ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the etymological origins of the name George, and suggests its etymology might link the early Christian cult of ‘saint’ George to contemporaneous local cults to Zeus-Georgos. It analyzes the Syriac Acts of St. George, demonstrating contemporaneous religious and political influences, including George’s presentation as a defender of the ‘true’ god, patterned upon Elijah’s narrative in 1 and 2 Kings. It examines material-cultural evidence, focusing on the changing iconography of St. George, and the ways in which that is related to contemporaneous Roman polytheism, developing Christianity, to the figure of the storm-god, and to Levantine agrarian religious influences.
