As is known, under the Chaldean kings and later under the Achaemenids (VII-IV centuries BC), many foreigners lived in Mesopotamia. Among them were prisoners of war taken to this country, royal soldiers, as well as people who, for various reasons, voluntarily arrived there and lived there permanently or temporarily. One of these ethnic minorities was the Arabians. Unlike the Arabs, by this ethnonym we mean the inhabitants of the Arabian Peninsula, who spoke various Semitic languages (see below). Among these foreigners, of course, were the Arabs.

The ethnic name of the Arabians, including the Arabs, attested in the New Assyrian and New Babylonian cuneiform texts, is traced by I. Efai and R. Zadok. In these texts, it is spelled LU A-ra-bu, A-ri-bi, Ar-ba-a-a, and their country is called KUR A-ri-bi or A-ru-bu (1). As Efl showed, the name "Arab" / "Arabian" originally meant a Bedouin, i.e. a desert dweller (2). Although some of the proper names of the Arabians are typically Arabic, the name "Arabian" itself does not carry any linguistic load (3). As Tzadok noted, it is not yet possible to determine what language or languages were spoken by the people designated by the ethnonym "Arabians", and it is also often impossible to determine what language or languages were spoken by the people designated by the ethnonym "Arabians". distinguish their proper names from Western Semitic (mostly Aramaic) names (4).

Beginning around 755 BC, the Arabians began to enter Nippur and other Babylonian cities and mingle with the Babylonians. [5] During archaeological excavations in Uruk, Ur, and some other cities in Babylonia, clay tablets written in proto-Aravish script were found. One of them contains a list of proper names that are Babylonian. These inscriptions most likely date back to the seventh and fourth centuries B.C. (6) The Babylonian Chronicle records that Nebuchadnezzar II, in the 6th year of his reign (599 B.C.), fought against "the people" and "the land of the Arabians" (Arabi) and captured a large booty from the "possessions, livestock, and gods of the numerous Arabians" (7). Nabonidus also fought against "the people of the land of Arabia" (8) and stayed for several years in the region of Teim in Northwestern Arabia. By

1. Ephal I. The Ancient Arabs. Nomads on the Borders of the Fertile Crescent. 9th - 5th Centuries B.C. Jerusalem, 1984. P. 6.

2. Ibid. P. 7. Cf., however, Retso Y. The Earliest Arabs // OS. 1989- 1990. 38-39. P. 132.

3. Ibid. P. 9.

4. Zadnk R. Arabians in Mesopotamia during the Late-Assyrian, Chaldean, Achaemenian and Hellenistic Periods Chiefly According to the Cuneiform Sources //ZDMG. 1981. 131. P. 44, 83.

5. Cnie S.W. Nippur in Late Assyrian Times c. 755-612 B.C. (State Archives of Assyria Studies IV). Helsinki, 1996. P. 34-42; Epiful. The Ancient Arabs... P. 165; idem. "Arabs" in Babylonia in the 8th Century B.C. //JAOS. 94. P. 113; Frame G. Babylonia: 689-627 B.C. A Political History. Leiden, 1992. P. 50.

6. liiK P. O. A Chaldean Inscription from Nippur / / BASOR. 1965. 179. P. 36-38; Epffal. "Arabs" ... P. 109-1 K); see ibid. and earlier literature.

7. Grayson А.К. Assyrian and Babylonian Chronicles (Texts from Cuneiform Sources 5). Locust Valley-New York, 1975. P. 101.

8. RolliK W. Erwagungen zu neuen Stelen Konig Nabonids // ZA. 1964. 56. S. 221. Kol. 1, 45.

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According to the inscription on the cylinder of the Persian king Cyrus, when the latter captured Babylon in 539 BC, all the kings of the "Land of the West", "who live in tents", submitted to him (9). Obviously, these were sheikhs of the Arabian (or Arab) tribes. In the inscriptions of Darius I and his successors, Arabia (al-Persian: Arabaja -, babyl. Arabi) is mentioned among the provinces of the Achaemenid empire (10). During this period, as in earlier neo-Babylonian times, the term Arabaja was used to refer to areas located between Egypt and the Euphrates and inhabited by nomads, as well as some areas in the north of the Arabian Peninsula (11).

In Babylonian administrative-economic and private legal documents of the VI-V centuries BC, the Arabians (Arbaja) are attested among various contractors, royal soldiers and minor officials who lived in Babylon, Nippur, Sippar, Uruk and in some other cities. Several texts from Nippur mention a "settlement of the Arabians" that was located near this city and apparently received this name from the composition of the population that lived there (12). One of these texts, which records the granting of a loan of 8 kurru (13) of barley, was composed in 547 BC in the " temple of (god) Sin (in) the settlement of the Arabians "(14). In this regard, it can be noted that the cult of the moon god Sin was very popular among the Arabians.

In 563 BC, a certain Uhabanna undertook to deliver to another person from an Arab settlement 40 kurra of barley (15). Uhabanna, as Tzadok pointed out, is definitely an Arabic name (16). In 420 BC, a representative of the famous Murashu trading house in Nippur approached the administrator of the royal lands located along the banks of several canals and, in particular, from the settlement of the Arabians, with a request to lease one field to it for three years (17).

One document written in Nippur in 534 BC mentions the deputy governor (S) of the city of Qidari (see line 67), whose name, in all probability, goes back to the name of the Arabian tribe of Kedarites (18).

In several documents of the Murashu archive, the Arabians are also mentioned among the royal soldiers who arrived in Babylonia from various parts of the Achaemenid empire and were stationed in Nippur and its environs (for example, people from the territory of modern Afghanistan, Indians, Khwarezmians, Lydians, Phrygians, Mi-Dians, Egyptians, Jews, etc.). allotments granted to them by the tsarist administration (19). For example, according to a document drawn up in Nippur in 423 BCE, several warriors who were of Arab origin [20] owed the house of Murash 104 kurr (18,720 l) of dates, and to secure this debt, their land on the banks of the Royal Canal was mortgaged. Another text notes that an allotment of land belonging to the Arabians (21)

9. Epff-al. The Ancient Arabs... P. 201.

10. Ср. ibid. P. 193; Zadok R. Geographical Names According to New and Late Babylonian Texts. Wiesbaden, 1985. P.26.

11. Dormer F.M. Xenophon's Arabia // Iraq. 1986. 48. P. 11; cf. however, Retsff Y. Xenophon in Arabia / / SGZG. 1990.54. P. 122-131.

12. Alu sa Arbaja. cm. Eptfal. The Ancient Arabs... P. 189; Zadok. .Geographical Names... P. 26, 28.

13. 1 curra =180 liters.

14. The Babylonian Expedition of the University of Pennsylvania. Series A: Cuneiform Texts V. VIII. Philadelphia, 1908. (hereinafter - BE). N 50,15: E "XXX ?a ar-ba-a-a. Cp. Zadok. Geographical Names... P. 9.

