CathernQsh at 21:34, 13 March 2026

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{{short description|Type of sacred standing stone}}
[[File:Baetylus (sacred stone).jpg|thumb|right|The Emesa temple to the sun god [[Elagabalus (deity)|Elagabalus]] with baetyl at centre. Roman coin of 3rd century AD.]]

A '''baetyl''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|b|iː|t|ɪ|l}}; also '''betyl'''), literally "house of god", is a sacred stone (sometimes believed to be a [[meteorite]]) that was venerated and thought to house a god or deity.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Baetyl |url=https://www.livius.org/articles/religion/baetyl/ |access-date=2024-05-16 |website=Livius}}</ref> The most famous example is the [[Omphalos of Delphi|Omphalos]] stored in the [[Temple of Apollo (Delphi)|Temple of Apollo]] at the [[Greece|Greek]] town of [[Delphi]].{{sfn|Doniger|2000|p=106}}

The term baetyl was used in [[Ancient Near East|ancient Near Eastern]] sources, in the form of "beth-el", as well as in Greek and Roman sources, as a ''baitylos''. In the former, the term was used to refer to the names of gods or places. Examples include [[Bethel]], a location described in the [[Hebrew Bible]], and the deity [[Bethel (god)|Bethel]],{{Sfn|Hyatt|1939}} who was mentioned in texts like [[Esarhaddon's Treaty with Ba'al of Tyre]] and the [[Elephantine papyri]]. In the latter, the word was used to describe a round stone that had fallen from the sky (i.e. a meteorite).{{Sfn|Gaifman|2008|p=44–46}}

The word ''baetyl'' has taken on a vague use in modern writing.{{Sfn|Pagolu|1998}}{{Sfn|Marinatos|2010|p=87}} It has been debated both how ancient and modern usage of this word compare with one another. And, among modern historians, concerns have risen over the precision, accuracy, and generalizing tendency of the usage of this term in describing ancient texts and material objects.{{Sfn|Gaifman|2008|p=42–44}}{{Sfn|Wenning|2001|p=80}} The term has been used expansively, referring to any cultic stone regardless of the type or shape of stone that it was, such as whether it was a rounded stone (or ovoid), a pillar, or a [[stele]] (standing stone).{{Sfn|Falsone|1993}}{{Sfn|Doak|2015|p=79}} This generalization has been criticized as not corresponding to ancient use of the term itself and resulting in a projection of the modern sense of the word (a sacred stone containing the presence of a deity) onto a wide variety of cultic stone objects where little evidence exists for such an understanding, as in the case of the [[Nabataeans]].{{Sfn|Gaifman|2008|p=57–67}}

== Etymology ==
The term baetyl is a derivation of the Greek ''baetylus/baitylos'' (βαίτυλος), itself being derived from the [[Semitic languages|Semitic]] term ''bytʾl'' (or "beth-el", "house of god"), where it appears to have referred to open-air sanctuaries.{{Sfn|Wenning|2001|p=80}}{{Sfn|Gaifman|2008|p=42}}

An equivalent word in the ancient Near Eastern context, ''sikkānum''/''skn'' ("standing stones"), was used in ancient Syrian city states like [[Mari, Syria|Mari]], [[Ugarit]], and [[Emar]].{{Sfn|Mettinger|1995|p=130–131}}

== In literature ==

=== Ancient Near East ===
The earliest known evidence for the baetyl concept in the ancient near east, where it designated either the name of a place or a god, comes from the 8th century BC, from the [[Sefire steles]], a set of three [[Aramaic]] [[Stele|stelae]] discovered at the site of [[Sfire]]. In the first half of the 7th century BC, a Phoenician-Aramaic god known as [[Bethel (god)|Bethel]] is first attested.{{Sfn|Wenning|2001|p=80}}

