Aleksandra Kubiak-Schneider, Des dédicaces sans théonyme de Palmyre. Béni (soit) son nom pour l’éternité
Aleksandra Kubiak-Schneider, Des dédicaces sans théonyme de Palmyre. Béni (soit) son nom pour l’éternité (Religions in the Graeco-Roman World 197), Brill, Leiden-Boston, 2021, 16 × 24, X + 404 p., ISBN : 978-90-04-46529-9.
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1Following a suggestion by Michał Gawlikowski, Kubiak-Schneider began in 2007 a study of the inscriptions dedicated to a “soi-disant Dieu anonyme de Palmyre” (p. IX). Over the years, Kubiak-Schneider was able to collect a remarkable inscriptional and documentary evidence, building up a strong database for her analysis of the topic. This book is the outcome of a long-lasting research conducted in Palmyra, as well as in Poland and France, under the auspices of the Polish Mission in Palmyra (Warsaw), the CNRS (Orient et Méditerranée, UMR 8671)—where the author was accepted as doctoral student—, the Mapping Ancient Polytheisms project (PAM, Toulouse), the Nadorowe Centrum Nauki, and the Gerda Henkel Stiftung.
2The book is divided into three sections. The first addresses the materiality of the dedications, i. e. the monuments and objects where the dedications were incised, their dating, the textual typologies, the possible categorisations of the people involved in the dedications (“1. Dédier aux dieux”, p. 13-100). The second section deals with the prosopography of the dedications and investigates in detail gods’ names in the Palmyrene pantheon and their connections to the concepts of power, hierarchy, praise, etc. (“2. La démarche envers les divinités : prière et rhétorique”, p. 101-186). The third one is dedicated to the most intriguing issue of the research: identifying the god(s) through their unnamed epithets within the Palmyrene religious system (“3. Identification des formules avec les divinités palmyréniennes”, p. 187-217). These three sections are preceded by an introduction (“Introduction : Les objectifs de l’étude des inscriptions votives sans théonyme de Palmyre comme un sujet particulier”, p. 1-12), where the research subject and the methodology adopted for its study are duly detailed. Following the concluding chapter (“Conclusion finale : perspectives”, p. 218-227), the volume is enriched by the catalogue of the dedications (“Catalogue des dédicaces sans théonyme”, p. 228-378), which provides the readers with an invaluable tool for the research (see below).
3Regarding the materiality of the inscriptions with dedicatory text (Section 1), the text shows a very coherent and insightful scientific approach, where the contents of the text and the process of carving of the inscription itself are analysed in their archaeological context. As a matter of fact, all the dedications dealt with in the book were carved on little limestone altars (“autels”) that are labelled differently according to the various Aramaic varieties of the areas of Syria and Mesopotamia in the Hellenistic and Roman periods. In Palmyra, the basic terminology has ʿltʾ for the altar in general, with its Greek correspondent bômos, while the term knwnʾ (Greek thumiatêrion) is only sparsely attested. Widening the horizon of the analysis by means of the physical characteristics of these monuments (mainly their dimensions), the author tries to distinguish the mknʾ, a bigger type of altar, from the prkʾ, a type usually lower than 90 cm (p. 20) in other contexts (e. g. Hatra). By further comparing terminology and physical typologies of the altars of the same kind, Kubiak-Schneider sets forth a series of interesting conclusions on the respective terminologies in the Aramaic of Nabataea and the Hawran (p. 18-22). Unfortunately, only a few inscriptions bear a date (p. 40-41). The absence of the date is by no means rare in this epigraphical typology, as demonstrated by contemporary Greek examples in the Eastern Mediterranean. When dates are indicated, they cover all the year in terms of months, with higher percentages in certain periods, such as Nisan and Ab, perhaps due to religious festivals taking place in those months. As to the style of the dedication, the issue is obviously more difficult to discuss. The act of dedicating an object to a god in the context of the dedications without theonym usually implies an act of reconnaissance of the favour the divine actor granted to the dedicant. This is usually rendered by the Aramaic hendiadys ʿbd wmwdʾ “he did in reconnaissance” (“a fait en rendant grâce”, p. 51). In order to investigate further possible semantic nuances of the Aramaic sequence, the latter is compared by the author with the Greek translations in bilingual inscriptions and then further contextualised in the contemporary Aramaic domain. The issue is dealt with thoroughly, extending the perspective to other Semitic contexts, e.g. the Akkadian linguistic domain, and using extensively online tools, such as the Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon (https://cal.huc.edu/), etc.
