ʿAthtar

As the head of the pantheon of pre-Islamic Yemen ʿAthtar was venerated throughout the whole area of Ancient South Arabian civilization, especially in Sabaʾ in the early stages of its history and at the turn of the Christian era, in the north-eastern part of the Horn of Africa in the 8th–7th centuries BCE, and in the region of al-Jawf (Yemen), as local hypostases, in the 1st millennium BCE.

ʿAthar was the supreme god of the Ancient South Arabian (ASA) pantheon. He and Syn/Siyān are the only ancient South Arabian divinities with a clearly attested kinship; “Syn dhū-Alīm and ʿAthtar, his father” (RÉS 2693/5: S¹yn ḏ-ʾlm w-ʿṯtr ʾb-s¹). Therefore, it can be assumed that ʿAthtar was considered as the father of the other “national” gods of the ASA kingdoms, especially of Almaqah and ʿAmm. In addition, according to an inscription from the region of Samʿī, approximately dated to the end of the 1st millennium BCE (CIAS 95.11/o3 n° 2), ʿAthtar cured eye diseases “through the mediation of the god Taʾlab, who is thus seen in the role of an intercessor with a superior deity” (Beeston 1986: II.190–II.191). Although the divine protector of Sabaʾ was Almaqah, the cult of metropolitan “hypostasis” of ʿAthtar, known as ʿAthtar dhū-Dhibān, was performed by Sabaean sovereigns and the deity’s priests (previously erroneously considered as early Sabaean eponyms: see Lundin 1965). Thus, some rituals related to the foundation of the state and the community were carried out by kings of Sabaʾ in the temple of ʿAthtar dhū-Dhibān on Jabal al-Lawdh, between Maʾrib and the Jawf, while requests for watering agricultural territories in the centre of Sabaʾ addressed to this god by his priesthood were commemorated on two rocks of Jabal Balaq al-Janūbī, located to the south of Maʾrib (Fig. 1). After the early Sabaean period (8th–6th centuries BCE), the cult of ʿAthtar dhū-Dhibān, as well as his temple on Jabal al-Lawdh, were abandoned. They were renewed in the 1st century BCE, marking the creation of the Sabaeo-Himyarite double monarchy, which consciously restored symbols of the ancient glory of Sabaʾ.

ʿAthtar occupied the foremost position among the five principal deities of Sabaʾ in the final invocations not only of early Sabaic, but also of Ethio-Sabaic inscriptions (See Sabaic). He (in the form of ʿstr) was borrowed by the proto-state Daʿmat and his cult persisted in the Horn of Africa for more than a millennium. Together with the other four principal Sabaean divinities and the god Wadd, common to the whole of Arabia, he was responsible for the enthronement of local rulers, e.g., “when ʿAstar, Hōbas, Almaqah, Dhāt Ḥimyam, Dhāt Baʿdān and indeed the father Waddum made them kings” (RIÉth 1/4-7: ywm hmlk-hmw ʿs¹tr w-Hbs¹ w-ʾlmqh w-Ḏt-Ḥmym w-Ḏt-Bʿdn w-ʾbk Wdm). The dominant position of ʿAstar “may be still reflected in the Ethiopic version of the Book of Sirach (Sir. 31:8, 37:21), where the Greek kýrios (“Lord”) is portrayed as ʿastär, rather than the usual əgzi’abəḥer” (Frantsouzoff 2010: 360b).

Many of ʿAthtar’s temples on the highlands of northern Yemen were frequently situated on peaks. It seems that he was associated with a divinized mountain called Alāw Zaʿlān (ʾlw Zʿln; see in the first place Robin-Ġūlat ʿAjīb 1). In all probability, this preference for mountain sites for ʿAthtar’s temples confirmed the close connection of this god with atmospheric phenomena (Robin 1996: col. 1160).

In the region of al-Jawf, local “hypostases” of ʿAthtar were venerated, viz. ʿAthtar dhū-Qabḍ, the principal god of the pantheon of the kingdom of Maʿīn, ʿAthtar Baʾsān in pre-Amīrite Haram, ʿAthtar dhū-Raḥibah and ʿAthtar Ḥagr in Kaminahū, ʿAthtar dhū-Yahraq mostly in Yathill (but also in Shaqab al-Manaṣṣa), ʿAthtar dhū-Garab exclusively in Nashshān, and others (ʿAthtar Shāriqān, ʿAthtar Nashq, etc.). The most important hypostases are Garab in al-Sawdāʾ located extra muros (Fig. 2) and Temple B (that of ʿAthtar dhū-Qabḍ) in the southern part of Barāqish situated intra muros. The latter, dated from the 2nd half of the 1st millennium BCE, was excavated and partly restored from 1986 to 2007.

