ʿAthtar

…of the South Arabian pantheon, ʿAthtar had superseded the ancient supreme Semitic god Il or El, whose name survives nearly exclusively in theophoric names. ʿAthtar was a god of the thunderstorm, dispensing natural irrigation in the form of rain. When qualified as Sharīqān, “the Eastern One” (possibly a reference to…

…called “hunting the game of ʿAthtar and the game of Kurūm.” The gazelle was the symbol animal of ʿAthtar, and Kurūm is now known to be a hypostasis or a consort of ʿAthtar (this explains the name ʿAtarqurumā of an idol in Dūmat al-Jandal, mentioned above). This rite was aimed…