==== In the Bible ====
The [[Book of Genesis]] records a story (28:10–22) concerning the patriarch [[Jacob]]. According to the story, Jacob went to sleep after laying his head on a certain rock. It was in this instance that he had the vision known as [[Jacob's Ladder]], which included an appearance of God. When he awoke, Jacob declared that God was in the location he was in. He declared the place to be the "house of God" (and so named it Bethel) and took the stone that he was laying his head on and set it up as a sacred pillar.{{Sfn|Marinatos|2004}} Though this narrative has been appealed to in some discussions of baetyls, the term Bethel ("House of God") is not used to refer to the stone but to the new name of the town as a whole. Furthermore, the Hebrew word for "pillar", ''maṣṣebah'', was translated into Greek in the [[Septuagint]] as ''oikos theou'' ("house of god"), and not ''baitylos'', further indicating a lack of connection between this narrative and the baetyl concept. The stone itself is also not the actual location of God's presence, but is a memorial for the vision and vow. Its sacred status is a result of its status as Jacob's pillar.{{Sfn|Gaifman|2008|p=47–51}}

===Ancient Greece===
The first Greek usage of the ''baitylos'' comes from a first-century text, but only as the name of a slave, not as a stone or a god. The next usage comes from the same century, in the ''[[Philo of Byblos#Works|Phoenician History]]'' by [[Philo of Byblos]], where it refers to the name of one of the sons of [[Ouranos]] and [[Gaia]]. Philo then refers to a magical stone he calls a ''baitylia'', which was invented when Ouranos first rained them from heaven (making it a meteorite; this is a common mythological etiology for the origins of these sacred stones{{Sfn|Wenning|2001|p=80}}). Philo's discussion is only extant in quotations from [[Eusebius]], who lived in the fourth century.{{Sfn|Gaifman|2008|p=51–52}} Another first-century reference is from [[Pliny the Elder]], who describes the ''baitylos'' in the following manner:{{Sfn|Gaifman|2008|p=53–54}}

<blockquote>Sotacus distinguishes also two other varieties of the stone, a black and a red, resembling axe-heads. According to him, those among them that are black and round are supernatural objects; and he states that thanks to them cities and fleets are attached and overcome, their name being baetuli while the elongated stones are cerauniae.</blockquote>

A much later reference occurs in the works of [[Damascius]], a 6th-century [[Neoplatonism|Neoplatonist]], according to later quotations of his text by [[Photios I of Constantinople]] in his ''[[Bibliotheca (Photius)|Bibliotheca]]''. There, it is a spherical stone that originated from the sky and was discovered by a certain man named Eusebius. Eusebius finds that this stone is prophetic and becomes its interpreter.{{Sfn|Gaifman|2008|p=54}}

=== Ancient Rome ===
It is only in the [[Later Roman Empire]] and in the period of [[late antiquity]] when the term ''baitylos'' came to take on connotations that combined its connotations of divinity from the Semitic tradition with the connotations of its function as an object in the Greek tradition. This fusion was a product of the dual influence of both Semitic and Greek tradition on the Roman Near East, particularly in northern [[Syria]] and [[Lebanon]].{{Sfn|Gaifman|2008|p=55–57}}

== In material sources ==

=== Ancient Near East ===
[[File:El sueño de Jacob, por José de Ribera.jpg|thumb|Depiction of [[Jacob]]'s dream sleeping on a stone at [[Bethel]], by [[José de Ribera]]]]In the study of the [[ancient Near East]], the term 'baetyl' is usually broadly used to describe cultic stones.{{Sfn|Durand|2019|p=15}} Evidence for such cultic stones comes from the [[Neolithic]] temple site of [[Tas-Silġ]],<ref>Vella, Horation C. R., in [https://books.google.com/books?id=FaVBAAAAQBAJ&dq=Baetylus&pg=PA315 ''Archaeology and Fertility Cult in the Ancient Mediterranean''], p. 315, 1986, Gruner, {{ISBN|9789027272539}}</ref> texts from the [[Amorites|Amorite]] site [[Mari, Syria|Mari]] where the term ''sikkanum'' designated a stone used in cultic ceremony,{{Sfn|Durand|2019}} the [[huwasi stone]]s installed into the temples and open-air sanctuaries of the [[Hittites]],{{Sfn|Marinatos|2010|p=87}} and among the Phoenicians. In studies of [[Phoenicia]] and [[Punic religion]], the term baetyl is typically used to refer to a fairly small object that is ovoid or conical.{{Sfn|Doak|2015|p=80}} Some early stelae from Phoenicia inscribe [[ovoid]]-shaped objects, which may prefigure the later appearance of actual baetyls.{{Sfn|Doak|2015|p=86, 90}} In Phoenician theogony as described by [[Philo of Byblos]], there was a god named Baitylos, who was one of the four sons of Ouranos.{{Sfn|Hyatt|1939}}

