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Dionysos in Jerusalem and the Historicity of 2 Macc 6:7*
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 March 2017
Extract
In his masterful translation and commentary on the Second Book of Maccabees, Daniel Schwartz devotes a short appendix to the historicity of the information provided in chapter 6, verse 7:
ἤγοντο δὲ μετὰ πικρᾶς ἀνάγκης εἰς τὴν κατὰ μῆνα τοῦ βασιλέως γενέθλιον ἡμέραν ἐπὶ σπλαγχισμόν, γενομένης δὲ Διονυσίων ἑορτῆς ἠναγκάζοντο κισσοὺς ἔχοντες πομπεύειν τ
Διονύσῳ.
And with bitter compulsion they were led each month to a banquet for the King's birthday, and as there was a Dionysia festival, they were forced to parade carrying ivy in honor of Dionysos.
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Footnotes
*
A deep debt of gratitude is owed to Prof. Daniel Schwartz who read an early draft of this paper and commented on it, to Dr. Jonathan Ben-Dov for his advice on the new wine festival, to two anonymous readers for their suggestions, and especially to Dr. Noah Kaye for his invaluable help in matters epigraphic and numismatic. For any remaining fallacies and infelicities, I am, of course, solely responsible.
References
1 Schwartz, Daniel R., 2 Maccabees (CEJL; Berlin: De Gruyter, 2008) 541–43CrossRefGoogle Scholar, titled: “A Ptolemaic Account of Antiochus’ Decrees? (2 Macc 6:7).” This volume is a development of the Hebrew translation and commentary, which was published in 2004.
2 Since ἠναγκάζοντο is imperfect, possibly indicating a repetitive action, γενομένης δὲ Διονυσίων ἑορτῆς may be translated also as “whenever there was a Dionysia festival.”
3 My translation. In his own translation Schwartz emphasizes the term σπλαγχισμόν: “They were dragged off to eat the entrails of sacrifices on the king's monthly birthdays . . . .” The term σπλαγχισμός is almost unique to 2 Macc. The only other use of it recorded in the online TLG appears in Hippolytus, Antichr. 49, in reference to forms of torture and execution carried out against the faithful who would not cooperate with Antiochos's decrees.
4 Schwartz, 2 Maccabees, 541 n. 64, with further bibliography.
5 In his translation Schwartz, too, represents the cohesiveness and logic of this literary unit (2 Maccabees, 270).
6 Schwartz rightly discards two inscriptions that had previously been cited as evidence for this custom among the Seleukids: OGIS 222 because it does not indicate whether the birthday is in fact annual or monthly, and OGIS 212 because the reference there to a monthly celebration is a restoration (541–42) and could be either monthly or yearly. However, Schwartz does not discuss a relevant case from Pergamon, clearly citing a monthly royal birthday either for Attalos II or for Attalos III: ἔν τε τοῖς γενεθλίοις τοῦ βασιλέως καθ' ἕκαστον μῆνα (lines 35–36): OGIS 339; Krauss, Johannes, Die Inschriften von Sestos und der thrakischen Chersones (Inschriften griechischer Städte aus Kleinasien; Bonn: Habelet, 1980) 30–63 Google Scholar, no. 1. This example is indeed not Seleukid and is later by a generation or two than the case at hand, but it indisputably demonstrates that a regal monthly birthday could be celebrated outside the Ptolemaic realm. In addition, see also the solid restoration of an Attalid monthly royal birthday in a decree found in Thyateira in Lydia (Tituli Asiae Minoris, V. Tituli Lydiae, linguis Graeca et Latina conscripti [ed. Peter Herrmann; 2 vols.; Vienna: Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1981 and 1989] 2:n. 855). According to Thonemann, Peter J., “Hellenistic Inscriptions from Lydia,” Epigraphica Anatolica 36 (2003) 95–108 Google Scholar, at 99–100, it belongs to the time of Eumenes II Soter, a contemporary of Antiochos IV. For further later examples for monthly birthday celebrations in honor of Antiochos of Kommagene and Augustus, see already Emil Schürer, “Zu II Mcc 6, 7 (monatliche Geburtstagsfeier),” ZNW 2 (1901) 48–52.
