Dem Hypsistos geweihte Denkmäler in den Balkanländern : (Untersuchungen zur geschichte der antiken Religionen, IV)
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Abstract
In this article are examined for the first time the monuments of Hypsistos from the Thracian-Macedonian area, keeping in consideration their iconographic characteristics and their cultural-historical environment during the
Hellenistic and Roman ages. The study shows that a henotheistic solar-god
called Hypsistos was worshiped in Macedonia during the Hellenistic age.
The god had certain attributes similar to those of the Greek Zeus of the mountains and the Thracian-Phrygean Sabazius (whose roots go back to at least
the early Mycenian age). The Lydian and Phrygian regions of Asia Minor
identify Hypsistos with their local Apollo, who is also an example of Sabazian traits, as well as with Helios. Lastly, the Thracian Apollo in the monuments of the Thracian kings manifests traces of Chthonism. These observations are confirmed in Macrobius by AI. Polyhistor, who notes that HeliosDionysos, called Sabazius, was the object of deep religious veneration in Thrace. Certain scholars attempt to connect the syncretism in the Hypsistos cult with a tendency towards monotheism which is influenced by the Judean cult. In reality, however, this syncretism turns out to be a much older phenomenon, rooted in the ancient Thracian religion. The Thracian-Macedonian and Lydian-Phrygian monuments of Hypsistos reveal an anological syncretism between Sabazius and Apollo, and this religious phenomenon should be placed in the time before the Phrygeans migrated from the Balkans. The diffusion of the cult of Sabazius and of Hypsistos clearly shows the trend towards religious unification of the different ethnic groups in the conglomerate states of Alexander the Great and his successors, as well as the trend towards the establishment of the monocrate as the divine representative of the supreme god on earth. No doubt this new political and ideological course corresponds completely to the historical tasks set by the age, and was influenced by its philosophers Plato and Aristotle.
Hellenistic and Roman ages. The study shows that a henotheistic solar-god
called Hypsistos was worshiped in Macedonia during the Hellenistic age.
The god had certain attributes similar to those of the Greek Zeus of the mountains and the Thracian-Phrygean Sabazius (whose roots go back to at least
the early Mycenian age). The Lydian and Phrygian regions of Asia Minor
identify Hypsistos with their local Apollo, who is also an example of Sabazian traits, as well as with Helios. Lastly, the Thracian Apollo in the monuments of the Thracian kings manifests traces of Chthonism. These observations are confirmed in Macrobius by AI. Polyhistor, who notes that HeliosDionysos, called Sabazius, was the object of deep religious veneration in Thrace. Certain scholars attempt to connect the syncretism in the Hypsistos cult with a tendency towards monotheism which is influenced by the Judean cult. In reality, however, this syncretism turns out to be a much older phenomenon, rooted in the ancient Thracian religion. The Thracian-Macedonian and Lydian-Phrygian monuments of Hypsistos reveal an anological syncretism between Sabazius and Apollo, and this religious phenomenon should be placed in the time before the Phrygeans migrated from the Balkans. The diffusion of the cult of Sabazius and of Hypsistos clearly shows the trend towards religious unification of the different ethnic groups in the conglomerate states of Alexander the Great and his successors, as well as the trend towards the establishment of the monocrate as the divine representative of the supreme god on earth. No doubt this new political and ideological course corresponds completely to the historical tasks set by the age, and was influenced by its philosophers Plato and Aristotle.
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