The [[Mecca|Meccan]] sanctuary, the [[Kaaba]], has been referred to in [[pre-Islamic Arabic poetry]] as "God's house" (''bayt allāh''). According to later sources, the [[Black Stone]] (a baetyl) was moved to this location from a nearby mountaintop in order to augment the sacred nature of the site when the area was under control of the [[Quraysh]].{{Sfn|Sinai|2023|p=148–149}} Such baetyls can be described with the Arabic ''nuṣub'' (pl. ''anṣāb''), typically referring to sacrificial stone altars (mentioned several times in the [[Quran]]: 5:3, 90; 70:43) which is distinct from terms like ''ṣanam'' and ''watham,'' which refer to manufactured statues.{{Sfn|Sinai|2023|p=302–304}} Some historians have compared the Black Stone to the description of a black, rounded stone said to have descended from heaven as described by [[Herodian]].{{Sfn|Durand|2019|p=27, 27n41}}

===Ancient Greece and Rome===
In [[ancient Greek religion]] and [[Greek mythology|mythology]], the term was specially applied to the [[Omphalos of Delphi]] ("navel"),{{sfn|Doniger|2000|p=106}} the stone supposed to have been swallowed by [[Cronus]] (who feared misfortune from his own children) in mistake for his infant son [[Zeus]], for whom it had been substituted by [[Gaia (mythology)|Gaea]].{{Sfn|Chisholm|1911}} This stone was carefully preserved at [[Delphi]], anointed with oil every day and on festive occasions covered with raw wool.{{Sfn|Chisholm|1911}}
[[File:Sanctuary of Aphrodite at Palaepafos, Cyprus - conical stone (cropped).jpg|thumb|upright|The baetyl of Aphrodite at [[Sanctuary of Aphrodite Paphia|Palaepaphos]], described by Tacitus.]]

In [[Rome]], there was the stone effigy of [[Cybele]], called {{lang|la|Mater Idaea Deum}}, that had been ceremoniously brought from [[Pessinus]] in Asia Minor in 204 BC.<ref name="Chisholm">{{EB1911|inline=1|wstitle=Baetylus|volume=3|pages=191-192}}
</ref> The emperor [[Elagabalus]] who reigned from 218 until 222 (and was probably a teenager for all his reign) came from [[Syria]] and was already the hereditary high priest of the cult of [[Elagabalus (deity)|the god Elagabalus]] there. Once made emperor he brought the god's baetyl to Rome with great ceremony, and built the [[Elagabalium]] to house it. It seems to have been a conical meteorite.

According to [[Tacitus]], the ''simulacrum'' of the goddess at the temple of [[Sanctuary of Aphrodite Paphia|Aphrodite Paphia]] at her mythological birthplace at [[Paphos]], on Cyprus, was a rounded object, approximately conical or shaped like a ''[[Meta (Roman circus)|meta]]'' (a turning post on a [[Circus (building)|Roman circus]]) but "the reason for this" he noted, "is obscure".<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.loebclassics.com/view/tacitus-histories/1925/pb_LCL111.165.xml|title=Histories|last=Tacitus|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=0-674-99039-0|volume=2|issue=3 |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts|pages=164–165|translator-last=Moore|translator-first=Clifford H.|oclc=11108482}}</ref>

