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SABAZIUS

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Originally appearing in Volume V23, Page 959 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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SABAZIUS , a Phrygian or Thracian deity, frequently identified with See also:

Dionysus, sometimes (but less frequently) with See also:Zeus. His See also:worship was closely connected with that of the See also:great See also:mother See also:Cybele and of See also:Attis. His See also:chief attribute as a chthonian See also:god was a snake, the See also:symbol of the yearly renovation of the See also:life of nature. See also:Demosthenes (De See also:corona, p. 313) mentions various ceremonies practised during the celebration of the mysteries of this deity. One of the most important was the passing of a See also:golden snake under the clothes of the initiated across their bosom and its withdrawal from below—an old rite of See also:adoption. From Val. Max. i. 3, 2 it has been concluded that Sabazius was identified in See also:ancient times with the Jewish Sabaoth (Zebaoth). See also:Plutarch (Symp. iv. 6) maintains that the See also:Jews worshipped Dionysus, and that the See also:day of See also:Sabbath was a festival of Sabazius. Whether he was the same as Sozon, a marine deity of See also:southern See also:Asia See also:Minor, is doubtful.

Some explain the name as the " See also:

beer god," from an Illyrian word sabaya, while others suggest a connexion with aFo (god of " See also:health ") or agJ3as. His See also:image and name are often found on "votive hands," a See also:kind of tausman adorned with emblems, the nature of which is obscure. His See also:ritual and mysteries (Sacra Savadia) gained a See also:firm footing in See also:Rome during the 2nd See also:century A.D., although as See also:early as 139 B.C. the first Jews who settled in the See also:capital were expelled by virtue of a See also:law which proscribed the See also:propagation of the cult of See also:Jupiter Sabazius. See J. E. See also:Harrison, Prolegomena to See also:Greek See also:Religion (1908), p. 914; H. Usener, Gotternamen (1896), p. 44; F. Cumont, " Hypsistes in Revue de l'instruction publique en Belgique, xl. (1899); C. S.

Blinkenberg, Archdologisohe Studien (1904).

End of Article: SABAZIUS

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