Worshipping Zeus in CYZICUS in The Light of Inscriptions

Zeus, the god of light, sky, and thunder, was liked and cults were created in an Anatolian city, Cyzicus, as much as in Greek world. The fact that Zeus who was the chief god of the Pagan belief in the ancient world, was liked and his cults were created in Cyzicus where Mother Goddess cult is important, is directly related to Cyzicus being a Miletus colony as well as the establishment of this city’s cultural and commercial relationships with important centers in the Aegean world. As a result of these commercial and cultural relationships, people of Cyzicus were influenced by religious beliefs of societies they encountered, and embraced their gods and included these gods in their own world of gods. As they did this, they synthesized these gods into their own belief systems and created a syncretic structure. The best example to illustrate this is Zeus. This god is believed to be Macedonian and is associated with the supreme god, Hypsistos – mountain god- which led to the worship of Zeus Hypsistos in Cyzicus. According to the inscriptions on offering stelae found in Cyzicus and dated between 3rd century B.C.E. and 3rd century C.E., Zeus was worshipped under six different epithets. Generally, these epithets are related to god’s functions of wealth, richness, savior and protector such as Brontaios, Olbios and Soter. The reason for this is that the people of Cyzicus took refuge with and asked for help from this god for their products to be fruitful and not affected by bad weather conditions because Zeus was accepted by people who lived there as one of the most important gods that could resolve these problems and provide productivity. The purpose of this study is to identify the place of Zeus in Cyzicus, worship of him under different epithets and his cults through the inscriptions. Additionally, Zeus cult here will be evaluated as a whole with Zeus cults seen in Anatolia over all