15. BE VIII. N 26.

16. Zadok. Arabians... P. 71.

17. Texte und Materialien der Frau Professor Hilprecht "Collection of Babylonian Antiquities" im Eigentuni der Universitat Jena. Bd 11Д11. Lpz, 1933. N 147.

18. Eph'-al. The Ancient Arabs... P. 190.

19. Cardascia G. Les archives des Мига ?й. P., 1951. P. 7; Stolper M.W. Entrepreneurs and Empire. The MuraSu Archive, the MuraSu Firm, and Persian Rule in Babylonia. Leiden, 1985. P. 78.

20. Donbaz V.. Stolper M.W. Istanbul Murasd. Texts. Leiden, 1997. N 82, 3: ar-ba-a-a.

21. University of Pennsylvania. The University Museum. Publications of the Babylonian Section. V. 2. Pt 1. Philadelphia, 1912. N 48,4: Ar-ba-a-a.

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and located on the bank of the Euphrates of Nippur, it was leased to the house of Murash, who paid the rent for it for two years (423-422) to Mushezib-Bel, son of Eriba, " overseer of the Arabians." It is noteworthy that his name and patronymicon are Akkadian. Unlike in other cases where the landlords are Arabians, this allotment was a "horse allotment", not a "bow allotment". From such allotments, soldiers were required to serve as horsemen and archers, respectively.

The following documents come from the Ebabbarra Temple archive in Sippar. One of them refers to the payment of 1 mina of silver for 66 kurra of sesame to an Arab (or Arabians), without giving his own name (22). Another text mentions several individuals with Babylonian names, including the son of an Arab (the latter's name is not given), who is named as a temple slave belonging to the god Nabu (23). The third text mentions the distribution of food (barley or dates) to a number of individuals, including one or more Arabians (24). In a promissory note drawn up at the "settlement of the god Nergal" (near Sippar) in 548 BC, a Babylonian undertook to deliver 6 kurra of barley to his counterparty, and an Arab with a typically Akkadian name is mentioned among the witnesses (25). According to a document from the time of Nabonidus, six pieces of linen clothing belonging to the goddess Belet of Sippar were given to an Arab for repair. But later in the same text, the ethnonym "Arabian" is used as his own name (26). In 550 BC, an Arabian delivered a certain number of [carcasses?] of sacrificial ducks to the storehouse of the Ebabbarra Temple (27). Two scribes who were subordinate to Nabu-ahhe-erib ,the " overseer of the Arabians "(Ar-ba-a-a, without any determinative), received from the same warehouse 2 kurra dates (28). From a document compiled in 527 in Sippar, it can be concluded that the Arab Duhhabat, the son of Igbarrat, was engaged in fattening sheep belonging to the temple of Ebaboarra. 29 In 517 BC, another Arab, whose name has not been preserved, brought a certain amount of barley to the same temple.30 According to a partially damaged text from the time of Darius I, an Arab (whose name is not given) paid his counterparty 42 shekels of silver for an item (31). The following letter also appears to come from the Ebabbarra archive and dates approximately between 554 and 543 BC (32). contains an order to transfer as much wool as the addressee has to an Arab named Abdu (33).

A document from a private archive compiled in Sippar in 493 B.C. mentions the sale of a donkey, and a man named as an Arab (Ar-ba-'a, here a proper name) is mentioned among the witnesses to the contract (34).

The following texts come from the Eanna archive in Uruk. One of them mentions a house that Innin-shum-utsur, the son of Shamash-nazir, a descendant of an Arab (35), purchased in 552 BC from this temple for 61 shekels of silver. As can be seen from another document, in

22. Strussmaier J.N. Inschriften von Nabuchodonosor, Konig von Babylon. Lpz, 1889 (hereinafter - Nbn.), N 287.

23. Cuneiform Texts from Babylonian Tablets in the British Museum (далее - CT). V. 55. L., 1982. N 149, 5: Ar-ba-a-a '-'si-rik "Nabu.

24. CT 56. N701,5.

25. Nbn. N315,5: Ar-ba-a-a.

26. Nbn. N 1090,2: Ar-rab; 9: ""ar-rab.

27. SG55. N713.

28. Nbn. 297; cf. Epal. The Ancient Arabs... P. 189.

29. Strassrnaier J.N. Inschriften von Cambyses, Konig von Babylon. Lpz, 1890. N 211.

30. Idem. Inschriften von Darius, Konig von Babylon. Lpz, 1897. N 162.

31. Corpus Inscriptionum Semiticarum. Pars secunda. T. I. Parisiis, 1889. N 71.

32. For the date, see Ebeling E. Neubabylonische Briefe. Miinchen, 1949. S. 51-52.

33. CT 22. L., 1906. N 86; See also Epal. The Ancient Arabs... P. 190.

34. Sligers H.G. Neo- and Late Babylonian Business Documents from the John Frederick Lewis Collection // JCS. 1976. 28. P. 40. N 29.

35. Yale Oriental Series (далее - YOS). V. 6. New Haven, 1920. N 59, 4: "'Ar-ba-a-a.

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In 526 BC, a temple slave of the goddess Ishtar brought his daughter from Uruk to Babylon and sold her there to an Arab. When the Governor of Babylon and other officials found out about this illegal transaction, they returned the sold girl to the temple of Eanna in Uruk, to which she should have belonged due to her father's status. A third document from Uruk contains a warning issued in 553 BC to an Arab named Zabdiya, forbidding him to meet a certain temple slave under threat of punishment. It seems that temple slaves were not allowed to meet people who did not pay the temple the appropriate fee for their services, and foreigners in this respect were probably unreliable partners (37).

According to several documents, there were more or less regular connections between Teima in the Arabian Peninsula and Babylonia in the sixth century BC (38). These texts were written in Uruk and Sippar during the reign of Nabonidus (556-539 BC). In addition, another text notes that a native of Teima (39) named Rimut (Akkadian name) received 60 ka (approx. 60 l) of barley as his food in one month. The document itself is dated to the 7th year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar II (598 BC), but the place of its compilation is not specified. According to another text, the date of which is destroyed, this Rimut, "a native of Teima" (40), was an inhabitant of Uruk, or at least lived there for some time. This document notes the distribution of food to 25 individuals, including Rimut (41). An incompletely preserved letter sent from Ur reports that two families who came from Teima (42) fled from the city of Eridu in Babylonia to the Qudaru people. By the latter, researchers believe, we mean the Kidarites, one of the Arabian tribes known from the Bible. The letter itself was probably written during the reign of Esarhaddon (680-669) (43).

A letter sent by Nabonidus (apparently before his accession) to an official in Uruk instructs him, among other things, to pay a large sum of money to Temud, an Arab. According to Efl, the latter name is connected with the name of the tribe Thamud, mentioned in the inscriptions of the Assyrian king Sargon, and the toponym Ta-mu-da -', attested in a Babylonian document of the time of Neriglissar (45). The same author suggests that this Temuda was hired by the Babylonian authorities as a sales agent, since such an important person as Nabonidus orders money to be given to him (46).