7 An alternative approach would be to acknowledge Ptolemaic influence not on the literary but rather on the historical level. After all, the period in question is that of the Sixth Syrian War, in which Antiochos IV invaded Egypt twice and became deeply embroiled in Ptolemaic state affairs, to the point of appointing governors, renaming nomes, issuing local coinage and possibly even having himself crowned Pharaoh in Memphis: ex more Aegypti regnum accipiens (Porphyry, FGrH 260 F 49a = Jerome, Expl. Dan. 11.21). For the literary, papyrological, and numismatic evidence, see: , James D., The Archive of Ḥor (Excavations at North Saqqâra documentary series 1; London: Egypt Exploration Society, 1976) 127 Google Scholar; Mooren, Leon, “Antiochos IV. Epiphanes und das ptolemäische Königtum,” in Actes du XVe Congrès International de Papyrologie (ed. Bingenand, Jean and Nachtergael, Georges; Papyrologie documentaire: Papyrologica Bruxellensia 19; Bruxelles: Fondation Égyptologique Reine Elisabeth, 1979) 78–86 Google Scholar; Grainger, John D., The Syrian Wars (Mnemosyne, bibliotheca classica Batava, suppl. 320; Leiden: Brill, 2010) 292 CrossRefGoogle Scholar. At the same time, Ptolemaic influence on Seleukid monarchical practice is evident also in the issue of Seleukid mints during the late 170s and early 160s. For these ‘Egyptianizing’ coins, minted in Antioch on the Orontes and in Byblos, and displaying a panoply of Egyptian images (Isis, Osiris, Harpokrates on a lotus blossom, bull with Isiac headdress), see Mørkholm, Otto, Studies in the Coinage of Antiochos IV of Syria (Det Kongelige Danske videnskabernes selskab. Historisk-filosofiske meddelelser, 40.3; Copenhagen: Ejnar Munksgaard, 1963) 20–23 Google Scholar; Houghton, Arthur, Hoover, Oliver A. and Lorber, Catharine, Seleucid Coins: A Comprehensive Catalogue; Seleucus IV through Antiochus XIII (2 vols.; New York: American Numismatic Society, 2008)Google Scholar nos. 1412–15, 1442, 1445–47; Grainger, Syrian Wars, 292. According to Ivana Savalli-Lestrade (“Rois hellenistiques maîtres du temps,” in Des rois au prince: Pratiques du pouvoir monarchique dans l'Orient hellénistique et romain (IVe siècle avant J.-C. - IIe siècle après J.-C.) [ed. Ivana Savalli-Lestrade, Isabelle Cogitore and Michel Amandry; Grenoble: ELLUG, Université Stendhal, 2010] 55–83, at 77), Antiochos may possibly have preserved here the date (25th) and custom inherited from the former Ptolemaic regime in Judea. Therefore, taking into account the strong interest of Antiochos IV in Egyptian politics, his close familial relation to the Ptolemaic monarchs, and the fact that the mention of a Seleukid monthly royal birthday comes from an ex-Ptolemaic principality (the sovereignty whereof was still debated between the two kingdoms at the time), it seems preferable to me to trust the information of 2 Macc and to accept the historicity of a royal monthly birthday in Judea. For a similar opinion reached from a very different historiographical standpoint, see also Sylvie Honigman, Tales of High Priests and Taxes: The Books of the Maccabees and the Judean Rebellion against Antiochus IV (Hellenistic Culture and Society 56; Berkeley: University of Califoirnia Press) 402–3. Given that Honigman's self-styled “minimalist view of the ‘religious persecution’” rejects many of its details as culturally encoded literary embellishments, it is all the more striking that she nevertheless accepts the historicity of the monthly birthday.
8 In addition to the bibliography given by Schwartz, 2 Maccabees, 542 n. 72, see also Ma, John, Antiochos III and the Cities of Western Asia Minor (Oxford: University Press, 1999) 308–17Google Scholar (for text, translation, apparatus, and further bibliography), and in multiple other places throughout his book for the context and significance of this inscription.
