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Document Details : Title: De Dea Syria et aliis deabusque (Part 1) Author(s): KAIZER, T. Journal: Orientalia Lovaniensia Periodica Volume: 28 Date: 1997 Pages: 147-166 DOI: 10.2143/OLP.28.0.583553 Abstract : In the present study I intend to make a survey of the different ways in which the term gad, both the abstract notion of ‘good fortune' and its divine personification, is used in the religions of the Near East in the first centuries of our era. The number of gad-inscriptions is limited. Altogether we have circa fifty relevant Aramaic inscriptions, mainly found in Palmyra and Hatra, which date from the first three centuries AD. This means that many problems will remain unsolved, since filling gaps in the material with evidence from Late Hellenistic religious movements in the Eastern Mediterranean or from the religion of Mesopotamia cannot always be justified: whenever one makes a comparison with striking parallels in other religions one ought to refrain from forcibly imposing imported evidence onto the argumentation. Moreover, since most of the inscriptions are undated, it will be very difficult to assess the historical development of the meaning and use of the term gad within the above-mentioned period. In addition to the textual witnesses, some bas-reliefs and statuettes which represent, but sometimes only may represent, a figure named gad will be discussed. These sculptures are of very varied character, and can only rarely provide an unambiguous answer to questions raised by the epigraphic material. |
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