In 496 BC, a certain Bagazushtu, who was an Egyptian by birth47 (but his name is ancient Iranian) and held the position of a royal official in Babylon, leased a field with a sown area of 45 kurru (approx. 60 ha) for four years for 60

36. AnOr. 1933. 8. N 74,5: Ar-ba-a-a.

37. YOS. 1925. N 92. See also the letter of YOS. 3. 1919. N 126 from the archive, which (in a broken context) mentions the Arabian (stk. 15).

38. YOS. V. 6. N 134; Goucher College Cuneiform Inscriptions. V. I. New Haven, 1923. N 294; MacGinnis .1. Ordering the House of Samas: Texts from the Management of the Neo-Babylonian Ebabbara // Iraq. 1998. 60. P. 207, N 1.

39. Dougherty P.P. Nabonidus and Belshazzar (YOS, Researches. V. XV). New Haven, 1929. PI. I. N 2. 4: Te-ma-a-a. See also on page 117 for the transcription and translation of this text.

40. Babylonian Inscriptions in the Collection ofJ. B. Nies. V. I. New Haven, 1917. N 151, 14.

41. Cf. Eph'al. The Ancient Arabs... P. 188.

42. Ur Excavation Texts. V. 4. L., 1949. N 167, 6: Te-ma-a-a.

43. Eph'al. The Ancient Arabs... P. 190. Not. 650 (see also earlier literature). See also Frame. Op. cit. P. 50.

44. Moore E.W. Neo-Babylonian Documents in the University of Michigan Collection. Ann Arbor, 1939. N 67, 21: "Te-mu-da-a Ar- ba-a-a.

45. Ephal. The Ancient Arabs... P. 189, Not. 645.

46. Ibid. P. 189; Eheling. Op. cit. N 276; San Nicolo M., Petschow H. Babylonische Rechtsurkunden aus dem 6. Jahrhundert v. Chr. Miinchen, 1960. S. 94.

47. Joannes F'., Lemaire A. Contrats babyloniens d'epoque Achemenide du BTt-AhT Ram avec une epigraphie Ararneenne // RA. 1996. 90. P. 48-50, N 6, /: "mi-sir-a-a.

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kurru (10,800 l) of barley per year. This field itself was located near the settlement of the Arabians (48).

Some documents are undated, and their places of origin are not known. According to one of them, two people brought a large sum of money to Babylon to buy gold. 21 minas 11 shekels of silver were paid for 2 minas 25 3/4 shekels of gold and out of this amount 3 shekels of silver were paid to one Arab for 1/3 shekel of gold (49). Another Arab (50) delivered 200 bricks to his counterparty.

As can be seen from the texts discussed above, in the VI and V centuries BC, relatively many Arabians are attested in the documents of temple and private archives from Nippur, Sippar, Uruk and some other cities. They probably represented only a small ethnic minority in Babylonia (51). In Achaemenid times, a certain number of Arabians were granted land from the state fund and served as royal soldiers. Sometimes the Arabians were also minor government officials. The descendants of many Arabians integrated into Babylonian society and already bore Akkadian names (52). In such cases, the nickname Arbaja became the generic name of the descendants of the Arabians.

ARABIANS IN MESOPOTAMIA DURING THE NEO- BABYLONIAN AND ACHAEMENID PERIODS

M.A. Dandamayev

I. Eph'al and R. Zadok examined the use of the ethnonym Arabu (/Aribi/Arbaja) designating Arabians in cuneiform sources and showed that it originally denoted a desert dweller and had no linguistic meaning of an ethnonym. In most cases personal names of the people so denoted do not differ from West Semitic names. From ca. 755 ВС on Arabians started to penetrate into Babylonian cities amd mingle there with the native population. In about thirty Babylonian administrative, economic and legal documents of the 6th and 5th с. ВС, Arabians are referred to as residents of Babylon, Nippur, Sippar, Uruk and some other cities. Like other ethnic minorities, Arabians were also among the royal soldiers of the Achaemenid kings, settled on state land in Babylonia. A few Arabians are also attested as minor functionaries. Descendants of many Arabians were integrated into Babylonian society and bore Akkadian names. In such cases the surname Arbaja became a family name of Arabian descendants.

48. Ibid.: Ar-ba-a-a.

49. Joannes F. Textes economiques de la Babylonie recente. P., 1982. N 59, 23.

50. Vorderasiatische Schriftdenkmaler der Koniglichen Museen zu Berlin. Bd 6. N 232, 3. In this case, the word Arbaja is used as a proper name. See also N 265, 13, which refers to the distribution of food in barley to an Arab who was probably an official.

51. See Zadok. Arabians... P. 83.

52. Epffal. The Ancient Arabs... P. 189.

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permanent address of the article: https://dlib.eastview.com/browse/doc/32782

IT IS BETTER TO SEE ONCE... (Near-Eastern monuments of fine art as a supposed source of some subjects of Greek literature)
Author: M. M. Dandamaeva

The Greeks ' false and absurd accounts of the East were apparently largely due to their ignorance of foreign languages and the lack of qualified translators and reliable informants familiar with the local history and culture. However, there is another, easier way to get acquainted with a foreign country and its sights - visual impressions. Unusual images involuntarily attract the gaze of a stranger, their perception does not require language proficiency, and the presence of an intermediary is not necessary, since imagination and life experience themselves helpfully suggest an explanation. Some of the stories of Greek authors suggest that their source could have been precisely works of fine art, whose true meaning remained unknown to the Greeks, who interpreted these stories completely arbitrarily. An example of such an interpretation of the oriental image was given by Meyer, who solved the riddle of the Sardanapal gesture. Many Greek authors tell us that the tomb of this Assyrian king was inscribed with an epitaph calling on anyone who reads it to enjoy worldly goods, and there was an image of Sardanapalus himself, lightly dancing and folding the fingers of one hand "as if for a click" (1). This playful click was, as Meyer wittily suggested, nothing more than an epitaph. other than the prayer gesture of the raised hand, which is often seen on monuments of the New Assyrian and New Babylonian times (2).

In the ancient version of the history of Assyria, there is another story, inspired, perhaps, by the art of the Fore-East. The Assyrian queen Semiramis, to whom the Greeks, with the light hand of Ctesias, attributed many great deeds, including the founding of Babylon, was born, according to the same writer, from the fleeting connection of the Syrian goddess from Ascalon Derketo with a local youth. After the birth of her daughter, tormented by shame and grief, Derketo threw herself into a nearby lake and turned into a creature with the head of a woman and the body of a fish (Diod. n. 4. 2-3). It is possible that the appearance of the goddess could have been suggested to the Greeks by the Near Asian monuments. In the art of the New Assyrian and New Babylonian times, images of the so-called kululld, people whose body passed from the waist to the fish's tail, became very popular (Figure I) (3). Most often these were men, but sometimes women were also depicted. Such fantastic creatures can be seen on New Assyrian reliefs, they served as subjects of seals and terracotta, were used as architectural decorations of buildings (4). Huge figures of half-fish-half-people even ochre-

1. See, for example: An-. Anab. 11.5.3; Athen. 529 d-e; 530 b; Straho. XIV.5.9. Sud., s. v.Harbagattaho. The source of these authors ' account of Sardanapalus snapping his fingers was the testimony of Aristobulus and Callisthenes, who accompanied Alexander the Great to the East.