9 For the wider context of the interaction between royal and municipal cult in Teos, see Van Nuffelen, Peter, “Le culte royal de l'empire des Séleucides: une reinterpretation,” Historia 53 (2004) 278–301 Google Scholar at 289, 299.
10 As noted already by Dittenberger (OGIS 229, note 44), this is not Magnesia on the Maiandros, which is mentioned earlier in line 84. It must be, therefore, Magnesia on the Sipylos.
11 Ma, John, Statues and Cities: Honorific Portraits and Civic Identity in the Hellenistic World (Oxford: University Press, 2013) 75–79 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
12 See also the contemporaneous example from Miletus (SEG 36, 1046, block 2 line 14), specifying that the people should chose the particular site of a voted golden statue: ᾧ ἄν ὁ δῆμος ἀποδείξῃ τόπῳ.
13 Malay, Hasan and Ricl, Marijana, “Two Hellenistic Decrees from Aigai in Aiolis,” Epigraphica Anatolica 42 (2009) 39–60 Google Scholar, at 39–47.
14 Line 33. Unfortunately, this part of the inscription is badly damaged, so that further details are unavailable. According to Malay and Ricl, the existence of the Dionysia at Aigai, at least, is otherwise attested and its historicity is secure.
15 All references to Seleukid coins in this paper follow the catalogue numbers of Arthur Houghton, Hoover, Oliver A. and Lorber, Catharine, Seleucid Coins: A Comprehensive Catalogue; Seleucus IV through Antiochus XIII (2 vols.; New York: American Numismatic Society, 2008)Google Scholar. Volume 1 of this invaluable catalogue (henceforth SC) contains introductions to the reigns of the Seleukid kings from Seleukos IV to Antiochos XIII and the catalogue itself, whereas volume 2 contains the indices and plates. It bears mention that part II of the catalogue, dealing with the period in question, appeared in the same year as Schwartz's commentary, and was thus obviously unavailable for use in its preparation.
16 SC 1:4–5. Previous references to Dionysos in Seleukid coinage come from the time of Seleukos I and Antiochos I, leaving a century-long hiatus.
17 Varieties of this coin display five different combinations of control marks, and were popular enough to attract at least one “barbarous imitation” (SC 1321).
18 SC 1:5. The importance of pachydermic imagery to Seleukid claims in the far east is an essential theme of Kosmin, Paul J., The Land of the Elephant Kings: Space, Territory, and Ideology in the Seleucid Empire (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2014)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
19 Another coin that may be pertinent here is SC 1496, a quasi-municipal bronze from Askalon, with Antiochos IV on the obverse and a cluster of grapes on the reverse.
20 Mørkholm, Otto, “A Posthumous Issue of Antiochos IV of Syria,” The Numismatic Chronicle 143 (1983) 57–63 Google Scholar.
21 For quick surveys of Alexander Balas including literary sources and coinage see Grainger, John D., A Seleukid Prosopography and Gazetteer (Brill: Leiden, 1997) 6–7 Google Scholar; SC 1:209–13. For a more detailed and nuanced account, see Ehling, Kay, Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der späten Seleukiden (164–63 v. Chr.): vom Tode des Antiochos IV. bis zur Einrichtung der Provinz Syria unter Pompeius (Historia Einzelschriften 196; Stuttgart: Franz Steiner, 2008) 145–164 Google Scholar.
22 Grainger, Prosopography and Gazetteer, 28–29; SC 1:315–18; Ehling, Untersuchungen, 164–179 (with a strong emphasis on the intertwining of Seleukid and Judean histories).
