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stauros/crux

   Date: Tue, 19 Jul 1994 12:32:34 -0400 (EDT)
   From: "Gregory Jordan (ENG)" <jordan@chuma.cas.usf.edu>

   ...

   I realize this has little to do with Greek, but while we're on the 
   subject, why does Paul refer to the cross as a tree?  I don't have access 
   to the Greek word now, but maybe someone else knows.  This had great 
   significance in Christian missionary tradition.  For instance, the 
   Anglo-Saxons emphasized the tree (Dream of the Rood), and Scandinavian 
   religion already believed in a god who was hanged from a tree.

There are ancient Greek cults with divinities hanging in/on trees, as
well.  Pausanias, if I remember my sources correctly, speaks of a cult
of Helen that depicted her hanging in the trees.  (I believe this was
a Spartan cult, but I might be wrong about that part.)

-30-
Bob
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