2. Meyer E. Forschungen zur alien Ge.schichte. Bd I. Halle, 1892. S. 204-205; Weisshach F. Sardanapal // RE. Reihe. 2. 1920. Bd I. S. 2467-2468; Gadd C. The Assyrian Sculptures. L., 1934. P. 1, 16. For this gesture, see also Borker-Klahn J. Verkannte neuassyrische Bronze-Statuetten / / BgM. 1973. 6. S. 54-60.

3. Unger E. Fischkentaur // RLA. 1957. 3. S. 70-71; Lambert W.G. Kulullu // RLA. 1983. 6. S. 324; Green A. Mischwesen В // RLA. 1994. 8. S. 257.

4. See, for example: Frankfort H. Cylinder Seals. A Documentary Essay on the Art and Religion of the Ancient Near East. L., 1939. P. 219. PI. XXXIV b; Mallowan M. The Excavations at Nimrud // Iraq. 1957. 19. Pt 1. P. 15-18; Klengel-Brandt E. Apotropaische Tonfiguren aus Assur// Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. Forschungen und Berichte.

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Figure 1-5

The entrance to the temple of Ezida in Nimrud (5). This image was apparently also popular in Syria, which was closer to the Greeks than Assyria, from which, by the way, Derketo Ctesia originated. The image of a fish-man is found, in particular, on the orthostats of the palace in Guzan, modern Tell Khalaf (6). The appearance of such monsters in Greek culture, however, occurred much earlier than the work of Ctesias was created. Their silhouettes adorn Corinthian ceramics of the VI century BC (Fig. 2) (7). In addition, the iconographic features of kulullu on monuments of the late VII-first half of the VI century BC (including on the pediment of the temple in the Acropolis of Athens) sometimes had the sea god Nereus and some, possibly identical to him creature - " sea elder "(8). Not

1968. 10. S. 32 Taf. IX, 7; X, 2; Madhloom T. The Chronology of Neo-Assyrian Art. L., 1970. P. 99-100; Reade .I.E. Assyrian Architectural Decoration: Techniques and Subject-matter// BgM. 1979. 10. P. 40; Green. Mischwesen B. P. 257.

5. Mallowun. The Excavations... P. 6, 15-18. PI. IV. Madhloom. The Chronology... P. 99-100.

6. Oppenheim F. vim. Der Tell Halaf. Eine neue Kultur im altesten Mesopotamien. Lpz, 1931. Taf. 35 b. S. 155. It should be noted, however, that the description of Derketo in Ctesias does not exactly correspond to the anterolateral images: it has a female face and the body of a fish, not just the lower part of it. On the other hand, Lucian in his work" On the Syrian Goddess "notes that this deity in the sanctuary of Hierapolis was represented in human form, but in Phoenicia the writer allegedly saw a different image of Derketo:" half a woman, and the place that forked from the hips to the tips of the legs, like a fish's tail "(Syr. dea. 14). Perhaps Lucian's account is based on a description of a real monument, which he identified with Derketo Ctesias. Shepard, on the other hand, believed that the inhabitants of Syria and Palestine really worshipped the goddess who had the appearance described in Ctesias (Shepard K. The Fish-tailed Monster in Greek and Etruscan Art. N.Y., 1940. P.7).

7. Frankfort. Cylinder Seals... P. 312-313; Shepard. The Fish- tailed... P. 18-19. PI. Ill, 17; Buschor E. Meermanner. Miinchen, 1941. S. 7-8.

8. Luce S.B. Heracles and the Old Man of the Sea// AJA. 1922. 26. P. 182-183; Shepard. The Fish-tailed... P. 10 ff.; Glynn R. Herakles, Nereus and Triton: A Study of Iconography in Sixth Century Athens // AJA. 1981. 85. N 2. P. 122. 130; eadem. Halios Geron // LIMC. V. 4.1. 1988, P. 410; Pipili M. Nereus // LIMC. V. 6.1. 1992. P. 825-827. N 1-12 16-33; V. 6.2. N 2-12. P. 516-518. About the Eastern origin of such monsters: Shepard.

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It is therefore impossible that Ctesias, who made extensive use of the stories of his predecessors in his account of Assyrian history, which he arbitrarily combined, borrowed the description of the bizarre creature from the work of one of them.

Exotic Far Eastern images made a great impression on the Greeks of the VII-VI centuries BC. e. and, as is known, had a serious impact on vase painting, glyptics, small plastic and other types of Greek art. It can be assumed that some of these images served as an impetus for the development of philosophical thought.

Among the fragments of Anaximander's works is a discourse on the origin of man, known today in the retelling of Plutarch: "And he [Anaximander] tells us that fish and men did not arise each from their own kind, but first men were born inside the fish and, fed like sharks, only when they were able to take care of themselves, came out on land and took possession of the earth "(9). The same testimony of Anaximander, obviously, has the following meaning: in view of the Roman philologist Censorinus: "Anaximander Miletus-ki believed that either fish or animals very similar to fish were born from heated water and earth. People were formed in them, and the embryos were kept inside until maturity, and only then, having torn them, men and women came out who could already feed themselves "(10). This story, which has caused a debate in modern science about whether the Ionian philosopher can be considered an evolutionist (11), stands out in Greek literature and science. It seems so unorganized for the ancient tradition that the researcher of the work of Anaximander Kahn considered this evidence only a fiction of Plutarch himself (12). However, there is no real reason to doubt the authorship of the Milesian thinker, especially since Censorinus and, to some extent, Hippolytus testify to the belonging of such a story to his teaching (13).

Ionia, and particularly Anaximander's hometown of Miletus, is considered a bridge between Eastern culture and Greek natural philosophy. Anaximander himself was strongly associated with Babylonia both in the ancient tradition and in modern science. Thus, while Herodotus (n.109), without giving any names, notes that the strip and gnomon were invented in Babylonia and from there came to the Greeks, a number of later authors attribute the mediation in borrowing the gnomon to Anaximander (14). He's a ssi-

The Fish-tailed...p. 4 (p. 2-3: list of works of the XIX century, the authors of which have already made such assumptions), 9, 92. Unlike the anthropomorphic creatures with fish tails mentioned here, which in the second half of the VI century BC disappear forever from Greek monuments, the Triton, which may have had a common place in the ancient world, is considered to have with their origin, firmly entered into ancient art. However, the appearance of this sea deity, whose body turns from the waist into a long tail twisted with baroque rings (sometimes two tails), is already far from the iconographic features of kullulfl (cf. Icard-Gianolio N. Triton; Tritones / / LIMC. V. 8.1. 1997. P. 68-85). On the alleged Eastern origin of the Newt: Shepard. The Fish-tailed... P. 6. Scylla in images of the fifth century BC and later also combined anthropomorphic features with a fish tail (ibid. pp. 45-46, 59-60, 75-76. PI. X, XI; Jentel M. O. Scylla I / / LIMC. V. 8.1. 1997. P. 1137-1145; V. 8.2. P. 784-792). Another deity of this kind was, according to Pausanias, Eurynome, the daughter of Oceanus. The writer narrates the stories of residents of the Arcadian city of Figalia about the image that was supposedly in the temple of the goddess, representing a woman up to the hips, and below-a fish (Paus. VIII. 41.6; see also Shepard. The Fish- tailed... P. 23).

