Baalshamin

Baalshamin, 'Lord of the Heavens', was the sky god of Palmyra and, alongside Bel, one of the city's two supreme deities. His attributes were the eagle and the thunderbolt, and a dedicatory inscription of 130/131 CE from his sanctuary honours him as Lord of Heaven and god of fertility, of storms and of rains; in Greco-Roman contexts he was equated with Zeus Hypsistos, 'the Most High'. He presided over his own triad together with the moon god Aglibol and the sun god Malakbel, paralleling Bel's triad. His well-preserved sanctuary in the northern quarter of the city, excavated and published by a Swiss mission, was among Palmyra's principal temples.

Domains

• sky and heavens
• storm rain and fertility

Powers

• to send the storms and the life-giving rains

Epithets

• mrʾ ʿlmʾTed Kaizer, The Religious Life of Palmyra (Oriens et Occidens 4), Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2002. (secondary)

Sources

• Baalshamin, 'Lord of the Heavens', was the Palmyrene sky and storm god, one of the city's two supreme deities, head of a triad with Aglibol and Malakbel.: Paul Collart and Jacques Vicari, Le sanctuaire de Baalshamîn à Palmyre, vol. I (Bibliotheca Helvetica Romana 10), Rome: Institut suisse de Rome, 1969. (secondary); Ted Kaizer, The Religious Life of Palmyra (Oriens et Occidens 4), Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2002. (secondary)