Who Were the Gods of Panamuwa I?

Abstract

Abstract Panamuwa I, king of Samʾal/Yʾdy, commissioned a statue of Hadad in approximately the second quarter of the eighth century BCE. The inscription on the statue, written in the Samʾalian language, contains four lists of gods. In lines 2–3 and 18–19, these gods are Hadad, El, Rešef, Rākib-El, and Šamaš. The list in line 11, however, contains a theonym that is not attested in the other three lists; it is usually read Arqû-Rešef. A collation of the inscription yields a new reading and interpretation of the text in line 11 that sheds light not only on the identity of the enigmatic Arqû-Rešef, but also on the whole list of gods in line 11.