9. Plut. Quest, conv. VIII. 730 e-f= Diets. XII. A 30.

10. Censorin. Die nat. 4.7. = Diets. XII. A. 30.

11. For more information, see, in particular, Burnet J. Early Greek Philosophy. 3 ed. L., 1920. P. 71; Kahn Ch. Anaximander and the Origins of Greek Cosmology. N.Y., 1960. P. 112-113; Guthrie W.K.C. A History of Greek Philosophy. V. I. Cambr. 1971. P. 102.

12. Kahn. Anaximander... P. 70-71.

13. Hippolyt. Ref. I. 6.6 = Diels. XII. A 11 (6).

14. Diog. Laert. II. 1 = Diels. XII. A 1; Euseb. P.E. X. 14. 11 = Diels. XII. A 4. Sud. s.v.' AvaavSpoc; = Diels. XII. A 2. Pliny seems to confuse Anaximander with Anaximenes (Plin. N. H. II. 187 = Diels. XIII. A 14a). Some historians of philosophy have rightly pointed out the unreliability of this tradition (see, for example, Burnet. Early Greek Philosophy. P. 51; Kirk G.S, Raven J.E. The Presocratic Philosophers. Cambr., 1960.

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He was the creator of the first map of the ecumene (15), and in this, according to researchers, he was also a follower of the Babylonians, whose maps and plans have survived to this day (16). In the surviving fragments of the works of Miletus, some modern scholars see traces of familiarity with Iranian philosophy (17), but Persia and its subordinate Assyria and Babylonia were in the eyes of early Greek prose writers closely connected with each other, and the description of the countries of the Two Rivers was usually addressed by those writers whose main field of interest was Persia. In the Fore-East, perhaps, we should look for the source of Anaximander's ideas about the origin of man. One cannot help noticing the similarity of the image created by the Ionianist with the iconographic features of the so-called "people in a fish cloak". These fantastic creatures, superficially similar to human figures with fish skin draped over their shoulders and head (Fig. 3), can be seen in the Assyro-Babylonian glyptic, on amulets, reliefs (including colossal ones) [18], but they were especially often used as subjects of terracotta. During excavations in Nimrud, Ur and Ashur, archaeologists found boxes with similar figurines under the floors of residential buildings, where they were placed to ward off diseases from the owners of the dwelling [19]. Figurines of this type were found in other cities of Assyria and Babylonia, and cuneiform texts are also known, a kind of guide to their use. Despite the widespread use of these characters in the visual arts of the Two Rivers, extant Sumerian-Akkadian literature does not contain stories about them, but here fragments of Berosus ' work come to the rescue. At the dawn of human history, says a Babylonian writer, a certain creature named "Oan" emerged from the Red Sea, teaching people literacy and mathematics, crafts, building cities, and all the other benefits of civilization. Since then, according to Berosus, nothing else has been invented. After completing his mission, Oan dived back into the sea. The mentor of humanity looked like this: "His whole body was like a fish's, and from under his head grew another head, lower than the fish's, and his legs, like a human, grew next to the fish's tail. His voice is human. Its image is still preserved " (20). Berosus also mentions other beings like Oan who came out of the sea to land after him. Although the Oan myths described here were not recorded in the cuneiform tradition, they probably did exist, since Berosus, as is known from other examples, conscientiously presented in his work the works of Sumero-Akkadian literature (21). In addition, the widespread spread of legends about Oana, we must think about,

P. 102). However, in this case, it is not the authenticity of the fact of borrowing the gnomon that is important, but the reputation that Anaximander had in antiquity.

15. Diog. Laert. II. 2; Eust. Dior. Per. (GGM. V. 2. P. 208). Schol. Dion. Per. (GGM. V. 2. P. 428); Strabo. 1.1.11 = Diels. XII. A 6.

16. Meissner B. Babylonische und griechische Landkarten // Klio. 1923. 19. S. 97-100; Kahn. Anaximander... P. 82-84; см. также Heidel W.A. The Frame of the Ancient Greek Maps. N.Y., 1937. P. 3, 50.

17. Burkert W. Iranisches bei Anaximander // RhM. 1963. 106. S. 97-134.

18. See, for example: Frankfort. Cylinder Seals... P. 202; Shepard. The Fishtailed... PI. 5, 6; Kleiiel H. LamaStu-Amulette aus dem Vorderasiatischen Museum zu Berlin und dem British Museum // МЮ. 1960. Bd 7. Ht 3. S. 344-345; LayardA.H. Nineveh and Babylon. L., 1953. P. 343, 350; Madhloom. The Chronology... P. 80-81. PI. LXVII, 4; Das vorderasiatische Museum (Berlin). Mainz am Rhein, 1992. S. 175. N 113; Green. Mischwesen V. R. 252.

19. Wooley L. Babylonian Prophylactic Figures //JRAS. 1926. P. 692-693; Buren E.D. van. Foundation Figurines and Offerings. В., 1931. P. 45-17, 55, 58, 60-61, 75-76; Mallowan M.E.L. The Excavations at Nimrud (Kalhu). 1953 // Iraq. 1954. 16. P. 85-87. PI. XIX, /, 3, 6; Klengel-Brandt. Apotropaische Tonfiguren... S. 22- 23, 27-28, 35. Taf.III,VI,/;X,J.

20. FGrH. Vol. 3 P. 1958. N 680. F. 1. = Euseb. Chron. (ed. Karst). P. 7; Syncell. (ed Dindorf.) p. 51. The fragment of Berosus is known from the Chronicle of Eusebius (extant only in Armenian translation and published in German by Karst) and the work of the Byzantine author Sinkell. The content of the passage is almost identical for both writers. Our translation is based on the Greek text of Sinkell.

21. For the Sumerian counterpart of the Greek name "Oan" and Sumerian legends that echo those of Berosus, see Komor'czy G. Berosos and the Mesopotamian Literature // AAASH. 1973. 21. P. 143-151.

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its numerous images bear witness. Judging by the archaeological finds known today, the peak of this character's popularity occurred at the end of the New Assyrian and New Babylonian eras, and it is not impossible that the monuments that captured his appearance in the VI century BC could have become known to the Greeks. To do this, it was not even necessary to visit the Tigris and Euphrates Valley, since the Ionians, as was often the case, could simply get seals or other small objects with similar subjects. The supernatural beings that the modern scientist associates with a man dressed up in a fish-mimicking outfit might have seemed to the ancient philosopher like a distant ancestor of humans, who grew up inside a fish and was depicted just as he came out on land and shed the fish's skin (22).

