Bel
Palmyrene · deity · hellenistic roman palmyra · Recorded classification
Bel was the chief deity of Palmyra and the head of its civic pantheon. His name, an assimilation of the older local title Bol to the Babylonian Bel (Bel-Marduk), means simply 'lord'. He was venerated as ruler of the cosmos and arbiter of fate, with associations to the heavens and to storms. His monumental sanctuary, the Temple of Bel, dominated the city; its cella was consecrated in 32 CE. In cult he headed the celebrated triad of Bel together with the solar Yarhibol and the lunar Aglibol, and his consort was the goddess Astarte (Beltis). Thousands of clay banqueting tesserae from his sanctuary attest the central place of his cult in the social and religious life of the caravan city.
Domains
- cosmic sovereignty
- fate and destiny
- weather and storm
Powers
- to govern the order of the heavens and the cosmos
- to decree the fate of mortals
Epithets
Relations
- companion: YarhibolYarhibol attends Bel as a member of the great triad of Palmyra and is regularly depicted at his side.Lucinda Dirven, The Palmyrenes of Dura-Europos: A Study of Religious Interaction in Roman Syria (Religions in the Graeco-Roman World 138), Leiden: Brill, 1999. (secondary)
- companion: AglibolAglibol, the moon, completes the triad of Bel and stands beside the supreme god in cult reliefs.Lucinda Dirven, The Palmyrenes of Dura-Europos: A Study of Religious Interaction in Roman Syria (Religions in the Graeco-Roman World 138), Leiden: Brill, 1999. (secondary)
Sources
- Bel was the supreme god of Palmyra, a cosmic lord of the universe and of fate descended from Babylonian Bel-Marduk, whose great temple was consecrated in 32 CE.: Javier Teixidor, The Pantheon of Palmyra (EPRO 79), Leiden: Brill, 1979. (secondary); Ted Kaizer, The Religious Life of Palmyra (Oriens et Occidens 4), Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2002. (secondary)