CHAMANIM. Thus they call that in Hebrew, which the Greeks name Pyræïa, or Pyrateria, and S. Jerom in Leviticus1 Lev. xxvi. 30. Isai. xxvii. 9.has translated Simulachra, in Isaiah i Delubra. These Chamanim were, according to Rabbi Solomon, Idols exposed to the Sun upon the tops of houses. Abenezra says, they were portable Chapels or Temples, made in the form of Chariots in honour of the Sun.
What the Greeks call Pyræïa were Temples consecrated to the Sun and Fire, wherein a perpetual Fire was kept up. They were built upon eminences; and were large enclosures without covering,2 where the Sun was worshipped. Herodotus3 and Strabo4 speak of them, and the Guebres or Worshippers of Fire in Persia and the Indies have some of these Pyræia still at this day. Strabo says, that in his time there were many of these Temples to be seen in Cappadocia, consecrated to the Goddess Anaïta and the God Homanus: Anaïta is in all probality the Moon, and Homanus the Sun. The word Chamanim is derived from Chaman, which signifies to warm, to burn.
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