23 SC 1996–2019, 2023–25.
24 Note also the Dionysian coin from Apamea on the Axios, from the mid-70s BCE (Hoover, Oliver D., The Handbook of Syrian Coins: Royal and Civic Issues, Fourth to First Centuries BC, [The Handbook of Greek Coinage Series 9; Lancaster, PA: Classical Numismatic Group, 2009]Google Scholar no. 1433). This corresponds to our knowledge of an association of Dionysian technitai in the time of Hadrian (SEG 48 1844). For Apamea's importance, especially as a main basis of the Seleukid army, see Cohen, Getzel M., The Hellenistic Settlements in Syria, the Red Sea Basin, and North Africa (Hellenistic Culture and Society 54; Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006) 94–101 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
25 It seems noteworthy that the reappearance of Dionysos on Seleukid coins (after an absence of more than a century) coincides with the point in time chosen by the author of 2 Macc to start his historical narrative. According to Kosmin, Elephant Kings, esp. 38–40, Dionysos served the early Seleukids as an oikist-hero, laying down the foundation of newly urbanized civilization in India. In comparison, the use of Dionysos in Jerusalem might be construed as representing the royal sanction of the newly established local political order.
26
I write here Judean, not Jewish, because the latter term assumes a monotheistic theology focusing on the god of Israel, which does not make room for Dionysos, while the former can be understood as an ethno-geographical, more religious-neutral marker. The ancient Greek does not make that distinction; see 2 Macc 6:6 about the implication of the reform: οὔτε ἁπλ
ς Ιουδα
ον ὁμολογε
ν ε
ναι.
27 I am not taking into account here the report of John Malalas (8.22, ed. Thurn [Berlin: De Gruyter, 2000] 156), who mentions Zeus and Athena. Malalas's idiosyncratic and puzzling account of the Antiochene persecution and its aftermath deserves special treatment elsewhere.
28 The seminal work on the Hellenizing faction remains Bickerman, Elias J., Der Gott der Makkabäer: Untersuchungen über Sinn und Ursprung der makkabäischen Erhebung (Berlin: Schocken, 1937)Google Scholar; available also in English translation: idem, The God of the Maccabees: Studies on the Meaning and Origin of the Maccabean Revolt (trans. Horst R. Moehring; Studies in Judaism in Late Antiquity 32; Leiden: Brill, 1979).
29 Bas, Philippe Le and Waddington, W. H., Inscriptions Grecques et Latines recueillies en Grèce et en Asie mineure (3 vols. in 6; Paris: F. Didot, 1847–73)Google Scholar 3.1:95, no. 294, 3.5–7:96 (Explication), no. 294. See also Frey, Jean-Baptiste, Corpus Inscriptionum Iudaicarum: Recueil des inscriptions juives qui vont du III. siècle avant Jésus-Christ au VII. siècle de notre ère (2 vols.; Sussidi allo studio delle antichità cristiane 1; Vatican City: Pontifico Instituto de Archaeologia Cristiana, 1936–52)Google Scholar 2:15, no. 749; Blümel, Wolfgang, Die Inschriften von Iasos (2 vols.; Inschriften griechischer Städte aus Kleinasien 28; Bonn: Habelet, 1985)Google Scholar 1:158, no. 193; Ameling, Walter, Inscriptiones judaicae orientis (3 vols.; Texts and studies in ancient Judaism 101; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2004) 2 Google Scholar:127–29, no. 21.
30 In general terms, the initial dating of Le Bas and Waddington, Inscriptions, 3.5–7:87–9 still holds. See Angelos Chaniotis et al., “SEG 57-1091. Iasos. The Dionysia,” in Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum, http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1874-6772_seg_a57_1091. For the internal order of the inscriptions, and the place of Niketas's inscription among them, see the bibliography in Ameling, Inscriptiones, 128, esp. n. 213. On the corpus of these inscriptions, see also Crowther, Charles, “The Dionysia at Iasos: Its Artists, Patrons, and Audience,” in The Greek Theatre and Festivals: Documentary Studies (ed. Wilson, Peter; Oxford Studies in Ancient Documents; Oxford: University Press, 2007) 295–334 Google Scholar.
31 Schürer, Emil, Vermès, Géza and Millar, Fergus, The History of the Jewish People in the Age of Jesus Christ (175 B.C.–A.D. 135) (3 vols.; Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1973) 3 Google Scholar.1:25 (3:13 in the German edition; Leipzig, 1898).
