J C2 Lutz, Viticulture and Brewing, 



The drinker, in his intoxicated condition, is compared to a male 

 hyaena (Lyall, 'Amr ben Rami'ah. XII, 15). 



The Nabataeans, who were of the Arabic race, wor- 

 shipped as their chief-god Dushara (Nabataean i?"ilUTi, Greek 

 Aoooapriq), whose chief sanctuary was situated at Petra '. 

 The Classical writers identified Dushara with Dionysos- 

 Bacchus. The Nabataeans from about the sixth century 

 B. C. occupied the old Edomite country, with Petra as the 

 capital. In history, however, they do not appear before 

 312 B. C, when, according to Diodorus^, Antigonus sent two 

 expeditions against them. In the first century of our era 

 the kingdom extended from Petra northward east of the 

 Jordan over Hauran. Twice it reached even as far as Damas- 

 cus ^. In the third century A. D. coins were struck at Bostra 

 in Hauran, Avhich show a wine-press and the legend Aktiu 

 Aouodpia. Since Petra, as we have seen above, cultivated the 

 vine extensively, it is altogether possible to suppose that the 

 Bacchic character of Dushara is original and that he did not 

 change from a solar deity to that of a Nabataean Dionysos*. 

 Gods of Bacchic character are otherwise unknown in Pre-Islamic 

 Arabia. 



In a Palmyrene inscription (Littmann, E., Seni. Inscr. p. 70 

 = Epkejneris 1, 345)^ appears the god Sai' al-Kaum, who seems 

 to have been worshipped by a group of Nabataeans in op- 

 position to the cult of Dushara-Dionysos. The votive inscrip- 

 tion reads in lines 4 and 5: "to Sai' al-Kaum, the good and 

 gracious god, who does not drink wine," xn'5i< DlpbX"y*'irib 



We may finally mention the old tradition concerning the 

 destruction of the peoples of 'Ad in the Hadramaut, in which 

 wine and two famous singing-girls play an important part 

 (Tabari, Annals, I, 231 ff.). The /Adites were of great stature 



i) See Epiphanius. Haer. 1. 22. 2) Diod. XIX, 94. 



3) In 85 B. C. and about 34 62 A. D. 



4) For wine-prohibition amongst the Nabataeans see Diod. XIX, 94, 3. 



5) See also Dussaud, Rene, Les Arabes en Syne avant l' Islam, Paris, 

 1907; Clermont-Ganneau , Rec. d'arch. or., IV, p. 382 402, and Wellhausen, 

 Gotting. gelehrte Anzeigen, 1902, p. 269. 



