Ruins of an ancient temple for Zeus were unearthed in Egypt

I just came across this short article from NPR.

https://www.npr.org/2022/04/25/1094730176/ancient-egypt-temple-zeus-archaeology

 

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Thanks for posting this, @robinjojo - I was particularly interested because the temple they found was for Zeus-Kasios, a deity I'd never heard of until earlier this year when I got a coin from Syria featuring his sacred stone. It surprised me that such a specific, local version of Zeus from Syria had a temple in Egypt - I'd think Zeus-Ammon would've been the Egyptian version worshipped there.

There was a post by @Jochen1 that (as usual!) is very informative about Zeus-Kasios and his coins. Furthermore, I was happy to find that my coin is an obverse die-match for his: https://www.cointalk.com/threads/zeus-kasios.337057/

Here's my Zeus-Kasios from Syria:


Trajan Æ 23
RY 4 (100/101 A.D.) (See note)
Syria, Seleukis and Pieria
A[VTOKP] KAIC NEPTPAIANO[C APICT CEB]ΓEPM ΔA]K, laureate head right / CELEVK[EΩ]N - ΠΙΕΡΙΑϹ sacred stone of Zeus Kasios in shrine surmounted by eagle, Δ (?) in right field, ZEVC | KACI[OC] in exergue.
eBay Jan. 2022
(10.46 grams / 23 x 21 mm)
RPC III 3771; BMC 39 and 43; CRS 420/55a and 59a.
Date is mostly missing, but point of Δ might be visible; 2 die obv. die matches are Δ.
Obv. die matches:
Jochen1 on Coin Talk (04/2019)
moonmoth on FORVM (2009)

Here is an enhanced version of the reverse:


Sacred stone or Jabba the Hutt? What every collector wants is the rare Princess Leia-in-captivity issue. Out of my price range however, as are most of the coins of ancient Tatooine.



By Lucasfilm - This is a screenshot taken from an optical disc, television broadcast, web page, computer software or streaming media broadcast of Return of the Jedi., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=39243829

Here is the obverse compared to the one @Jochen1 posted:

 

Great news! So this is the temple of Zeus Kasios built or enlarged in Pelusium by the emperor Hadrian! In his novel The Adventures of Leucippe and Clitophon, Achilles Tatius of Alexandria (2nd c. AD, or later?) describes the statue of Zeus Kasios that stood in this temple and also a diptych displayed there, representing Prometheus and Andromeda.

"At Pelusium is the holy statue of Zeus Casius; in it the god is represented so young that he seems more like Apollo. He has one hand stretched out and holds a pomegranate in it, and this pomegranate has a mystical signification. After adoring the deity and asking for an oracle about Clinias and Satyrus (we were told that the god was willing to give prophetic answers) we went round the temple, and near the postern door we saw a double picture, signed by the artist; it had been painted by Evanthes, and represented first Andromeda, then Prometheus, both of them in chains - and this was the reason, I suppose, why the artist had associated the two subjects. In other respects too the two works were akin. In both, the chains were attached to a rock, and in both, beasts were the torturers, his from the air, and hers from the sea; their deliverers were Argives of the same family, his Hercules and hers Perseus; the one shooting Zeus's eagle and the other contending with the sea-beast of Poseidon. The former was represented aiming with his arrow on land, the latter suspended in the air on his wings." (etc... follows a long detailed description of the picture).

This painter Evanthes is not mentioned by any other document, so scholars are debating if it is an invention of the novelist or if he actually existed, and if this diptych was visible in the Zeus Casius temple in Pelusium.

I think this painting probably existed, and Achilles Tatius drew inspiration from it for his novel. Unfortunately the masterpieces of ancient Greek painting (on wood panels or cloth) are all lost. It is very unlikely that the Egyptian archaeologists will discover any remains of pictures that were once displayed in this temple. But famous pictures were sometimes reproduced (not exactly of course) on murals or mosaics preserved to this day. The description of the original by Achilles Tatius corresponds rather well with a fresco from Boscoreale and a Syrian mosaic.

