Abstract
This volume discusses the veneration of the moon god in Syria-Palestine from the documents of Ugarit (Late Bronze Age) through the religions of the Phoenicians, the Aramaeans and the peoples of the Trans-Jordanian area, and it finally discusses indication of his veneration in Israel and Judah.
The first part deals with the significance of the West Semitic moon god yrh in the pantheon and society of Ugarit, whereby special attention is given to a poem about the wedding of this moon god with the moon goddess nkl (Nikkal). This poem as well as other mythological and epic texts and the Ugaritic god-lists and rituals indicate the connection of the moon god to the subject areas of „wedding”, „fertility” and „childbirth”, but also to those of „death” and „underworld”, especially in his manifestation as new moon. The documents further show that the moon god is one of the important deities of the Ugaritic pantheon, whereas the moon goddess nkl is of rather less importance.
The second part deals with the moon worship in Syria-Palestine from the Iron Age to Hellenistic times. What is remarkable here is the predominance of the moon cult of Harran, especially under the reign of the Neo-Assyrian kings and the Neo-Babylonian king Nabonid, that is from the ninth to the sixth century BC. At that time, particularly from the eighth to the sixth century, worship of the moon flourished in Judah and Jerusalem as well, as several as well as many seals. This phenomenon is mainly due to Assyrian-Aramaean influence in Judah. For another part, however, the roots of moon worship are also found in autochthonous lunar cults of the region. In particular, an examination of different texts of Syria-Palestine shows a continuing worship of the moon god, the West Semitic yrḥ as well as the Aramaean moon god šhr und a deity šgr (Šaggar). When Jahwe monotheism was established eventually in Judah, some characteristic features of the former moon god were incorporated into the image of Jahwe.
Theuer, Gabriele