

One of the most important excavations at Amrit was the Phoenician temple, commonly referred to the “ma’abed,” dedicated to the god Melqart of Tyre and Eshmun. The colonnaded temple, excavated between 1955 and 1957, consists of a large court cut out of rock measuring 47 × 49 metres (154 × 161 ft) and over 3 metres (9.8 ft) deep, surrounded by a covered portico. In the center of the court a well-preserved cube-shaped cella stands. The open-air courtyard was filled with the waters of a local, traditionally sacred spring, a unique feature of this site. The temple-which was dated to the late 4th century BC, a period following the Persian expansion into later-known-Seleukia-shows major Achaemenid influence in its layout and decoration. According to Dutch archaeologist, Peter Akkermans, the temple is the “best-preserved monumental structure from the Phoenician homeland.”

A second temple, described by visitors to the site in 1743 and 1860 and thought to have disappeared, was later discovered near the Nahr al-Kuble spring.

Stadium

  The Pre-Olympic Phoenician Stadium north of Amrit

About 200 metres (660 ft) northeast of the main temples of ancient Marathos and 180 metres (590 ft) north of the Amrit Tell are the remains of a rock-carved Phoenician stadium. It is separated from the other two archaeological sites by the Nahr al-Amrit and a site called by the locals al-Meqla ‘(the quarry’). The Stadium of Amrit was first described in 1745 by Richard Pococke in Part 2 of his book, A Description of the East, and Some Other Countries, as the site where an ancient Circus was held. Ernest Renan examined it in 1860 and discussed it in his book Mission de Phénicie, making the conclusion that the complex was not Roman in its entirety and that the stadium was undoubtedly Phoenician. The stadium is about 225 to 230 meters long and 30 to 40 meters wide, it has similar dimensions to the stadium of Olympia in Greece (213 × 31/32 meters). Seven rows of seats have been partially preserved. The stadium was open to the west and had two entrances on the east side between seats. In addition, there was a tunnel to the interior. The stadium is located approximately at a right angle to the main temple of Amrit, the Maabed. The temples to the north and west have open sides or which the stadium forms a common intersection. It is believed that the Amrit stadium was the location for sacred competitions where anointing and funeral games took place. Labib Boutros, former director of athletics at the American University of Beirut has conducted recent studies of the stadium and suggested that its construction may date back as far as 1500 BC, saying that the Amrit stadium was “devoted to sports in Phoenicia several centuries before the Olympic Games“.

Necropolis

  Burial towers at Amrit called “al Maghazil” or The Spindles

The Necropolis in the south of Amrit consists of underground burial chambers and two distinguishing burial towers called by the locals “al Maghazil” or The Spindles that stand up to 7.5 metres (25 ft) high. The larger tower is composed of a square stone base with a slightly upward tapering cylindrical block with a base diameter of 3.7 metres (12 ft), rising to a pyramid as a top termination, which is badly damaged. The second is approximately 12 meters southeast and is not quite 7 metres (23 ft) tall. At its base are three cylindrical parts whose diameters decrease and terminate in a dome. At the lower cylinder, to the corners of the square base plates, four lions decorate the building, which may not have been completed. Excavations of the burial chambers east of the towers has uncovered finds dated back as far as the 5th century BC. Plain limestone and clay sarcophagus were found arranged in cassette-like formation within the chambers. Other tombs are located south of the Nahr al-Qubli, the “al-Burǧ Bazzāq” or Worm tower, a phenomenal structure that was originally 19.50 meters high and the Hypogeum “Ḥaǧar al-Ḥublā” with three burial chambers, which were still used in Roman times.

Conservation

Amrit was included on the 2004 and 2006 World Monuments Fund watch lists of endangered archaeological sites. The Fund called attention to the site’s rapid deterioration due to vandalism and encroaching development. In 2006 a three-day workshop was organized with participation from the UNESCO, Directorate-General of Antiquities and Museums and local administrators responsible for the sites of Amrit, Tartus and Arwad.