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Entités divines et lieux de cultes à Byblos entre le IIe et le Ie millénaire d’après les inscriptions hiéroglyphiques giblites

2023
This article explores the identification of deities in the temples of Jbeil/Byblos (Lebanon), using 2nd millennium BC hieroglyphic sources discovered in the two main religious complexes: the temple of Baalat Gebal, “the Lady of Byblos,” a poliad deity; and the temple of the Obelisks, a multifunctional temple. Many researchers have attempted to determine the identity of the Lady of Byblos. However, this quest may have been in vain, as Baalat Gebal appears to be a distinct divine entity in her own right. If her identification with Anat, Astarte, or Hathor is accurate, it might have evolved during the lengthy period of the goddess’s attestation. In this article we explore these questions in light of hieroglyphic sources. The Obelisk Temple was previously attributed to Reshef, but this connection was based on an erroneous reading of Herichef’s name on a hieroglyphic relief. Moreover, numerous other Egyptian theonyms are attested in these documents: Nut, Ra-Harakhty, the Great Ennead, and the Small Ennead. Drawing on later Phoenician texts, these theonyms can be interpreted as an “interpretatio aegyptiaca” of Semitic gods by an Egyptianized Semitic population. Hence, they might be referring to Anat, Shamash, and “the assembly of the holy gods of Byblos.”...Read more