Casius, le mont sacré de la Méditerranée orientale

 

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Mountains have always been considered as a natural way leading to heaven, as the bridge between human and divine. Some of them received particular attention and were adored as the true deities by the populations living around. Casius provides one of the most outstanding examples of this cult of the mountain in the past. This paper aims to emphasize the sacred character of this mountain by underlining its different aspects. As a border mountain, Casius occupies a site of great strategic importance, close to the Maditerranean Sea coast as the Orontes River’s mouth. Thoughout the Late Bronze Age, the chief deity of Ugarit’s pantheon dwellt on its summit nd, in the same period, Casius appeared to be the highest place of Hurrian mythology. During the classical antiquity, the cult of Zeus Casius confirmed the long continuity of this mountain’s fame in the ancient world. Voir l'ouvrage | Voir les autres articles de l'ouvrage