Page 65 - Edessa, 'The Blessed City'-01, by J. B. Segal (Oxford, 1970). Chapters 1-3

52 EDESSA UNDER THE KINGS

confusion between Nabu and Orpheus derives from a misinterpretation of
the symbols of this image; the tablet and stylus of the planet-god have been
mistaken for the musical instruments of the legendary bard. Music played,
we have noted, a prominent part in the temple at Hierapolis. It was equally
prominent at Edessa.1 But there is a more striking analogy: in the Eyiip
Mahallesi at Urfa the beautiful Orpheus mosaic has been found.2 The
musician is seated, a lyre in his hand; around him are a lion, a gazelle, and
birds in attitudes of becoming docility. The Orpheus theme had acquired
a considerable following in Rome's eastern provinces, and a variation on the
motif is probably to be identified in the representation of David in the syna-
gogue at Dura Europos. More significantly, the Orpheus mosaic of Edessa
was set up in A.D. 228, in the reign of Alexander Severus, who was Syrian by
origin. He had been proclaimed Emperor in 222; in 231, three years after
the mosaic had been completed, he passed through Edessa on his way to the
East. A biography of the Emperor informs us that busts of Abraham, Jesus,
Apollonius of Tyana, and Orpheus stood together in his private chapel. The
cult of Orpheus was evidently acceptable at Edessa, as at Hierapolis, in the
syncretistic atmosphere of that time. Its diffusion stemmed from the attrac-
tion of its mysteries, their teaching of recompense in an after-world and
particularly the feeling of reassurance and security which they imparted in
an age of emotional and social unrest.
The priests of Edessa, as of the neighbouring shrines, wore a high head-
dress or tiara like the nobles. The High Priest, however, wore special gar-
ments, much the same as those of his counterpart at Hierapolis. A martyrology
of Edessa tells us that the 'chief and ruler of all the priests was greatly
honoured above all his comrades. And he was clad in splendid and magnifi-
cent vestments, and a silken (tiara) embossed with figures of gold was set
upon his head.' We shall see later that the High Priest at Edessa, as elsewhere
in Osrhoene, and as at Hierapolis, seems to have been nominated for one
year only.
Outside the temple at Hierapolis stood statues of demigods, heroes, kings,
and priests; below the Citadel mount at Edessa were statues of the kings of
the Aryu dynasty. So too, at Edessa a great pagan altar which later writers
vaguely ascribed to the Seleucids stood below the Citadel mount. There were
evidently other altars at Edessa. Of one we read in the Doctrine of Addai
'What is the great altar which ye have built in the midst of this town, to
which ye come and go and on which ye pour libations to demons and sacrifices
to devils ?' At a festival in Nisan :3
the whole city assembled near the great altar which was in the midst of the town opposite
the office of Records,4 all the gods having been assembled and having been adorned and

1 See p. 34. * PL 44. 3 April.
4 A slight emendation of the text is required to give this meaning.

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