Other famous baetylic stones were those in the temples of [[Zeus#Roles and epithets|Zeus Casius]] at [[Samandağ|Seleucia Pieria]], and of [[Zeus#Roles and epithets|Zeus Teleios]] at [[Tegea]]. Even in the declining years of [[paganism]], these cultic symbols retained their significance, as is shown by the attacks upon them by ecclesiastical writers.<ref name=Chisholm/>

=== Pre-Islamic Arabia ===
{{See also|Religion in pre-Islamic Arabia}}
The nouns ''nṣb'', ''mnṣb'', ''mṣb'', and ''mnṣbt'' were used in [[Safaitic]] and [[Nabataean script|Nabataean]] inscriptions, and in [[pre-Islamic Arabic poetry]], to refer to a "cult stone". A corresponding verb was used to mean, "to set up a cult stone". The pre-Islamic Arabian use of practice of using sacrificial stones among pre-Islamic Arabs is also mentioned, retrospectively, in Islamic literature, including the [[Quran]] and [[Hisham ibn al-Kalbi]] in his [[Book of Idols]]. The Quran also uses other verbs, like ''aṣnām'' and awthān, to refer to objects of veneration, usually in the context of the idolatry that [[Abraham]] faced during his own life.{{Sfn|Sinai|2023|p=302–304}}{{Sfn|Al-Jallad|2022|p=27–28}}

==See also==
* [[Asherah pole]], Canaanite sacred tree or pole honouring [[Asherah]], consort of [[El (deity)|El]]
* [[Black Stone]]
* [[Bema]] and bimah, elevated platform
* [[Benben]]
* [[Ceremonial pole]]
* [[High place]], raised place of worship
* [[Huaca]], cult objects in ancient [[Andean civilizations|Andes]].
* [[List of Greek deities]]
* [[Kami]], central objects of worship in [[Shinto]], some of which are natural phenomena and objects including stones
* [[Kanrodai]], sacred pillar in Japanese religions
* [[Lingam]], an abstract representation of the Hindu deity [[Shiva]]
** [[Banalinga]], stones naturally worn to ovoid shapes on riverbeds in India
* [[Matzevah]]
* [[Menhir]]
* [[Pole worship]]
* [[Shaligram]], sacred riverbed fossils in India
* [[Turbah]], small clay or earthen slabs used by [[Twelver Shi'ism|Twelver Shi’a]] Muslims
* [[Xoanon]], wooden effigies in Ancient Greek religious use