Another representative of early Greek science, whose fragments of works make us recall Assyro - Babylonian art, was Empedocles. Simplicius mentions the philosopher's views on the origin of man: "As Empedocles says, in the era of the reign of Love, at first the parts of animals, such as heads, hands and feet, existed as they should, and then they combined and there were bovine human-faced and opposite beings, obviously human-born bovine-faced, that is, from the bull and man" (23). This story attracted the attention of some ancient authors (24), but probably the most accurate text of Empedocles conveyed to Aelians: "Many creatures appeared with two faces and two breasts facing in different directions, and as if the offspring of bulls with human faces, and as if the offspring of people with bull heads, and such that they connected the penises of men and women" (25). Epmedocles 'reasoning also brings to mind Berosus' account of the beginning of beginnings: "There was a time," he says, " when everything was darkness and water, and strange creatures with an unusual appearance were born in them. For there were born two-winged men, and some four-winged men, and with two faces (here and further in this fragment italics are mine. - M. D.), and such that they had one body, and two heads, male and female, and a double shame, male and female. And there were also men, some with the legs of goats and horns, others with the legs of horses, and still others with the hind part like horses, and the front part like men; these had the shape of hippocentaurs. Bulls with human heads were born, and dogs with four bodies, having fish tails behind, and horses with dog heads, and people and other creatures that have horse heads and torsos, and fish tails, and other creatures that have the forms of various animals. In addition, fish and reptiles, and snakes, and many other amazing creatures that have a different appearance from each other, whose images are displayed in the temple of Bela " (26). Reliefs and other monuments that once decorated Esagila, the temple of Marduk, which Berosus calls Bela in the Greek manner, have not survived to this day, but many other illustrations of the Babylonian historian's story are known. Assyro-Babylonian art is replete with creatures in the guise of which

22. Gompertz suggested that the Anaximander hypothesis might be related to the legend of Oana as early as the beginning of the twentieth century (Sotregg 77). Griechische Denker. Eine Geschichte der antiken Philosophic Bd 1 4 АиП. В.-Lpz., 1922. S. 46, 438).

23. Simplic. Phys. 371 = Diels. 31 To 61.

24. See Diets. 31 At 57-61.

25. Aehan. N.A. XVI. 29 = Diels. 31 To 61. A detailed commentary on the fragments of Empedocles devoted to this subject and various versions of their translation are proposed by Bollock: Bollock. I. Empedocle. V. 2. P., 1969. N 500-509; V. 3 (comment). P., 1969. N 500-509; see also Kirk, Raven. The Presocratic Philosophers. P. 337. Acquaintance with the hypothesis of Empedocles reveals, as I. I. Tolstoy rightly noted, and Apollonius of Rhodes (IV. 672-681)when describing people who were half turned into animals by a Pickaxe. Tolstoy believed that the source of Apollonius was some image, but, according to the researcher, it was an image on a Greek vase (Tolstoy I. I. Articles on folklore, Moscow-L., 1966, pp. 24-25).

26. FGrH. Vol. 3 P. 1958. N 680. F. 1 = Euseb. Chron. (ed. Karst). P. 7-8; Syncell. (ed. Dindorf). P. 52. Translated from Sinkell's text.

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parts of various animals or animals and humans are fancifully connected (27), one example of which was the kulullu mentioned above. Among the most popular were images of man-headed bulls( Figure 4), giant statues of which served as gate guards in the palaces of New Assyrian and later Achaemenid kings. Another variation of the combination of human and bull features was people with bull legs and a tail, with a head crowned with horns and animal ears (Figure 5). Such images were so widespread in the art of the Two Rivers that they could easily become known to a foreigner (28). However, if Anaximander lived relatively close to the countries of the Front Although there is a number of indirect evidence of his acquaintance with the Eastern, particularly Babylonian, culture, we do not have similar data on Empedocles, a native of Sicily. On the other hand, we should not completely exclude the possibility of reflecting Assyro - Babylonian images in the Greek thinker's hypothesis, especially since in the era of rapid development of science and rather active contacts between its representatives, Empedocles, who was familiar with Ionian natural philosophy, could use the information contained in the conversations or works of one of his colleagues (29).

Memories of monuments of Near-Asian art may also be the basis of one of the subjects of Orphic teaching. This story is contained in the work of the Neoplatonist Damascius: [The Theology of Orpheus], " presented according to Jerome and Hellenic, unless they are not the same author, contains the following. "First," he says, " there was water and the substance from which the earth was formed." These two principles he considers the first, water and earth [ ... ], but the third principle after these two appeared from these two, I mean, from water and earth: this is a dragon with the heads of an ox and a lion attached, and in the middle the face of god, and on his shoulders he has wings. And he is called the ageless Chronos, he is also Hercules "(30). It is not known which authors 'works served as the source of Damaskius, since among the creators of the Greek tradition there were several writers with the names "Jerome"and " Hellenicus". However, as Gudemann pointed out, it is not improbable that the story was borrowed from one of the writings of the logographer Hellenicus of Lesbos, who, in turn, used an orphic poem to describe the first principles of the world (31). This assumption looks like-

27. Varieties of these creatures are classified in the works: Green. Mischwesen V. R. 246-264; Wigsermann F. A. M. Mischwesen A / / RLA. 1994. 8. P. 222-245.

28. In Greek mythology, too, there were similar images. The man with the bull's head, according to Sophocles, was one of the hypostases of the river god Acheloi, who was able to take the form of various fantastic creatures (Soph. Trach. 12-13). However, as noted by Bollock, Sophocles may have been inspired to write this description by the work of Empedocles (Bollock. Empedocle. V. 3. Р. 425). The features of a bull and a man were also combined by one of the oldest characters in Greek legends - the Minotaur. Greek mythology - in particular, creatures such as the Minotaur, Chimera, or Hemaphrodite-was, according to Guthrie, the most likely source of the Empedocles hypothesis (A History... V. 2. Cambr., 1974. P.204 - 205).

29. From Guthrie's point of view, Empedocles ' ideas go directly back to Anaximander's views on the origin of living beings and man (A History... V. 2.p. 200). According to some later authors, Pythagoras, whose followers Empedocles was, visited the countries of the East, including Babylonia (Joseph. Apion. I. 14; Porphyr. Vit. Pythag. 6; Straho. XIV. 1. 16). It is possible, however, that these messages were dictated only by the desire to emphasize the depth of the great philosopher's knowledge (cf. Zhmud L. Ya. Pythagoras and his School, L., 1990, pp. 22-23).