32 Ameling, Inscriptiones, 128.
33 It bears mention that during the third century BCE Karian Iasos had been under Ptolemaic rule and was thus susceptible to Ptolemaic cultural and religious influence. On the other hand, so had been Jerusalem prior to the Seleukid conquest in the Fifth Syrian War.
34 Abel, Félix-Marie, Les livres des Maccabées (La Sainte Bible 1; Paris: J. Gabalda, 1949) 362–63Google Scholar. Plutarch, Mor. 671B–672B (Quaest. conv. 4.5.3–4.6.2). This notion is picked up by Dueck, Daniela, “The Feast of Tabernacles and the Cult of Dionysus: A Cross-Cultural Dialogue,” Zion 73 (2008) 119–38Google Scholar (Hebrew), who remarks on the objective similarities between various aspects of Dionysos worship and the feast of Tabernacles. Dueck takes the testimony of 2 Macc as fully historical (130), and argues that the similarities between Jewish and Greek practices are not a result of direct cultural influence from either side.
35 Another known suitable context for a Dionysiac procession could be the new-wine festival mentioned in the Temple Scroll (11QXIX, 11–XXI, 10 = 11QTa), fifty days after the Pentecost and fifty days before the Feast of Tabernacles. For an introduction to this topic, and a general agreement that the new-wine festival in the Qumran scroll represents the age-old traditions of the land see Reeves, John C., “The Feast of the First Fruits of Wine and the Ancient Canaanite Calendar,” Vetus Testamentum 42 (1992) 350–61Google Scholar; Milgrom, Jacob, Leviticus: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary (3 vols.; AB 3, 3A, 3B; New York: Doubleday, 1991–2001)Google Scholar 3:2074–75 (comparing it in particular with the Athenian Anthesteria festival in honor of Dionysos); and Cana Werman and Shemesh, Aharon, Revealing the Hidden: Exegesis and Halakha in the Qumran Scrolls (Jerusalem: Bialik Institute, 2011) 310–15Google Scholar (in Hebrew) (where Werman argues that the ancient tradition was suppressed during the priestly redaction of the Torah).
36 A seminal contribution to this part of the discussion is Smith, Morton, “On the Wine God in Palestine,” in Salo Wittmayer Baron Jubilee Volume on the Occasion of His Eightieth Birthday (ed. Lieberman, Saul and Hyman, Arthur; Jerusalem: American Academy for Jewish Research, 1975) 815–29Google Scholar. Especially important is the case made in the final part of this paper (pp. 234–37) for recognizing the lingering influence of ancient wine-god traditions, pushed aside by later ardent monotheists. Mention should be made also of Goodenough, Erwin R., Jewish Symbols in the Greco-Roman Period (13 vols.; New York: Pantheon Books, 1953–1968)Google Scholar 6:126–222, with some far-reaching and idiosyncratic claims about the role of the wine god in Judaism and Christianity.
37
Even through the hostile lens of our sources it appears that the Hellenistic program had considerable popular support. See especially 1 Macc 1:43 (πολλοὶ ἀπὸ Ισραηλ), 1:52 (ἀπὸ το
λαο
πολλοὶ), 2:16 (again πολλοὶ ἀπὸ Ισραηλ). For further examples, see
Babota, Vasile, The Institution of the Hasmonean High Priesthood (Supplements to the Journal for the Study of Judaism 175; Leiden: Brill, 2014) 63
Google Scholar.
38 Nor was this impression unique to Plutarch. Tacitus, too, was familiar with it, and signifies clearly that this notion was also shared by others (quidam arbitrati sunt; Hist. 5.5.5), although he personally found it unacceptable. In Macrobius's Saturnalia (1.18.18–21), we find yet another identification of the god of Israel (going under the name Iaô) with Dionysos, derived from the writings of the third century CE Cornelius Labeo about the oracle of Apollo in Klaros. A useful starting point for all three authors is Stern, Menaḥem, Greek and Latin Authors on Jews and Judaism (3 vols.; Fontes ad res Judaicas spectantes; Jerusalem: The Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, 1974)Google Scholar.
