Hierapolis

HIERAPOLIS. 1. (Arabic Manbij or Mumbij) an ancient Syrian town occupying one of the finest sites in Northern Syria, in a fertile district about 16 m. south-west of the confluence of the Sajur and Euphrates. There is abundant water supply from large springs. The place first appears in Greek as Bambyce, but Pliny (v. 23) tells us its Syrian name was Mabog. It was doubtless an ancient Commagenian sanctuary. The Seleucids made it the chief station on their main road between Antioch and Seleucia-on Tigris ; and as a centre of the worship of the Syrian Nature God dess, Atargatis (q.v.), it became known to the Greeks as the city of the sanctuary `IEporoXi s, and finally as the Holy City`Iepairo)cs. Lucian (or some anonymous writer) has described the orgiastic luxury of the shrine in the tract De Dea Syria. According to this the worship was of a phallic character, votaries offering little male figures of wood and bronze. There were also huge phalli set up before the temple, which were climbed once a year with certain ceremonies, and decorated. For the rest the temple was of Ionic character. Inside was a holy chamber into which priests only were allowed to enter. Here were statues of a goddess and a god in gold. Between them stood a gilt xoanon, which seems to have been carried outside in sacred processions. Other rich furniture is described, and a mode of divination by movements of a xoanon of Apollo. A great bronze altar stood in front, and in the fore court lived numerous sacred animals and birds (but not swine) used for sacrifice. The lake was the centre of sacred festivities and it was customary for votaries to swim out and decorate an altar standing in the middle of the water. Self-mutilation and other orgies went on in the temple precinct, and there was an elaborate ritual on entering the city and first visiting the shrine.

The temple was sacked by Crassus on his way to meet the Parthians (53 B.c.) ; but in the 3rd century of the empire the city was the capital of the Euphratensian province and one of the great cities of Syria. It was, however, in ruins when Julian collected his troops there, and Chosroes I. held it to ransom after Justinian had failed to put it in a state of defence. Harun restored it at the end of the 8th century and it became a subject of dis pute between Byzantines, Arabs, and Turks. The crusaders cap tured it from the Seljuks in the 12th century, but Saladin retook it (117 5) and later it became the headquarters of Hulagu and his Mongols, who completed its ruin.. A colony of Circassians was settled here in 1879 after the Russo-Turkish War. The remains are extensive, but almost wholly of late date, as is to be expected in the case of a city which survived into Muslim times. The sacred lake survives. The first modern account of the site is in a short narrative appended by H. Maundrell to his Journey from Aleppo to Jerusalem. He was at Mumbij in 1699.

The coinage of the city begins in the 4th century B.C. with an Aramaic series, showing the goddess, either as a bust with mural crown or as riding on a lion. She continues to supply the chief type even during imperial times, being generally shown seated with the tympanum in her hand. Other coins substitute the legend seas Zvpias `IEpo7roXLr&v, within a wreath. It is interesting to note that from Bambyce (near which much silk was produced) were derived the bombycina vestis of the Romans and, through the crusaders, the bombazine of commerce.

See F. R. Chesney, Euphrates Expedition (185o) ; W. F. Ainsworth, Personal Narrative of the Euphrates Expedition (1888) ; E. Sachau, Reise in Syrien, etc. (1883) ; D. G. Hogarth in Journal of Hellenic Studies 09°9).

2.

A Phrygian city, altitude 1,200 ft. on the right bank of the Churuk Su (Lycus), about 8 m. above its junction with the Menderes (Maeander), situated on a broad terrace, 200 ft. above the valley and 6 m. N. of Laodicea. On the terrace are springs, that have deposited calcareous material in their neighbourhood. To these and to the "Plutonium"—a probable fissure in the lime stone rocks—the place owed its celebrity and sanctity. Here, at an early date, a religious establishment (hieron) existed in con nection with the old Phrygian Kydrara, a settlement of the tribe Hydrelitae; and the town which grew round it became one of the greatest centres of Phrygian native life but of non-political importance. The chief religious festival was the Letoia, named after the goddess Leto, a local variety of the Mother Goddess (Cybele), who was honoured with orgiastic rites in which ele ments of the original Anatolian matriarchate and Nature-cult survived : there was also a worship of Apollo Lairbenos.

Hierapolis was the seat of an early church (Col. iv. 13), with which tradition closely connects the apostle Philip. Epictetus, the philosopher, and Papias, a disciple of John and author of a lost work on the Sayings of Jesus, were born there. The village of Yuruks has gradually grown below the site. The goddesses of the two Hierapoleis were closely akin. The ruins of Hierapolis are remarkable for the long avenue of tombs (mostly inscribed sarcophagi on plinths) in the west of the city, and for a very perfect theatre partly excavated in the hill at the north side of the site. Stage buildings as well as auditorium are well pre served. On the south just above the terraces and largely blocked with petrified deposit, stand large baths, into which the natural warm spring was once conducted. Behind these is a fine triumphal arch, whence runs a colonnade. Ruins of several churches sur vive, and also of a large basilica. Over 30o inscriptions have been collected, mostly sepulchral, whence have been deduced interest ing facts about the very early Christian community which existed here.

See K. Humann, Altertiimer v. Hierapolis (i888) ; Sir W. M. Ramsay, Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia, vol. i. (1895).