Les 203 dédicaces votives en araméen de Palmyre de la période entre IIe et IIIe siècle de n.è. intriguent par 3 dénominations divines : « Béni (soit) son nom pour l’éternité », « Maître de l’Univers » et « le Miséricordieux ». Des études précédentes ont postulé univoquement l’anonymat divin. En étant déçu par cette explication du phénomène des inscriptions palmyréniennes, le livre Des dédicaces sans théonyme de Palmyre : Béni (soit) son nom pour l’éternité a pris pour le point de départ les concepts de remerciement et de louange, en découvrant l’existence d’un hymne rituel comme origine de la formule « Béni (soit) son nom pour l’éternité ». Qui sont donc des dieux, des récepteurs des dédicaces de Palmyre ? Peut-on combiner un nom propre d’un dieu avec ces trois formules ? Ce livre répond à ces questions flagrantes. 203 Palmyrene-Aramaic votive inscriptions from the period between the 2nd and 3rd centuries CE contain three intriguing designations of the gods: “Blessed (be) his name forever”, “Master of the Universe” and “the Merciful”. Previous studies have claimed that the god to whom these inscriptions are addressed is anonymous. Not satisfied with this explanation, Des dédicaces sans théonyme de Palmyre: Béni (soit) son nom pour l’éternité addresses the phenomenon through the lens of thanksgiving and praise, revealing the existence of a contemporary ritual hymn, the origin of the Palmyrene formula “Blessed his name forever”. Who, then, were these gods, the recipients of the dedications? Can we find a match between the formulae and a proper name? This book provides answers to these fascinating questions.

Divine Names are a key component in the communication between humans and gods in Antiquity. Their complexity derives not only from the impressive number of onomastic elements available to describe and target specific divine powers, but also from their capacity to be combined within distinctive configurations of gods. The volume collects 36 essays pertaining to many different contexts - Egypt, Anatolia, Levant, Mesopotamia, Greece, Rome - which address the multiple functions and wide scope of divine onomastics. Scrutinized in a diachronic and comparative perspective, divine names shed light on how polytheisms and monotheisms work as complex systems of divine and human agents embedded in an historical framework. Names imply knowledge and play a decisive role in rituals; they move between cities and regions, and can be translated; they interact with images and reflect the intrinsic plurality of divine beings. This vivid exploration of divine names pays attention to the balance between tradition and innovation, flexibility and constraints, to the material and conceptual parameters of onomastic practices, to cross-cultural contexts and local idiosyncrasies, in a word to human strategies for shaping the gods through their names.

From Greece to Palmyra, Tyre or Babylon, the names of the gods, like 'Thundering Zeus', 'Three-faced Moon', 'Baal of the Force' or the enigmatic YHWH, reveal their history, family ties, fields of competence and capacity for action. Shared or specific, these names bring to light networks of gods: the Saviour gods, the Ancestral gods, the gods of a city or a family. Names tell stories about the relationship between men and gods, gods and places, places and cultures and so on. They show how gods travel and spread, how they appear and disappear, how they participate in the political, social, intellectual history of each community. Through the study of divine names, the twelve chapters of this book unfold a gallery of portraits that reveal the changing aspects of the divine throughout the ancient Mediterranean.

This book fills a gap in the study of mystery cults in Graeco-Roman Antiquity. Focusing on the visual language surrounding these cults, it aims to understand how images depict mysteries in different cults: Dionysus, Mithras, Mother of the Gods, and Isiac cults.

In The Impact of the Roman Empire on The Cult of Asclepius Ghislaine van der Ploeg offers an overview and analysis of how worship of the Graeco-Roman god Asclepius adapted, changed, and was disseminated under the Roman Empire. It is shown that the cult enjoyed a vibrant period of worship in the Roman era and by analysing the factors by which this religious changed happened, the impact which the Roman Empire had upon religious life is determined. Making use of epigraphic, numismatic, visual, and literary sources, van der Ploeg demonstrates the multifaceted nature of the Roman cult of Asclepius, updating current thinking about the god.

In Individuals and Materials in the Greco-Roman Cults of Isis Valentino Gasparini and Richard Veymiers present a collection of reflections on the individuals and groups which animated one of Antiquity’s most dynamic, significant and popular religious phenomena: the reception of the cults of Isis and other Egyptian gods throughout the Hellenistic and Roman worlds. These communities, whose members seem to share the same religious identity, for a long time have been studied in a monolithic way through the prism of the Cumontian category of the “Oriental religions”. The 26 contributions of this book, divided into three sections devoted to the “agents”, their “images” and their “practices”, shed new light on this religious movement that appears much more heterogeneous and colorful than previously recognized.

The ancient city of Palmyra, which today lies in the desert of modern Syria, was once a flourishing city of trade. During the Roman era, when Palmyra was at the height of its powers, several hundred funerary monuments were constructed in the city, and within these, portraits of Palmyra's inhabitants were once displayed. These representations of men, women, and children from the Roman Imperial period form the largest body of portraiture known outside of Rome itself, and their study is essential to our understanding of how funerary portraiture in the Roman provinces was used as a mechanism to shape and express identity. This volume offers a study and catalogue of the funerary portraits of Palmyrene women from the first century BC to the third century AD. It explores both the visual qualities of the portraits themselves, and the complexities of the space in which they were originally situated. By analysing the civic and religious activities of women within Palmyra, this book also situates these portraits in a broader context. Through this approach, the work thus addresses key questions concerning the characteristics of Palmyrene female portraits and what this indicates about the nature of female identity in Roman Palmyra, how the portrayals of women changed over time, and what might have caused such changes.