Yarhibol

Yarhibol was a major Palmyrene god, by the Roman period the sun god of the triad of Bel, depicted with a radiate solar halo. His name is generally understood as 'Yarih (moon) of Bel', and his lunar onomastics together with crescents on some images point to an earlier lunar character before his assimilation to the sun. He originated as the tutelary spirit and Gad (guardian-fortune) of the Efqa spring, the perennial sulphur source on which the oasis depended, and in that capacity served as an oracular deity styled 'lord of the spring'. In the great triad he flanks Bel together with the moon god Aglibol.

Domains

• sun and solar light
• springs and sacred water
• oracles and divination

Powers

• to deliver oracular judgements at the spring
• to guard the life-giving waters of the Efqa spring

Epithets

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

Relations

• companion: BelYarhibol stands among the attendants of Bel as the solar member of the great triad of Palmyra.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: AglibolYarhibol (sun) and Aglibol (moon) flank Bel together, Aglibol conventionally placed at Yarhibol's right hand.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

• Yarhibol was the Palmyrene solar god and oracular guardian of the Efqa spring, the secondary partner of Bel in the city's principal triad.: Javier Teixidor, The Pantheon of Palmyra (EPRO 79), Leiden: Brill, 1979. (secondary); H. J. W. Drijvers, The Religion of Palmyra (Iconography of Religions XV/15), Leiden: Brill, 1976. (secondary)