Legends of Old Testament characters, from the Talmud and other sourcesBaring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Religion
Legends of Old Testament characters, from the Talmud and other sources
Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Bible. Old Testament -- Legends; Jewish legends
From Phrygia also come to us traces of a Diluvian tradition. A number of
coins of Apamea, a city of Phrygia, between the rivers Mæander and
Marsyas, of the period of Septimius Severus and the following emperors,
possibly bear reference to this event.[214] One, a coin of Philip, bears
on the reverse something like a box, containing a man and woman; on the
panel of the box, under the man, is written “Noe,” the dove is bringing
the olive branch, and the raven is seated on the edge of the box above
the head of the female figure. The same two persons are also represented
on dry land, with the right hand uplifted in the attitude of prayer.
Another coin with the same subject, on the reverse has, inscribed on the
ark, ΝΗΤΩΝ.
To elucidate these coins, reference is made to a passage in the
Sibylline Oracles to this effect: “In Phrygia lies steep, to be seen
from afar, a mountain, named Ararat.... Therefrom streams the river
Marsyas; but on its crest rested the ark (κιβωτός) when the rain
abated.”[215] As the ancient name of Apamea seems to have been Kibotos,
it is not unlikely that the Sibylline writer mixed together in those
lines the Mosaic and the Phrygian traditions.
It must, however, be admitted that it is quite as probable that the box
represents a temple, and the two figures tutelary deities, and that the
“Noe” is a contraction for “Neocoros,” the most important title assumed
by Greek cities, and often recorded on their coins.
The ancient Persian account in the Bundehesch is this:—“Taschter (the
spirit ruling the waters) found water for thirty days and thirty nights
upon the earth. Every water-drop was as big as a bowl. The earth was
covered with water the height of a man. All idolaters on earth died
through the rain; it penetrated all openings. Afterwards a wind from
heaven divided the water and carried it away in clouds, as souls bear
bodies; then Ormuzd collected all the water together and placed it as a
boundary to the earth, and thus was the great ocean formed.”[216]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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