The Pagan God: Popular Religion In The Greco–roman Near East

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THE PAGAN GOD Brought to you by | New York University Bobst Library Tech Authenticated Download Date | 7/16/15 8:24 PM CONTENTS List of Illustrations ix Preface xi One. POPULAR RELIGION IN THE GRECO-ROMAN 3 NEAR EAST Friendly Gods and Contented Believers TraditionalReligion Pagan Monotheism Two. PHOENICIAN AND SYRIAN DEITIES BaaI Shamin, the Chief God of the Phoenicians The Holy Family The Cult of Baal Shamin The Cult of Poseidon The Chief God of Byblos Deities of Aradus and Its Hinterland The God of Ptolemai's Three. DEITIES OF NORTH ARABIA Arabian Priestesses and Deities from Assyrian Times Taima and Its Pantheon The Nabataeans: An Outline of Their History The Nabataeans: Their National God The Cult of Altars among the Nabataeans Other Cults among the Nabataeans Arab Cults in Southern Palestine: Gaza and Ascalon Four. THE SUPREME GOD OF PALMYRA The Ancestral God Yarhibol and the Spring of Efca BelandHisTemple The "Anonymous" God Unauthenticated Download Date | 12/29/16 8:51 AM 7 11 13 19 26 34 40 42 46 48 52 62 65 71 76 82 85 87 94 100 110 113 122 CONTENTS The Cult of Baal Shamin at Palmyra Bel and Baal Shamin Addendum Five. PAGAN RELIGIOSITY 130 135 141 143 Paganism at Edessa Faded Mythology Theophoroiis Names among the Semites 146 152 156 Archaeological and Literary Sources 165 Index 175 Unauthenticated Download Date | 12/29/16 8:51 AM ILLUSTRATIONS I. Map of Syro-Phoenicia and Palestine 18 II. Map of Arabia 61 III. Plan of Palmyra 102 The Plan of Palmyra, drawn by James M. Heyle, is based on the plans of the archaeological remains published by J. Starcky in Palinyre (Paris: A. Maisonncuve, 1952), pp. 23-24, and by M. Gawlikowski in Le temple palmyrcnien, Palmyre, vi (War­ saw: Universite de Varsovie, Centre d'archeologie mediterraneenne, 1973), pp. 11 and 13. For some contour lines and areas 10 and 11 the writer's own photographs and drawings were used. The outline of area 4 is based on P. Collart and J. Vicari, Le sanctuaire de Baalshamin ά Palmyre, Vol. 11: Topogiaphie et architecture: Illustrations, Bibliotheca helvetica romana, χ (Neuchatel: P. Attinger, 1969). Brought to you by | New York University Bobst Library Tech Authenticated Download Date | 7/16/15 8:33 PM Brought to you by | New York University Bobst Library Tech Authenticated Download Date | 7/16/15 8:33 PM PREFACE This book is an essay on religion in antiquity. It represents an attempt to study the religious elements which late north­ western Semitic inscriptions had in common. This epigraphical material of the second half of the first millennium B.C. and of the first centuries A.D V which was recovered in the Near East during the past hundred years, is for the most part complex and at times hermetic; therefore, looking for unifying religious topics among thousands of texts may appear pointless. But a frequent perusal of Phoenician and Aramaic texts has made me discover in them a coherent body of data which is likely to be overlooked in only oc­ casional contacts with them. T h e inscriptions speak for themselves, even though their message frequently comes out incomplete; I have preferred to present them as they are, without taking the shortcut of using literary texts to fill in empty spaces or to remedy deficiencies. T h e essay was planned and partly drafted while I was teaching Hellenistic religions at Columbia University. T o have dealt with such a topic without making continuous ref­ erences to biblical books, Gnostic movements, or the omni­ present cult of Mithra may be judged unorthodox. Perti­ nent information about these s