39 I follow here the reading of Wilhelm, accepted by Schwartz, 2 Maccabees, 275 and many others. That Antiochos IV had a special liking for Athens is complementary rather than contradictory to my argument above. An interesting coincidence is that Plutarch puts his detailed explanation for this identification in the mouth of Moiragenes the Athenian, who professes to base his information on the knowledge obtained through the mysteries of his home town. According to Sven-Tage Teodorsson, Moiragenes “appears as the mouthpiece of Plut. who together with his wife was an initiate in the Dionysiac mysteries” (A Commentary on Plutarch's Table Talks [3 vols.; Studia Graeca et Latina Gothoburgensia; Göteborg: Acta Universitatis Gothoburgensis, 1989–96] 2:121–2).
40 For this kind of approach to Dionysos and to wine symbolism as a gateway for a polytheistic understanding of Judaism see Kirkpatrick, Jonathan, “The Jews and their God of Wine,” Archiv für Religionsgeschichte 15 (2014) 167–185 Google Scholar. Kirkpatrick usefully and convincingly provides further cultic and symbolic common grounds, where he identifies the same process at work. According to Salvá, Mercedes López, “Dionysos and Dionysism in the Third Book of Maccabees ,” in Redefining Dionysos (ed. Bernabé, Alberto et al.; Mythoseikonpoiesis 5; Berlin: De Gruyter, 2013) 452–63Google Scholar, a similar logic was utilized, to some extent at least, even by the Jewish author of the highly polemic and anti-Dionysian 3 Macc.
41 Plutarch, Mor. 4:2; 672A (Plutarch, Clement, Paul A., and Hoffleit, Herbert B.. Plutarch's ‘Moralia’: in sixteen volumes. 8: 612B-697C [London: Heinemann, 1969])Google Scholar.
42
m. B
r. 8:1; t. B
r. 5:25; y. B
r. 8:1 (Vilna), 7:5, 11d (Venice); b. B
r. 51b. The ruling of House Hillel eventually won the day, and that is the prevalent practice to this day in all parts of rabbinic Judaism.
43 Honigman, Tales, 254 raises yet another possibility. While she asserts that “historically speaking, the Judeans were never forced to participate in any procession celebrated by the Greek settlers” in honor of Dionysos, she suggests that it may have been the religious observance of these Greek settlers that brought Dionysos and his cult into Jerusalem in the first place. While Honigman's sweeping denial of the historicity of the persecution requires a much more detailed treatment than can be afforded in this paper, her emphasis of the role of the Greek settlers both in the Akra of Jerusalem and elsewhere on confiscated land in Judea deserves consideration, and may well contribute to our understanding of Dionysos's presence in Jerusalem.
44 B.J. 5.210; A.J. 15.395. According to Sanders, E. P., it was this particular adornment which “led some Gentiles to think that the Jews worshipped Bacchus, the Roman god of vineyards” (Judaism: Practice and Belief, 63 BCE–66 CE [London: SCM Press, 1992] 244)Google Scholar.
45 m. Mid 3:8. The significance of the participatory function is shrewdly emphasized by Kirkpatrick, “The Jews,” 169. He otherwise rightly stresses the importance of the temple and its various features for the identification with Dionysos.
46 On the importance of the notion of soundscape for understanding ancient Greek religion one eagerly expects the future publications resulting from the yet unpublished PhD dissertation by Amir Yeruḥam: “Music, Society and Religion in Archaic Greece,” Tel-Aviv University, 2015.
47 Tacitus, Hist. 5.5.5: sacerdotes eorum tibia tympanisque concinebant.
48 According to Plutarch, the trumpets were used to invoke the god (ἀνακαλούμενοι τὸν θεὸν). Dueck, “Feast,” 133 n. 55 points to a possible connection with Ps 44:23 (MT 44:24): “Rouse yourself! Why do you sleep, O Lord? Awake, do not cast us off forever!” (NRSV), a verse recited daily in the Jerusalem temple until the time of Hyrkanos I.
49 Schwartz, 2 Maccabees, 543.