== References ==

=== Citations ===
{{reflist}}

=== Sources ===
*{{Cite book |last=Al-Jallad |first=Ahmad |url=https://brill.com/display/title/61413 |title=The Religion and Rituals of the Nomads of Pre-Islamic Arabia: A Reconstruction Based on the Safaitic Inscriptions |date=2022 |publisher=Brill}}
*{{Cite book |last=Doak |first=Brian R. |title=Phoenician Aniconism in Its Mediterranean and Ancient Near Eastern Contexts |date=2015 |publisher=SBL Press |pages=78–101 |chapter=5.3 Stelae, Pillars, Standing Stones, Betyls}}
*{{Citation |last=Doniger |first=Wendy |year=2000 |title=Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of World Religions |location=Springfield, Mass. |publisher=Merriam-Webster |page=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780877790440/page/106 106] |isbn=0-87779-044-2 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780877790440/page/106 }}
*{{Cite book |last=Durand |first=Jean-Marie |title=Représenter dieux et hommes dans le Proche-Orient ancien et dans la Bible |date=2019 |editor-last=Römer |editor-first=Thomas |pages=15–37 |chapter=Le Culte Des Bétyles Dans La Documentation Cunéiforme DʾÉpoque Amorrite |editor-last2=Gonzalez |editor-first2=Hervé |editor-last3=Marti |editor-first3=Lionel |chapter-url=https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.12657/42999/1/9789042939745.pdf#page=28}}
*{{Cite journal |last=Falsone |first=Giaocchino |date=1993 |title=An Ovoid Betyl from the Tophet at Motya and the Phoenician Tradition of Round Cultic Stones |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/303/article/670021/summary |journal=Journal of Mediterranean Studies |volume=3 |issue=2 |pages=245–285}}
*{{Cite book |last=Gaifman |first=Milette |title=The Variety of Local Religious Life in the Near East in the Hellenistic and Roman Periods |date=2008 |publisher=Brill |editor-last=Kaizer |editor-first=Ted |chapter=The Aniconic Image of the Roman Near East |chapter-url=https://www.academia.edu/6971525}}
*{{Cite journal |last=Hyatt |first=J. Philip |date=1939 |title=The Deity Bethel and the Old Testament |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/593947 |journal=Journal of the American Oriental Society |volume=59 |issue=1 |pages=81–98|doi=10.2307/593947 |jstor=593947 |url-access=subscription }}
*{{Cite journal |last1=MacGillivray |first1=Alexander |last2=Sackett |first2=Hugh |date=2000 |title=The Palaikastro Kouros: the Cretan god as a young man |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40916626 |journal=British School at Athens Studies |volume=6 |issue= |pages=165–169|jstor=40916626 }}
*{{Cite journal |last=Marinatos |first=Nanno |date=2004 |title=The Character of Minoan Epiphanies |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23065339 |journal=Illinois Classical Studies |volume=29 |pages=25–42|jstor=23065339 }}
*{{Cite book |last=Marinatos |first=Nanno |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_wa3WSXjQU4C&dq=huwasi%20stone%20baetyl&pg=PA87 |title=Minoan Kingship and the Solar Goddess: A Near Eastern Koine |date=2010 |publisher=University of Illinois Press}}
*{{Cite book |last=Mettinger |first=Tryggve | author-link = Tryggve Mettinger |title=No Graven Image? Israelite Aniconism in Its Ancient Near Eastern Context |date=1995 |publisher=Almqvist & Wiksell International}}
*{{Cite book |last=Pagolu |first=Augustine |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vRolnGU5KvAC&q=Baetyl |title=The Religion of the Patriarchs |date=1998 |publisher=A&C Black |pages=135–170 |chapter=Sacred Pillars |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vRolnGU5KvAC}}
*{{Citation |last=Palmer |first=Robert Everett Allen |year=1997 |title=Rome and Carthage at Peace |location=Stuttgart |publisher=F. Steiner |isbn=3-515-07040-0 |page=99}}
*{{Cite book |last=Sinai |first=Nicolai |title=Key Terms of the Qur'an: A Critical Dictionary |date=2023 |publisher=Princeton University Press}}
*{{Cite journal |last=Wenning |first=Robert |date=2001 |title=The Betyls of Petra |url=https://www.academia.edu/37336224 |journal=Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research |volume=324 |issue=1 |pages=79–85|doi=10.2307/1357633 |jstor=1357633 }}

==Further reading==
*Aliquot, Julien. "Au pays des bétyles : l’excursion du philosophe Damascius à Émèse et à Héliopolis du Liban," 2010, pp. 305–328. [https://shs.hal.science/halshs-01709436/document Available].
* Kron, Uta. "Heilige Steine", in: ''Kotinos. Festschrift für Erika Simon'', Mainz 1992, S. 56–70, {{ISBN|3-8053-1425-6}}

{{commonscat}}

== External links ==

* [https://ancientarabia.huma-num.fr/dictionary/definition/sacred-stones Sacred Stones] (Ancient Arabia Database)
{{Portal bar|Mythology|Asia}}

{{Meteorites}}
{{Greek religion|state=collapsed}}

[[Category:Greek mythology]]
[[Category:Middle Eastern mythology]]
[[Category:Meteorites in culture]]
[[Category:Sacred rocks]]
[[Category:Phoenician religion]]

Baetyl - Revision history

CathernQsh at 21:34, 13 March 2026