Regarding the diffusion of this belief from the beginning of the first century of our era, see Diels, Elementum, 1899, p. 73, cf. 78; Badstübner, Beiträge zur Erklärung Senecas, Hamburg, pp. 2 ff.—It is expressed in many inscriptions (Friedländer, Sitteng., III, pp. 749 ff.; Rohde, Psyche, p. 673, cf. 610; epitaph of Vezir-Keupru, Studia Pontica, No. 85; CIL. III (Salone), 6384; supra, n. [63], etc.) It gained access into Judaism and paganism simultaneously (cf. Bousset, Die Religion des Judentums im neutest. Zeitalter, 1903, p. 271, and, for Philo of Alexandria, Zeller, Philos. der Griechen, V, p. 397 and p. 297).—During the third century it was expounded by Cornelius Labeo, the source of Arnobius and Servius (Nieggetiet, De Cornelio Labeone [Diss. Munster], 1908, pp. 77-86). It was generally accepted towards the end of the empire; see infra, n. [25].—I hope soon to have the opportunity of setting forth the development of this sidereal eschatology with greater precision in my lectures on "Astrology and Religion in Antiquity" which will appear in 1912 (chap. VI).
[65]. According to the doctrine of the Egyptian mysteries the Elysian Fields were in the under-world (Apul., Metam., XI, 6).—According to the astrological theory, the Elysian Fields were in the sphere of the fixed stars (Macrobius, Comm. somn. Scip., I, 11, § 8; cf. infra, chap. VIII, n. [25]). Others placed them in the moon (Servius, Ad Aen., VI, 887; cf. Norden, Vergils Buch, VI, p. 23; Rohde, Psyche, pp. 609 ff.). Iamblichus placed them between the moon and the sun (Lydus, De mens., IV, 149, p. 167, 23, Wünsch).
[66]. The relation between the two ideas is apparent in the alleged account of the Pythagorean doctrine which Diogenes Laertius took from Alexander Polyhistor, and which is in reality an apocryphal composition of the first century of our era. It was said that Hermes guided the pure souls, after their separation from the body, εἰς τὸν Ὕψιστον (Diog. Laert., VIII, § 31; cf. Zeller, Philos. der Griechen, V, p. 106, n. 2).—On the meaning of Hypsistos, cf. supra, p. [128]. It appears very plainly in the passage of Isaiah, xiv, 13, as rendered by the Septuagint:
Ἐις τὸν οὐρανὸν ἀναβήσομαι, ἐπάνω τῶν ἀστέρων θήσω τὸν θρόνον μου ... ἔσομαι ὅμοιος τῷ Ὑψίστῳ.
[67]. Originally he was the thunder-god, in Greek Κεραυνός. Under this name he appeared for instance on the bas-relief preserved in the museum of Brussels (Dussaud, Notes, p. 105). Later, by a familiar process, the influence of a particular god becomes the attribute of a greater divinity, and we speak of a Ζεὺς Κεραύνιος (cf. Usener, Keraunos, Rhein. Museum, N. F., LX, 1901).—This Zeus Keraunios appears in many inscriptions of Syria (CIG, 4501, 4520; Le Bas-Waddington, 2195, 2557 a, 2631, 2739; cf. Roscher, Lexikon Myth., s. v. "Keraunos").
He is the god to whom Seleucus sacrificed when founding Seleucia (Malalas, p. 199), and a dedication to the same god has been found recently in the temple of the Syrian divinities at Rome (supra, n. [10]).—An equivalent of the Zeus Keraunios is the Zeus Καταιβάτης—"he who descends in the lightning"—worshiped at Cyrrhus (Wroth, Greek Coins in the British Museum: "Galatia, Syria," p. 52 and LII; Roscher, Lexikon, s. v.)
[68]. For instance the double ax was carried by Jupiter Dolichenus (cf. supra, p. [147]). On its significance, cf. Usener, loc. cit., p. 20.
[69]. Cf. Lidzbarski, Balsamem, Ephem. semit. Epigr., I, p. 251.—Ba‘al Samaïn is mentioned as early as the ninth century B. C. in the inscription of Ben Hadad (Pognon, Inscr. sémit., 1907, pp. 165 ff.; cf. Dussaud, Rev. archéol., 1908, I, p. 235). In Aramaic papyri preserved at Berlin, the Jews of Elephantine call Jehovah "the god of heaven" in an address to a Persian governor, and the same name was used in the alleged edicts of Cyrus and his successors, which were inserted in the book of Esdras (i. 1; vi. 9, etc.)—If there were the slightest doubt as to the identity of the god of thunder with Baalsamin, it would be dispelled by the inscription of Et-Tayibé, where this Semitic name is translated into Greek as Ζεὺς μέγιστος κεραύνιος; cf. Lidzbarski, Handbuch, p. 477, and Lagrange, op. cit., p. 508.
[70]. On the worship of Baalsamin, confused with Ahura-Mazda and transformed into Caelus, see Mon. myst. Mithra, p. 87.—The texts attesting the existence of a real cult of