30. Damasc. Princip. 123 b. Below, speaking of the offspring of Chronos, Damasus gives a variation of this image: "This Chronos gave birth to three offspring [ ... ] and the third after them was a disembodied god, with golden wings on his shoulders, with the heads of bulls growing on each side, and on his head having a huge dragon, similar in appearance to various animals." Apparently, the dragon that crowned Chronos ' head had an unusual appearance, if the author could not clearly convey it. Interestingly, this description echoes Lucian's account of a certain statue in the temple of the Syrian Goddess, which did not have its own image and borrowed its features from other gods (Dea Syr. 33). In Athenagoras, one can find the definition of Chronos-Heracles, borrowed, apparently, from a common circle of sources with Damascus: "A dragon having the head of a lion grown up, and in the middle of them the face of a god named Heracles and Chronos" (Suppl. Christ. 18. 3).

31. Gudeman. Hellanikos // RE. Hibd 15. 1912. S. 121. Cook came to the conclusion that the story given in Damaski is a condensed presentation of some epic work, the composition of which is not entirely clear.-

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This makes it all the more likely that the surviving fragments of Hellenicus ' writings indicate his interest in Persia and other countries of the Near East, and the theology cited by Damascius, as researchers have long noted, has obvious traces of familiarity with Eastern, in particular, Iranian religious ideas [32]. About the culture, and, more precisely, about the art of the Fore-East, the image of the dragon, which was the third origin of the world, also makes us remember. The description of this fantastic creature leaves no doubt that the author of the orphic poem did not proceed from an abstract idea, but from a visual image described in a confused and tongue-tied way, perhaps even from someone else's words, and clearly not Greek in its iconographic features. The composition of the dragon brings to mind the very common images of the hero in the Fore East (sometimes winged or with a winged sun above his head) with two animals on each side. This subject in various variations for thousands of years is constantly found in the art of different countries. He can be seen playing a musical instrument from Urian tombs (Fig. 6), on numerous Sumerian and Assyro-Babylonian monuments of glyptic and stone-cutting art (in particular, as a detail of embroidery of clothing on the relief from the palace of Ashurnatsirapala II in Nimrud-Fig. 7), on Luristan bronzes. Variations of this image were very popular among the Hurrians and Hittites, and later in the art of Syria, which was greatly influenced by these peoples. The whimsical imagination of the Hurrians and Hittites tended to create unusual creatures, such as the so-called "sword god", which, along with other deities, adorns the rock gallery in Yazylykaya (Fig. 8). The upper part of this image is a combination of three heads: a human head between two lion protos. Hittite artistic images were common in the art of Syria for many centuries after the fall of the Hittite kingdom. A vivid illustration of this is, in particular, the already mentioned palace in Guzan, whose orthostats were decorated with monsters with two lion heads on a winged human body (33) and other fantastic creatures. It is possible that one of these monuments became the prototype of the description given by Damascius (34). The meaning of the composition, consisting of a hero with animals on each side, remains an unsolvable mystery for modern science. It is only clear that we are talking about a very ancient story, somehow connected with the worldview of the Central Asian peoples. Perhaps the author of the orphic theogony knew about it.

It was found in Ionia around 500 BC (Cook A. B. Zeus. A Study in Ancient Religion. V. 2. Pt 2. Cambr., 1925. P. 1024). Kirk and Raven, on the other hand, argued that such a complex image could not have come to Greek literature before the Hellenistic period, and there is no reason to consider Hellenicus of Lesbos as the source of Damascius (The Presocratic... P. 39, p. 1; p. 42, p. 1). For the alleged personalities of these authors, see also Gruppe O. Die Griechischen Culte und Mythen in ihren Beziehungen zu den orientalischen Religionen. Bd 1. Lpz, 1887. S.656-657.

32. Brisson L. La figure de Chronos dans la Theogonie orphique et ses antecedents iraniens // Mythes et representations du temps. P., 1985. P. 37-55. Before Brisson, the Iranian roots of this theogony were already mentioned by many scholars, for example: Eisler R. Weltenmantel und Himmelzeit. Bd 2. Munich, 1910. S. 404-451; Kirk, Raven. The Presocratic... P. 39. n. 1; Guthrie W.K.C. Orpheus and Greek Religion. 2 ed. L., 1952. P. 85-91.

33. Oppenheim. DerTell Halaf... Taf. 33 a. S. 152-153.

34. Researchers have looked for matches to the deity described in Damascius among the art monuments created under the influence of Mithraism (see, for example, Brisson. La figure... P. 45-46). These images do include many of the elements of Heracles-Chronos listed in the philosopher (lion, neck, bull), but compositionally they are very far from it. On the other hand, a bronze pin from Luristan with the head of a deity is of interest in this connection, from which two smaller heads depart from the sides, decorated with sharp ears and having some resemblance to bulls. Hirschman considered this image to be Zervan, the deity of time, as well as fate to death, the father of Ormazd (Ahuramazda) and Ahriman. the heads of which, according to the scientist, flaunted on the sides of their father's {Ghirshman R. Le dieu Zurvan sur les bronzes du Luristan // Atribus Asiae. 1958. 21. P. 37-42). The body of Zervan is a large female head. This also brings the character of the Luristan bronzes closer to the image of Heracles-Chronos, united, according to Damasky, with Ananke-Adrastea in a certain "male-female" being.

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Figure 6

Figure 7

Figure 8

Figure 9

This image is not much larger than modern scientists, but it is the ancient origin of the image and its exciting features that determined its significance in the overall picture of the creation of the world (35).

Greek culture of the seventh and sixth centuries BC is known to have been significantly influenced by Eastern civilizations. However, the opinions of researchers regarding the extent of this impact are different, and sometimes even opposite. It is impossible to deny the influence of the visual arts of the East on Greek art, but quite popular ideas about the science and philosophy of the Near East as the foundation of the corresponding areas of Greek knowledge raise well-founded objections [36]. No less common are attempts to find in the East the roots of Greek mythology, especially the tales of Hercules. The basis for the emergence of such hypotheses are

35. In nineteenth-century science, the animal-flanked deity was named one of the most popular characters in Sumerian-Akkadian Gilgamesh literature, although there is no good reason for such an identification. It is possible that this was also the logic of the Greek philosophers, who compared the mighty hero with Hercules. This plot is compositionally very close to the popular images of the so-called mistress of animals in the VII-VI centuries BC: a goddess or, much less often, a god with two animals or birds on each side (Icard-Gianolio N. Potnia / / LIMC. V. 8. 1. 1997. P. 1021-1027); the goddess is often winged, sometimes only a bust of her is shown between the protombs of animals (ibid., p. 1024-1025), and a winged Gorgon could act as the mistress of animals (Krauskopfl. Gorgo, Gorgones // LIMC. V. 4. 1. 1998. P. 310-311). Apparently, the source of this image was Pre-Eastern monuments (cf. Schefold K. Die Griechen und ihre Nachbarn. V., 1967. p. 19; Icard-Gianolio. Potnia. P. 1027).

