Sculpture of the Creation Myth … Civilization as Narrated by the Temple of Bel in Palmyra

Among the many surviving monuments of Palmyra is the remarkable temple of the Semitic god Bel. It  was a treasure of incalculable value that stood as a monument to religious accommodation..

The  sculpture of the myth of creation is considered one of the most important sculptures in the temple of Bel in Palmyra. It embodies  the struggle between  good represented by the god Bel  and  evil represented by the goddess Tiamat.

The sculpture , which  forms one of the girders in the ceiling of the corridor surrounding the sanctuary of the temple,  narrates how the god Bel became god of  gods  of  the Palmyrenes.

The archaeologist  Khalil al-Hariri presented  the story as narrated by the sculpture of  the mother goddess Tiamat who was controlling the matters of groundwater and springs and disturbing them. The way of salvation from the goddess Tiamat was by  killing her -so the god Bel  in the presence of six of the gods of Palmyra as witnesses to this battle killed her,  and was crowned  as head of the pantheon of the gods in Palmyra.

This sculpture, according to Al-Hariri,  narrates how the god Bel  threw   an arrow at Tiamat’s chest , then by his  sword  he  divides it into two parts, one by which he created   heaven and the other the earth.

In the sculpture, the goddess  Tiamat was represented in the form of a scaly octopus with the heads of snakes next to it  a jar from which four snakes emerge.  The jar symbolizes “ Afka”  spring west of Palmyra and the snakes symbolize the disturbance and sabotage of the groundwater by  Tiamats .

The archaeologist Hariri indicated that  the sculpture is inspired by the Babylonian  creation epic poem  Enuma Elish (  known as The Seven Tablets of Creation ) , but the maker of the sculpture added some religious scenes of a local indication , which reflects the strength of the relationship between Palmyra and Babylon and the clear Babylonian influence on the religious life in Palmyra.

It is noteworthy that the Temple of  Bel  is considered one of the most important temples in the whole East due to its enormity and the intensity of historical connotations. This temple was built on the foundations of previous temples, the first of which dates  back to the third millennium BC and the second one 400 years  BC in the Hellenistic period. 

The current temple  dates back to the first century BC and was built  by a group of Palmyrene families and was dedicated mainly to the god Bel..

Rawaa Ghanam