al-Uzza
Nabataean · deity · mythic · Recorded classification
'The Mighty', Nabataean goddess of the planet Venus and a bride of Dushara; warrior-protectress equated with Aphrodite Ourania.
Domains
- love and sex
- the stars
Powers
- Shine mightily as the morning and evening star
- Stand armed as warrior beside a desert lynx
Epithets
- 𐢀𐢇𐢊𐢛𐢀 'the Mighty' — Nabataean Venus-goddess equated with Aphrodite OuraniaPetra temple-of-the-Winged-Lions dedications (primary)
Relations
- spouse: DusharaVenus-goddess honored as a bride of Dushara in Nabataean cult.John F. Healey, The Religion of the Nabataeans: A Conspectus (2001) (secondary)
- equated with: AphroditeReciprocal of greek_hesiod_aphrodite.equated-with — A Nabataean-Greek bilingual from Cos renders al-Uzza as Aphrodite; her Venus-star nature carries the match. Breaks on al-Uzza's warrior-protectress role and aniconic betyl cult at Petra.J. F. Healey, The Religion of the Nabataeans (2001), on the Cos bilingual (al-Uzza = Aphrodite) (secondary)
- equated with: Al-'UzzaNabataean al-Uzza and the Arabian al-'Uzza of the Quranic triad are one Venus-goddess 'the Mighty' in two corpora. At Petra she rises to chief goddess and bride of Dushara; in the Hijaz her cult is at Nakhla.J. F. Healey, The Religion of the Nabataeans (2001); R. Hoyland, Arabia and the Arabs (2001) (secondary)
Sources
- existence: Petra Eye Baetyl and Temple of al-Uzza inscriptions (primary); Healey, The Religion of the Nabataeans: A Conspectus (secondary)