Zeus Kasios or the Interpretatio Graeca of Baal Saphon in Ptolemaic Egypt

Abstract

This essay’s aim is mainly to understand and explain the characteristics of Zeus Kasios cult in Ptolemaic Egypt as an avatar or manifestation of the Semitic god Baal-Saphon already worshipped in Egypt in early periods. This Oriental form of the Greek god Zeus, worshipped in Mountain Kasios, Syria, was also found in the Egyptian Mount Kasios which points out to a cultural and religious diffusion movement, due to geographical proximity of both centers of cult and also due to the establishment of syropalestinian populations in Egypt since the times of the Hyksos invasion, which made easy the religious acculturation and syncretism between divinities.