3—
Divine Obligations

The compliance of the settlers with divine instructions, which stands out in the biblical traditions, is also reflected in the Greek settlement traditions. On a stele from Cyrene, which mentions the grave of Battos, the founder, alongside that of the "seer" from Delphi (see above), we find sacred laws,^[16] whose contents have much in common with those of the Pentateuch. The laws on the Cyrene Stele open with a regulation concerning atonement sacrifice: a red goat is to be slaughtered for apotropaic purposes before the city gate (§ 1), which reminds us of the red heifer, slaughtered outside the camp (Num. 19).^[17] This is followed by laws of impurity and purity in connection with a man having sexual intercourse with a woman and about a woman in childbirth (§ 3; cf. Lev. 15:16–18; 12:1–8). Juxtaposed is a law on the defilement of graves (§ 4, see below). The following paragraphs deal with the purification of the altar (§ 5; cf. Ex. 30:10; Lev. 16:18; Ezek. 43:18–27),^[18] with matters of tithing and

[16] U. v. Wilamowitz, "Heilige Gesetze, Eine Urkunde aus Kyrene," Sitzungsberichte Akademie Berlin Phil.-hist. Klasse 1927 , pp. 155–76; K. Latte, "Ein Sakrales Gesetz aus Kyrene," Archiv für Religionswissenschaft 26 (1928), pp. 41–51; M. P. Nilsson, Geschichte der griechischen Religion 2 (Munich, 1974), pp. 73 ff.; R. Parker, MIASMA, Pollution and Purification in Early Greek Religion (Oxford, 1983), pp. 332–51. Although the inscription is from the fourth century, according to scholars, the laws themselves are ancient.

[17] See the discussion by Latte, "Sakrales" (n. 16), pp. 41–42. There he comments on the parallel with Num. 19:1. The surprising fact that the ceremony is carried out not by Aaron but by Eleazar, who appears at the beginning of the section, can be explained with the help of the Greek stele where Onymastos from Delphi appears as the supervisor of matters of ritual, parallel with the figure of Eleazar, see above.

consecration, connected with the value of a man (§§ 7–10; cf. Lev. 27) and with matters of refuge, including the refuge of a murderer^[19] (§§ 17–19; cf. Num. 35; Deut. 19:1–13).^[20] The laws open with the words of Apollo, who says that the regulations that he is issuing are for those coming to settle in the land of Libya. This recalls the opening found frequently in the biblical laws, "when you come into the land." The success of the settlers depends on their observance of the laws of Apollo,^[21] which again recalls the warning in the priestly literature that the land will spew out those who settle on it if they do not fulfill the commandments of God (Lev. 18:28).

Apollo of Delphi was apparently of Eastern rather than Greek origin,^[22] and in connection with the Amphictyonic

[20] We find similar instructions in the inscription from the Island of Kos; see R. Herzog, Heilige Gesetze von Kos (Berlin, 1928). Here also we find instructions regulating various atonement and purification ceremonies, and warnings for priests against contact with dead bodies or graves and against entrance into a house where there is a corpse (§ 5). Likewise, there are laws of refuge regulating the shelter of the murderer, the runaway slave, and other types of exile (§ 13).

[21] Cf. the oath of the founders from Cyrene: "According to the promise of success which Apollo made to Battos and the men of Thera who settled on Cyrene, as long as they fulfilled the covenants which their ancestors made"; see R. Meiggs and D. Lewis, A Selection of Greek Historical Inscriptions (Oxford, 1968), no. 5, lines 7–9; Wilamowitz, "Kyrene" (n. 16), p. 172: "Der Gott verspricht ihnen Libien zu behaupten, wenn sie die religiösen Pflichten nachkommen, auf die er Wert legt."

[22] See U. v. Wilamowitz, "Apollon," Hermes 38 (1903), pp. 575 ff. Since then, more evidence on this matter can be adduced: (1) Apollo, like the Mesopotamian god Samas^[*] , is in charge of the oracles and signs ofprophecy, and is identified with the sun. (2) Apollo is identical with the Mesopotamian god Nergal and the Canaanite god Reseph^[*] ; see my article, "Divine Intervention in War in Ancient Israel and in the Ancient Near East," in H. Tadmor and M. Weinfeld, eds., History, Historiography and Interpretation (Jerusalem, 1983), pp. 113–27. Like these gods, Apollo possessed a bow and arrows, and his arrows sent a plague on both man and beast. (3) The Muses sang of him in the choir alternately (= one voice answering the other, Iliad 1:603), as in the song of the angels in Israel and the ancient East. See my article "The Heavenly Praise in Unison," Meqor Hajjim Festschrift für G. Mollin (Graz, 1983), p. 427, and on the matter of the Muses, see p. 434.

