Baaltars
Baaltars (Aramaic: 𐡁𐡏𐡋𐡕𐡓𐡆, romanized: BʿLTRZ, lit. 'Baʿal of Tarsus') was possibly the chief deity of the city of Tarsus during the Achaemenid Empire.[1]
The image of Baaltars featured on the legends of coins struck by Mazaeus and Datames, who were Achaemenid satraps of Cilicia, and of Pharnabazus II, who was satrap of Hellespontine Phrygia.[2]
Baaltars was depicted holding an ear of wheat and a bunch of grapes, and was likely a local representation of the Luwian Storm-god Tarḫunzas.[2]
Baaltars might be the same deity whom Eratosthenes of Cyrene in the 3rd century BCE called Zeus Tersios (Ancient Greek: Ζεύς Τέρσιος).[1]
Some scholars have hypothesised that Baaltars later lost his prominence to Sandas, while Olivier Casabonne has proposed that Baaltars was also identified with Sandas/Nergal, who was in turn identified with the Phoenician god Melqart of Tyre.[1]
Notes
- ^ a b c Rutherford 2017.
- ^ a b Casabonne 1999, p. 84.
References
- Casabonne, Olivier (1999). "Notes Ciliciennes (suite)" [Cilician Notes (follow-up)]. Anatolia antiqua. Eski Anadolu (in French). 7. Institut français d'études anatoliennes: 69–88. doi:10.3406/anata.1999.920. Retrieved 13 November 2025.
- Rutherford, Ian [in German] (2017). "Sandas in translation". In Mouton, Alice (ed.). L'hittitologie aujourd'hui: Études sur l'Anatolie hittite et néo-hittite à l'occasion du centenaire de la naissance d'Emmanuel Laroche: 5e Rencontres d'archéologie de l'IFEA, Istanbul 21-22 novembre 2014 [Hittitology today: Studies on Hittite and Neo-Hittite Anatolia in Honor of Emmanuel Laroche's 100th Birthday: 5th IFEA Archeology Meetings, Istanbul November 21-22, 2014]. Istanbul, Turkey: Institut français d’études anatoliennes. pp. 81–100. ISBN 978-2-362-45067-9. Retrieved 13 November 2025.