4In the framework of the analysis of the prosopography, the study of the titles of the gods with reference to their power and their position in the divine hierarchy is particularly significant. The author deals with titles such as mr ʿlmʾ (“Lord of the Universe”, p. 121-123), which is related to the Greek Zeus Hypsistos and likely epithets, trying to single out the texts, in both the Palmyrene and other areas, where it is used and clarify the exact correspondent in the respective pantheons. In this sense, the adoption of the title mrʾ (“Lord”) in the epigraphy of Hatra and Edessa is relevant (p. 123-129). At Hatra, the divine triad is labelled as mrn, mrtn and br mryn (“Our Lord, Our Lady and the Son of Our Two Lords”) and the identification of these gods is still a matter of scholarly debate. The aim of the author is not to solve this riddle. Nevertheless, she summarises the status quaestionis on the subject and offers useful hints for further studies, while concluding that titles such as mr ʿlmʾ and mrʾlhʾ are never employed in the composition of theophoric names in Edessa or Palmyra (p. 128).
5The majority of the dedications without theonym (in the percentage of 176/202) features the formula bryk šmh lʿlmʾ (“may his name be blessed forever”) and none of them refers to a god with a defined theonym. As the idea of “blessing” is central to this sequence, the author undertakes a thorough analysis of the act of blessing in Near Eastern cultures in both Mesopotamia and Syria (p. 137-147). It ought to be stressed that the author is well aware of the extension of the subject and that she uses the sources with great caution, concluding that this formula may be well comprehended in the religious environment of the first millennium bc-first centuries of the first millennium ad. In this context, the formula is read as a blessing not just in the sense of “une action spirituelle, transcendante”, but as a performative act of thanksgiving in the dimension of real life (p. 147). Further attention deserves the title—which appears exclusively in 22 dedications in Palmyra—of rḥmnʾ (“merciful”, p. 147-152). In this case, it is evident that the dedicant makes appeal to the god referring to a peculiar trait of his divine status. Nevertheless, as in the preceding case, a careful analysis of the extant documentation, in and outside Palmyra, does not give a precise answer as to the identification of the god mentioned in the texts.
6The most difficult task, that of the identification of the gods quoted in the dedications, is then addressed in the last chapter and conclusions. Kubiak-Schneider accurately lists and checks the possible correspondences between gods of the Palmyrene and neighbouring pantheons and the epithets found in the inscriptions (p. 187-217), focusing in particular on Zeus Hypsistos, Baalshamin, and Bel. Having done this, she sets forth two proposals in order to explain why the god mentioned in the dedications has a name (see the formula above), but the latter is never quoted explicitly (p. 224-227). The first explanation is that the altars bearing the texts might have come from precise locations (i. e. sacred buildings, temples, etc.), where the context gave a precise hint as to identity of the god the thanksgiving (ex-voto) was addressed to. Unfortunately, as the author observes, “on n’a aucun exemple provenant d’un context originel” (p. 224). The second possibility is based on the occurrence of formulae similar to bryk šmh lʿlmʾ (“may be his name blessed forever”), attested in Palmyra in other areas and/or periods. Based on this assumption, the name of the god is not quoted not because it is forbidden (as in the Jewish tradition), but because the god is addressed as the one to be thanked and praised, beyond his name. In this sense the god is not a single god, but a multiple range of deities (p. 226-227).
7Following the conclusions, the author provides the reader with a catalogue of the Palmyrene inscriptions featuring the dedications without theonym. This part of the work represents an extremely valuable tool for the field of Aramaic epigraphy as a whole. As a matter of fact, the author collected all the texts trying to read and edit them with the help of new photographic and graphic documentation. This data is of paramount importance, because, for at least some of the texts, the readings by previous editors may be commented upon and implemented. This is an even greater achievement considering that new Palmyrene inscriptions published after the important monograph by Hillers and Cussini (1996) are included in the catalogue, which thus serves as an updated archive for further research. Furthermore, the book is completed by a rich bibliography (p. 379-393) and a general index (p. 394-404).
8While tackling a difficult issue, the author was able to properly address the problem of the dedications without theonyms in Palmyra. This was achieved through the careful analysis of the texts and a wide overview of the extant literature on the subject. The main result of this research is that these “anonymous” dedications are not anonymous in the strict sense. By addressing a deity with no name or designation, they point to god(s) whose name is not quoted for a series of reasons that the scholars in the field will be able to investigate starting from this work.
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Référence électronique
Marco Moriggi, « Aleksandra Kubiak-Schneider, Des dédicaces sans théonyme de Palmyre. Béni (soit) son nom pour l’éternité », Syria [En ligne], Recensions, mis en ligne le 31 décembre 2023, consulté le 16 juin 2025. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/syria/14972 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/syria.14972
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