Here is the fresco from Boscoreale, 1st c. AD, now in the Metropolitan Museum, New York. It may reproduce a Greek original of Hellenistic date :



And this is the mosaic showing Prometheus. It is later (3rd or 4th c. AD) but may also reproduce more or less accurately the general setting of a much older hellenistic painting. This mosaic has been seized in 2016 by the FBI from a mansion in Palmdale, because it was very probably looted in North Syria. Here again, this scene corresponds well with Achilles Tatius' description:




In the article there is a photo of a guy partially unearthing a monumental inscription. This is what we can read :



[ (name of an emperor?) ἐκ] θεμελίων τὴν
[ (name of a building) ἔκτισεν (?) ἐπὶ (name of a governor) ἐπάρ]χου Αἰγύπτου :

"(The emperor X built?) from the foundations the ( ... under Y ) Prefect of Egypt."

The shape of letters with Є and ω suggest a rather late date, 2nd to 4th c. AD.

 

This is one of the most fascinating threads I've read here in a while! What a confluence of numismatics, archaeology, ancient literature and art history! Thank you, @robinjojo, @Marsyas Mike, and @GinoLR!

 

My only Zeus Kasios coin is the same one as @Marsyas Mike 's.


It is a Syrian coin, minted in Seleucia Pieria near Antioch, and represents the baetyl of Zeus Kasios under its baldachin. Typically Syrian...

But the Zeus Kasios of Pelusium was very different. We see thanks to Achilles Tatius that his statue, visible in the very temple the Egyptians are now exploring, was a young Zeus (looking like Apollo, i.e. beardless with long hair like an ephebe) holding a pomegranate in his extended arm. Coins minted in Alexandria represented this statue (or the mystical pomegranate) :

two others, one of Hadrian, one of Claudius Gothicus (not my coins of course)!

On the Hadrianic coin with the rev. legend [ΠH]ΛOV L IA, we can see what Achilles Tatius meant : a Zeus who looks more like Apollo because he is young. His hem-hem crown is an attribute of Harpocrates (Horus) : this young Zeus was an hellenization of Horus, the child-god...

Does anybody on CT have examples of these coins with the Zeus Kasios of Pelusium?

 

Pelusium was a prominent Delta town. Because of the moisture, many of the ruins in Lower Egypt are lost or became unidentifiable, mud brick did not survive - also folks collect the stones of temples and monuments to build sugar cane kilns.

Whereas in Upper Egypt mud brick often survives, for example temple enclosure walls, among them the walls around the temple of Hathor at Dendera and the town and fortress at Coptos (later called Justinianopolis) before the Muslim invasion. Similarly the temple of Ramses IV at Medinet Habu is surrounded by a surviving mud brick enclosure wall. Interesting write-up and contributions everyone.

 

..i concur...i just now saw it!

 

Hi All,

Here is my specimen. References: Emmett-4062.08; Geissen-UNLISTED; Dattari-5696; Milne-5021. Ex-Auctiones GmbH (Bern, Switzerland): eAuction #59, Lot #128. Note: the 'nude child' in the description is probably Prometheus, given the posture in the mosaic cited above.



Achilles Tatius’ description of the cult image of Harpokrates of Pelousion (Achilles Tatius 3.6), given in his tale of the adventures of the lovers Klitophon and Leukippe, is frustratingly brief and offers no clue as to how the youthful deity became associated with Zeus. Coins and gems serve as the primary evidence for the iconography of the sanctuary’s cult statue.

For more on Harpokrates of Pelusium see "Harpokrates (Zeus Kasios) of Pelusium" [DOI: 10.2307/146819] by C Bonner (in Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, Vol 15, No 1, Jan-Mar, 1946 [pp 55: "The three coins just mentioned show that the type that they present, whatever its relation to the Pelusian cult may be, maintained itself for about twenty-five years in the latter half of the third century]". The festival of The Harpokratia in Graeco-Roman Egypt is discussed here.

- Broucheion