Zeyad Mustafa Al-Shorman

Abstract

Abstract: All the civilization of Palmyra is composite, and it's situated in the period of the Roman Empire.Therefore, it's distinguished evidently from other Syrian cities, hellenized profoundly and participated in thecommon phenomena in all the Roman orient. A sure mark of it particularity is confirmed by the use of officialAramaic, and in the same time the numerous epigraphic bilingual texts. The tendency for syncretism characterizesthe pantheon of the oasis, that amount to about sixty gods named by the dedications or figured on the monuments.In the witness of the inscriptions, the Palmyrean pantheon appeared very simple but the religion of Palmyrapresents a particular trait: the existence of two supreme gods, Bel (Bol) and Baalshamin. This duality may appearfor us strange, but it can be explained by the origin and the different tradition of the fidels (believers). These dualdivinities, which considered as the lord of the universe, are called also Zeus in Greek. Bear in mind that the godZeus in Greco-Roman period became synonym to god, and for the Greek the principal god of all foreign countriescan't be but Zeus.The identification of the "anonymous god" with Baalshamin in the pantheon of Palmyra is based on a solidevidence: The two were addressed by the appellation "lord of the world" and in Greek "To Zeus the most-high and hearer of prayers", and "good and compassionate", in addition to their agricultural function.