oath, which was a kind of oath taken by devotees of Apollo of Delphi, we hear that the breaking of this oath would bring about a curse from the god, reminiscent of the biblical curse: "the land will not bear produce, the women will not give birth, and the cattle will not reproduce" (Aeschines 3:110–11). The same curses appear within the framework of the blessings and curses in the ceremony between Mt. Gerizim and Mt. Ebal (Deut. 27–28). There we read "Blessed shall be the issue of your womb, the produce of your soil and the offspring of your cattle" (28:4), and the diametrically opposite curse, "Cursed shall be the issue of your womb, the produce of your soil, the calving of your herd and the lambing of your flock" (28:18).^[23]

In the foundation document at the Temple of Delphi, many details recall the customs of the Israelites upon their settlement in the land. For example, the members of the Amphictyonic League swore to punish anyone who violated the sanctity of the shrine at Delphi or was an accessory to such violation (Aeschines 2:115), and indeed Aeschines tells us of a city that was guilty of violating the shrine, and when the Pythia was asked about this matter she answered that they should make war against the city, ravage it, enslave its inhabitants, and

[23] For the place and significance of the set of blessings and curses in Deut. 27–28, see my article, "The Emergence of the Deuteronomic Movement: The Historical Antecedents," in N. Lohfink, ed., Das Deuteronomium, Entstehung, Gestalt und Botschaft (Leuven, 1985), pp. 78–80.

dedicate the land to Apollo, and that the land should never be cultivated again (Aeschines 3:107–09). At the time that this punishment was being inflicted, it was declared that any city that would not go to war against those who desecrated the holy place would be excommunicated from the shrine and cursed (3:122).

A parallel custom can be found in connection with the war against the inhabitants of Gibeah, who "committed an outrage in Israel" (Judg. 20–21). Like the tribes of Greece, who consulted the oracle before making war on those who violated the shrine, the Israelite tribes inquired of the Lord before going to war against Gibeah (Judg. 20:18, 27) and, as in Greece, the Israelites attacked the city, utterly destroyed it, and burned it down "completely" (vv. 40, 48).^[24]

The Greek Amphictyons destroyed the treacherous city of Cirrha, executed its inhabitants, and denounced with a great oath any person who should rise and rebuild it (Aeschines 3:108), which recalls the oath of Joshua against Jericho (Josh. 6:26). In Israel as in Greece, condemnation (herem^[*] ) fell upon a city that refused to take part in the Holy War (Judg. 21:5–12). We hear of action taken against those transgressing against the assembly and its shrines in Israel, in the account of the erection of an altar east of the Jordan, which was considered an act of rebellion against the Lord (Josh. 22:19 ff.); the assembly of Israel gathered to make war on Gad and Reuben and to destroy their land (vv. 12, 33).^[25]

I do not intend here to take up the analogy of the amphic-

[24] Cf. Deut. 13:17 on the excommunicated city: "you shall burn the town . . . completely (kalil^[*] ) to the Lord your God, and it shall remain an everlasting ruin (tel'olam )^[*] ,and Deut. 29:22: "it shall be devastated . . . beyond sowing and growing." Cf. the parallels with the ban of the Greek Amphictyony (a prohibition on plowing the land of a rebellious city). It appears that they did the same to Gibeah (cf. the ban on Jericho).

tyony as M. Noth has done in Das System der zwölf Stämme Israels (Stuttgart, 1930). Unlike Noth, I am interested not in analyzing the nature of the tribal federation of Israel, but rather in examining the regulations and procedure connected with the founding of a new society in a new settlement, and in showing the surprising analogy between the Israelite and Aegean worlds. As mentioned above, scholars have recognized the Greek practice associated with Apollo at Delphi as a foreign influence. If this is so, it is also possible that the practice was crystalized in the Orient and from there brought to Greece.^[26] Elsewhere, I have discussed the dramatization of the curses, found in the oath of the founders of Cyrene, which accords with the enactment of the curses in the covenants of the ancient East. Especially instructive is the dissolving of the figurines of wax in the covenant ceremony, which has the purpose of illustrating the fate of someone who violates the covenant.^[27]