36 Click. Pythagoras ... pp. 18-20.

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subjects of Assyro-Babylonian art that evoke involuntary associations with the Greek legends about this hero. First of all, they include images of a deity in a lion's skin, a character chopping off the heads of a seven-headed monster, and finally numerous scenes of the hero's struggle (sometimes, however, a very specific Assyrian king) with a lion (37). It is these monuments that make scientists consider the birthplace of the myths about Hercules to be Anterior Asia. Moreover, since some of the finds in question date back to the third and second millennia BC, the borrowing of these legends is attributed to the Mycenaean era. However, today it is completely unknown which Eastern legends illustrated these images and whether these tales were really similar to the Greek myths. It should also be noted that the preserved cuneiform literature of various regions of the Anterior East, unlike the visual arts, does not contain episodes that clearly resemble the stories of Hercules and other popular gods and heroes. In addition, the stories of the gods in that era, it must be assumed, were still too important for human life that other people's legends could be easily borrowed, even if you allow fluency in a foreign language from intermediaries. It is characteristic that in those rare cases when the borrowing of Far Eastern myths is reliably attested (at a much later time), they were cast in the form of the usual Greek plot [38]. All this suggests that the source of Greek mythology in the orientalizing era could be monuments not of the verbal, but of the visual genre. In particular, researchers have already drawn parallels between the appearance of the Chimera on Corinthian vases (Figures 9, 10) and Hittite monsters, whose iconographic features were common in the art of Syria for many centuries after the fall of the Hittite kingdom (Figure II) [39]. It is easy to see that if Homer imagines a Chimera as a creature consisting of parts of three animals - "a lion in front, a dragon in the back, and a goat in the middle" (II. VI. 180 sq.) - then Hesiod, literally repeating the words of his predecessor, immediately clarifies what they mean: a monster there were the heads of three of these animals at once (Theog. 319-324) (40). The similarity between Hesiod's description of the Chimera and its appearance on the Corinthian vases, on the one hand, and the Syriac images, on the other, is too characteristic to be accidental.

In connection with the problem of matching the plots on eastern art monuments to Greek myths, attention is drawn to the character often found in the glyptic of the Neo-Babylonian and Achaemenid eras, who supports the winged Sun with both hands and head (Fig. 12). The motif of the winged Sun was borrowed by the Near Asian masters from Egypt, but, most likely, it was interpreted by them as an image of the sky (41). When you look at this hero, you can't help but think of him as an Atlantean, which would only seem like a modern projection of the plot of Greek mythology on ancient monuments, if it weren't for the early Greek literature. From the point of view of Homer, the Atlantean is only the owner of the pillars connecting heaven and earth (Od. I. 53-54), but in Hesiod he himself holds the sky, and not on his back and shoulders, as in later art, but on his "head and tireless hands" (Theog. 518) (42). Of course, the similarity of this or almost any other plot may turn out to be accidental, but it would be a stretch to admit the possibility

37. Levy G.R. The Oriental Origin of Herakles //JHS. 1934. V. 54. Pt 1. P. 40-53; Frankfort. Cylinder Seals... P. 121-122.

38. For more information, see Dandamieva M. M. Assyria and Babylonia in the mythology of the Greeks / / VDI. 1997. N 3. pp. 19-22.

39. Roes A. The Representation of the Chimaera//JHS. 1934. V. 54. Pt 1. P. 21-25.

40. Even more consistent with the depictions on the Corinthian vases is the Hesiodian characterization of the Chimera in Pseudo-Apollodooa, who believed that it had the protoma of a lion, the tail of a dragon, and a third head - in the middle-of a goat (Bibl. II. 31).

41. Frankfort. Cylinder Seals... P. 208-210.

42. The possibility of the influence of these monuments on the iconography of the Greek Atlas was mentioned by Cumont F. Recherches sur Ie manicheisme. Т, I. La cosmogonie manicheenne. Bruxelles, 1908. P. 71. n, 2).

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Figure 10

Figure 11

Figure 12

so many accidents. According to Dunbabin's apt remark, the monsters in Hesiod's Theogony are described much more vividly and in detail than in the Homeric epic (43). The reason for this seems obvious: between Homer and Hesiod lay the initial period of establishing contacts between the Greeks and the peoples of the Near East. Eastern images, the true meaning of which was completely incomprehensible to the Greeks, were probably interpreted by them in the spirit of already developed concepts. Thus, according to Herodotus, he found in Egypt clear signs of the veneration of Hercules, Perseus and Dionysus (p. 29, 42-45, 479, 91, 123, 144-146, 156; III. 97; VI. 53-54), while it is obvious that the "father of history" only puts everything seen in a foreign country within the framework of habitual beliefs. Perhaps, in the same way, in the seventh and sixth centuries BC, the heirs of Homer, with the idea of the community of gods and heroes of the entire ecumene inherent in the Greeks of that era, decided that they had finally seen the characters of ancient legends firsthand and made adjustments to their own myths.

IT IS BETTER ONCE TO SEE...

(Monuments of Near Earst Art as a Conjectural Source of Some Greek Mythological and Philosophical Topics)

M. M. Dandamayeva

It is a common knowledge that things are better perceived by sight than comprehended through long stories, especially if those stories are told in a foreign language. Some plots of the Greek literature permit us to assume that they were based upon descriptions of Near East Monuments. The Greeks were deeply impressed by these monuments but misunderstood and misinterpreted them guided by their own ideas of the world. Among the subjects in question is the legend about Decreto. The story itself was made up by Ctesias (or some earlier Greek author), but describing the goddess' appearance the writer was probably under the impact of numerous Syrian and Assyrian monuments depicting men (rarely women) with a fish-like lower part of their body and with a fish tail. We can guess as well that some eastern images and

43. Dunbabin T.J. The Greeks and their Eastern Neighbours. Studies in the Relations between Greece and the Countries of the Near East in the Eighth and Seventh Centuries B.C. L? 1957. P. 56.

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representations gave impetus to the Greek philosophy. Thus, according to Anaximander, the first men were conceived and grew up inside fishes and only after that came out. This idea reminds us of Assyrian and Babylonian figures of the socalled man in fish cloak mentioned by Berossos under the name of Oannes. Mesopotamian hybrid monsters, first of all human-headed bulls and men with bull head, tail and legs, could have served as a source of Empedocles' ideas of the earliest stages of human life when, as the philosopher believed, pans of animals and men existed separately and joined each other by chance. Some influence of Near East monuments representing a hero with two animals at his sides (sometimes reduced to heads and busts only) can be suspected in the Orphic description of Heracles-Chronos.

A great number of Eastren pieces of art which seem to illustrate popular Greek myths made some scholars to postulate an oriental origin of certain Greek mythological plots, first and foremost the legends of Heracles. Cuneiform literature, however, contains no episodes really close to the myths about this or any other particular Greek popular hero. Therefore we can assume that the Greeks were influenced mostly not by the oriental folklore but by pictorial representations, and, getting to know the images of oriental art in the 7th-6th с. ВС, they believed that at last they had before their eyes characters of old legends and in some cases amended their own myths.

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