by Anonymous on Wed May 26, 2004 11:44 am
Salve Garrule!
Heliogabalus is a Hellenised form of the God's actual name which WAS Elagabalus, the same as the Emperor's. Elagabalus -the God- was a Syro-Phoenician sun god whose worship was centred at Emesa where the eponymous Emperor was brought up.
There had always been a tendency for the Romans and the Greeks to identify foreign Gods they came across with their own Deities. This process became very pronounced in the Empire and has lead some to argue that there was a steady evolution towards some type of Monotheism underway. The best example of this that I can think of is the worship of Isis as recounted in the latter books of Apuleius' 'Golden Ass' where it is made clear that adherents of this cult believed that all Goddesses are essentially manifestations of One fundamental Goddess, Isis, and all Gods of her consort Osiris. It's a short step from this to conclude that both Isis and Osiris themselves could be manifestations of one transcendant genderless Deity.
In the case of Elagabalus He was, as far as I can tell, seen as being the same as Apollo ( there is a link in the name elagABALUs, and that of another related Deity, Hobal). Apollo also by the time of the Emperor had widely Himself become identified with Sol, the Greek Helios, and so one can gradually see a process underway which draws various Sun-Gods together. Incidentally also identified to some degree with Sol Invictus was (in a heretical sense) Jesus and to a far greater extent Mithras. I am also conscious of the widespread Phoenician worship of Ba'al (means Lord) as a transcendant God throughout hte Middle East.
Im conscious that I'm drifting away from the original questions so here's my take:-
1.The God was called Elagabalus primarily but also known and worshipped widely by other names notably Heliogabalus and Ba'al.
2. I think the worship of Sol Invictus is a result of the coming together of numerous different traditions originating in various parts of the Empire and, in the case of Mithras, beyond. I suspect that Who exactly Sol Invictus was to the individual depended on his cultural and religious background. The Temple of Sol Invictus was dedicated by the Emperor Aurelian and Sol/Helios had always been the patron Deity of the Gens Aurelia so I imagine that in Rome at least it had a very Roman, rather than oriental feel.
3. I have no information about the rites of initiation into these cults although I get the impression that the worship of Sol and that of Mithras ultimately became so closely intertwined that the initiations may well have been the same. As Mithraism was very secretive it's hard to do much more than speculate.
Vale!