In Ḥaḍramawt, not only the goddess ʿAthtarum, but also the god ʿAthtar were venerated. Following the discovery of a fragmentary inscription dedicated to ʿAthtar at the al-Ṣafīl 2 settlement (SOYCE 920 – See Fig. 3) in Wādī al-ʿAyn (Western Ḥaḍramawt), A.V. Sedov proposed the identification of the building in which the fragment was found with the temple of ʿAthtar. However, he did not exclude the possibility that it was in fact an occasional offering in a temple of Syn/Siyān (Sedov 2005: 134). The occurrence of three fragmentary texts dedicated to ʿAthtar on the territory of the modern village of al-ʿAqqād, which has not yet been archaeologically explored, is probably connected to the existence of his sanctuary there (Frantsouzoff 2014: 150–151).

ʿAthtar is one of several ASA deities whose iconography became known to us after a survey of the temple of Banāt ʿĀd, located intra muros in the site of al-Sawdāʾ (ancient Nashshān). Unfortunately, his image as well as that of his unidentified partner at the top of Pillar 1B are partly erased (Arbach & Audouin 2004a: 24, 25, fig. 9; Arbach & Audouin 2004b: 8, fig. IX, XII; see Fig. 4).

Islamic traditionists considered ʿAthtar as the god of Sun (Robin 1996: col. 1160, 1188), while in accordance with the astral theory of D. Nielsen, he was associated with Venus. Both of these views have now been refuted. Moreover, there are no arguments at all in favour of ʿAthtar’s identification with any celestial body.

ʿAthtar and Almaqah were both the most popular gods of Ancient South Arabia and it is not by mere chance that the decipherment of the ASA minuscule writing by M.A. Ghul began with the reading of their names (Beeston 1989: 16).

Serge Frantsouzoff

References and suggested readings

Sources

• SOYCE 920 = SF II/1 = Sf II/84, 1-2: Piotrovsky 1995: 182, fig. 11.

