Malakbel

Malakbel was a Semitic god who was especially venerated in the Syrian oasis city of Palmyra. It developed from a regional tribal cult in the Roman period to a sun god and was often depicted together with Aglibol. In this connection, they were called " holy brethren ". Together they formed a triad on the side of the sky god Baalshamin.

Origin

The cults of two gods were originally connected to the growth in the world of plants and livestock. The earliest followers were members of the influential Arab tribe of Bene Komare. Your seasonal cults were led by priests. The other tribal name Kohenite is derived from the Phoenician word kohen, "priest" from, so they called themselves " sons of the priest ". The name derivation and the worship of a divine couple, as it often occurred in the Levant, suggest an origin of the Bene Komare from the West.

The word elements of Malakbel are mlk as mal'ak in the Aramaic language, translated "messenger " and bel, a notation for the highest heaven god Baal. Malakbel was understood as the worshipers of Baal. The contained in Aglibol bol has been converted from the Canaanite word ba'al, presumably at a time when Palmyra was part of the territory of the Amorites, as evidenced by inscriptions of the Assyrian king Tiglath-pileser I. from the end of the 12th century. Bol applies in relation to the Babylonian Bel, acting as the older name for the Palmyrene god of heaven, consequently Aglibol seems older than Malakbel to be. The same applies to Jarchibol, who was revered by the Amurritern who introduced him as the first known settlers of the oasis as the ancestor of the source. Later Jarchibol became probably the older of the two independent sun gods.

Forms of the cult

The temple for Malakbel and the moon god Aglibol called "Sacred Garden ". He was one of the earliest temples of Palmyra and was, according to several inscriptions to one of the four main temples that were in the possession of a tribe, respectively. Two of the temples have not yet been located. Get remained only the venerated by the Bene Maazin Baalshamin Temple, BC was the Seleucid period in the 2nd century outside the city. In the 1980s, the small remains of a temple to the god Arsu were uncovered, which was worshiped by the Bene Mattabol. The name of the fourth tribe is unknown.

In Dura Europos worshiped a migrant from Palmyra population Malakbel. The city had come by 165 AD the Roman Empire. Of the soldiers who here stand against the Parthians, there came from Palmyra. Seven or eight inscriptions from North Africa confirm the Malakbel cult, which had spread by Roman soldiers from Palmyra also there and throughout the empire.

Malakbel and Aglibol

Although the temple for the " holy brothers " was not found, he is figuratively and passed down through dedications. A Roman Tessera shows two altars with an ox on the left and a cypress near the right altar. Furthermore, the sanctuary of the gods - two altars with Cypress - presented on a frieze of the Temple of Bel Palmyra. Aglibol is usually dressed as a Roman soldier with a spear and shield shown in the hands, Malakbel next wears simple rural attire with a jacket and wide pants, like on a stele, which is located in the Capitoline Museum. Where Malakbel occurs alone or with Aglibol, it is generally at a farm or Persian 'garments, he wears fertility symbols, but no nimbus.

In the Capitoline Museum is also a probably made ​​in Rome altar from the late 1st or early 2nd century AD or from the middle of the 3rd century, showing the worship Malakbels he enjoyed among the citizens of Rome. He was found in the 15th century in Trastevere and contributes to two of the four sides under the reliefs inscriptions. The Latin inscription dedicated the altar to the Roman sun god Sol Sanctissimus, the Palmyrene inscription calls Malakbel and other gods of Palmyra. The altar is by the common interpretation on its four sides, the phases of the sun's course from. Malakbel here three times and imaged in a context which shows his solar character the most. The pictures are also a link to the original role as a god of fertility. The God increases on the one hand as a toddler through the branches of a cypress down, he carries on his shoulders a goat. In the next scene he goes on his, drawn by four gripping sun chariot across the sky. Around noon, he appears on the front of the altar as a bust of a young person with a siebenstrahligen Nimbus, as he comes forth above an eagle. The fourth page shows the bearded, curly-haired face of Saturn with a sickle.

The sun worship in Rome experienced its peak under Elagabalus (reigned 218-222 ), the revered sun god Elagabalus introduced to Emesa from his oriental home and wanted to make vain the state religion. This only succeeded Emperor Aurelian in 274, the sun cult in Rome has an Arabic origin, the transformation to a state religion was by philosophers in the west of the empire.

Triassic

The cult of the sun and moon were in Syria since at least the beginning of the 1st millennium BC, from both possessed at the Aramaeans in Syria and the Babylonians, the moon god, the greater importance. A found in Homs relief, which probably comes from Palmyra and 30/31 AD is dated, shows the bust of the sun god with a halo behind his shoulders while the crescent-shaped bull horns of the moon god ( Aglibol ) emerge, which, however, according to the Greek inscription Helios is according to the Babylonian sun god Shamash. The coil in the upper -right corner establishes another connection to the sun.

For the personality of Malakbel addition to the identification with the Roman sun god Sol also includes his role as a messenger of God's heaven, the name is also known as "Angel of Bel " translate. A similar service function on the side of Bel came to Aglibol. In the temple of Bel was worshiped together with Bel nor the other sun god Jarchibol. At this triad joined in Palmyra another arrangement gods, was in the Baalshamin surrounded as the supreme God in the middle of Aglibol and Malakbel. The visual difference between the two triads was that Malakbel was always shown to the left of Baalshamin and Aglibol to his right, while Aglibol on the left side of Bel had its place. This triad appears to have evolved at the same time as that of Bel and to have been worshiped, though they only of images is known in the 2nd and 3rd centuries and is no longer mentioned. Baalshamin emerged only 67-134 AD in inscriptions on, later he remained anonymous or was circumscribed with a eulogistic formula.

In the excavation of the temple Baalshamin a fall stone came to light, which was originally mounted on a cult niche. It shows in the middle of an eagle, meanwhile, spread-out left wing of a bust of Malakbel and the right one can be seen from Aglibol. The eagle is interpreted as sky bird and as a symbolic representation of the sky god Baalshamin, which probably dates from the first half of the 1st century AD.

From Khirbet Ramadan ( in the desert near Palmyra ) where a fragmentary relief, now in the National Museum of Damascus. It shows three deities in military clothing with Baalshamin in the middle and his companions. Baalshamin can be seen at his beard and a Calathus ( kalathos, basket-shaped crown with tendrils ) on the head. Where Malakbel is displayed with Baalshamin, he always carries military clothing and the aureole of a sun god. In the territory of Palmyra further reliefs were found with these three gods. On some reliefs they are seen together with other deities.