SABAZIUS  , a Phrygian or Thracian deity, frequently identified with

Dionysus, sometimes (but less frequently) with Zeus . His worship was closely connected with that of the great mother Cybele and of Attis . His chief attribute as a chthonian god was a snake, the symbol of the yearly renovation of the life of nature . Demosthenes (De corona, p . 313) mentions various ceremonies practised during the celebration of the mysteries of this deity . One of the most important was the passing of a golden snake under the clothes of the initiated across their bosom and its withdrawal from below—an old rite of adoption . From Val . Max. i . 3, 2 it has been concluded that Sabazius was identified in ancient times with the Jewish Sabaoth (Zebaoth) . Plutarch (Symp. iv . 6) maintains that the Jews worshipped Dionysus, and that the day of Sabbath was a festival of Sabazius . Whether he was the same as Sozon, a marine deity of southern Asia Minor, is doubtful .

Some explain the name as the "

beer god," from an Illyrian word sabaya, while others suggest a connexion with aFo (god of " health ") or agJ3as . His image and name are often found on "votive hands," a kind of tausman adorned with emblems, the nature of which is obscure . His ritual and mysteries (Sacra Savadia) gained a firm footing in Rome during the 2nd century A.D., although as early as 139 B.C. the first Jews who settled in the capital were expelled by virtue of a law which proscribed the propagation of the cult of Jupiter Sabazius . See J . E . Harrison, Prolegomena to Greek Religion (1908), p . 914; H . Usener, Gotternamen (1896), p . 44; F . Cumont, " Hypsistes in Revue de l'instruction publique en Belgique, xl . (1899); C . S .

Blinkenberg, Archdologisohe Studien (1904) .