Studies

• Antonini, S. & F.G. Fedele (eds) 2021. Barāqish/Yathill (Yemen) 1986-2007, vol. 1: Excavations of Temple B and related research and restoration / Scavi del Tempio B e ricerche e restauri connessi. Oxford: Archeopress.
• Arbach M. & R. Audouin 2004a. Un panthéon de l’Arabie du Sud en images. Le temple I d’as-Sawdāʾ. Découvertes archéologiques dans le Jawf (République du Yémen). Opération de sauvetage franco-yéménite du site d’as-Sawdāʾ (l’antique Nashshān) / A South Arabian pantheon expressed in images. Temple I of as-Sawdāʾ, Yemen. Archaeological discoveries in the Jawf (Republic of Yemen). Franco-Yemeni rescue operation of the site of as-Sawdāʾ (ancient Nashshān). Rapport préliminaire / Preliminary report. Sana’a: Centre français d’archéologie et de sciences sociales de Sanaa.
• Arbach M. & R. Audouin 2004b. Nouvelles découvertes archéologiques dans le Jawf (République du Yémen). Opération de sauvetage franco-yéménite du site d’as-Sawdāʾ (l’antique Nashshān). Temple intra-muros I. Rapport préliminaire. Sana’a: Centre français d’archéologie et de sciences sociales de Sanaa.
• Avanzini A. 1995. As-Sawdāʾ (Inventario Delle Iscrizioni Sudarabiche, 4). Paris, Rome: Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, Istituto per Il Medio ed Estremo Oriente.
• Avanzini, A. 2016. By land and by sea: a history of South Arabia before Islam recounted from inscriptions (Arabia Antica, Philological Studies, 10). Rome: "L’Erma" di Bretschneider.
• Beeston A.F.L. 1986. Thanks for recovery from disease of the eyes, in J. Pirenne (ed.) Corpus des inscriptions et antiquités sud-arabes, t. II: Le Musée d’Aden, fasc. 1: Inscriptions. Louvain: Peeters.
• Beeston A.F.L. 1989. Mahmoud ʿAli Ghul and the Sabaean Cursive Script, in M.M. Ibrahim (ed.) Arabian Studies in Honour of Mahmoud Ghul: Symposium at Yarmouk University, December 8-11, 1984 (Yarmouk University Publications, Institute of Archaeology and Anthpopology Series, vol. 2): 15–19. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag.
• Bron, F. 1998. Inventaire des inscriptions sudarabiques. Tome 3. Maʿīn. Paris, Rome: Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, Istituto Italiano per l’Africa e l’Oriente.
• Bron F. 2008. Les dieux et les cultes de l’Arabie du Sud préislamique, in G. del Olmo Lete (ed.) Mythologie et religion des Sémites occidentaux, vol. II. Émar, Ougarit, Israël, Phénicie, Aram, Arabie: 452–474. Leuven, Paris, Dudley, MA: Peeters, Departement Oosterse Studies.
• Frantsouzoff S.A. 2010. Aksumite Religion, in S. Uhlig in cooperation with A. Bausi (eds) Encylopaedia Aethiopica, vol. 4: 360–361. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag.
• Frantsouzoff, S.A. 2012. К востоку от Адена. Оазис Райбу\н в I тысячелетии до н.э. (эпиграфические памятники, религиозная жизнь и социальное устройство культового центра древнего Хадрамаута) [East of Aden. Oasis of Raybūn in the 1st Millennium BC (epigraphic documentation, religious life and social structure of a cult center of ancient Hadramawt)]. St. Petersburg: St. Petersburg State University, Faculty of Philology, Nestor-Historia.
• Frantsouzoff, S.A. 2014. История Хадрамаута с древнейших времен до конца британского владычества, т. I: История Хадрамаута в эпоху древности [History of Hadramawt from the Earliest Time up to the End of the British Rule, vol. I: History of Hadramawt in Antiquity]. St. Petersburg: Linguistic Society of St. Petersburg.
• Gnoli, G. 1993. Inventario delle iscrizioni sudarabiche, t. 2. Shaqab al-Manaṣṣa. Paris, Rome: Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, Istituto per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente.
• Lundin, A.G. 1965. Die Eponymenliste von Sabaʾ (aus dem Stamme Ḫalīl) (Sammlung Eduard Glaser V. Österreichischen Akademie Der Wissenschaften, Philosophisch-Historische Klasse, Sitzungsberichte, 248.1). Vienne: Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien.
• Piotrovsky M.B. 1995. Вади ал-‘Айн: историко-географический очерк [Wādī ʾl-ʿAyn: an historico-geographic essay], in P.A. Grjaznevich & A.V. Sedov (eds) Хадрамаут. Археологические, этнографические и историко-культурные исследования [Ḥaḍramawt. Archaeological, ethnographical and hisrorico-cultural researches] (Works of the Soviet-Yemenite Complex Expedition, t. I): 153–201. Moscow: Vostochnaja literature.
• Robin, C.J. 1992. Inventaire des inscriptions sudarabiques. Tome 1 : Inabbaʾ, Haram, al-Kāfir, Kamna et al-Ḥarāshif. Paris, Rome: Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, Istituto per Il Medio ed Estremo Oriente.
• Robin, C.J. 1996. Sheba. II. Dans les inscriptions d’Arabie du sud. Supplément au Dictionnaire de la Bible fasc. 70: 1043–1254.
• Sedov, A.V. 2005. Temples of ancient Hadramawt (Arabia Antica, 3). Pisa: Pisa university press.

_{Alternate spellings: ‘Athtar, Athtar, ʿṯtrh, ʿṯr, ʿtr, ʿS¹tr, ʿS³tr, ʿṯtr ḏ-Grb, ʿṯtr ḏ-Grbm, ḏ-Grb, ḏ-Grbm, ʿṯtr ḏ-Qbḍ, ʿṯtr ḏ-Qbḍm, ḏ-Qbḍ, ḏ-Qbḍm, Mtb Qbḍm, Mtbqbḍ, Mtbqbṭ, Qbṭ, ʿṯtr ḏ-Rṣf, ʿṯtr ḏ-Rṣfm, ḏ-Rṣf, ḏ-Rṣfm, ḏ-Yhrq, Yhrq}