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Al-Lat, al-Uzza and Manat

Bas-relief: Nemesis, al-Lat and the dedicator. Palmyrene, 2nd-3rd century AD.

Al-Lāt, Al-‘Uzzá and Manāt were common names used for multiple goddesses across Arabia.[24][36][37][38][39] G.R. Hawting states that modern scholars have frequently associated the names of Arabian goddesses Al-lāt, Al-‘Uzzá and Manāt with cults devoted to celestial bodies, particularly Venus, drawing upon evidence external to the Muslim tradition as well as in relation to Syria, Mesopotamia and the Sinai Peninsula.[40]

Allāt (Arabic: اللات‎) or al-Lāt was worshipped throughout the ancient Near East with various associations.[32] Herodotus in the 5th century BC identifies Alilat (Greek: Ἀλιλάτ) as the Arabic name for Aphrodite (and, in another passage, for Urania),[5] which is strong evidence for worship of Allāt in Arabia at that early date.[41] Al-‘Uzzá (Arabic: العزى‎) was a fertility goddess[42] or possibly a goddess of love.[43] Manāt (Arabic: مناة‎) was the goddess of destiny.[44]

Al-Lāt's cult was spread in Syria and northern Arabia. From Safaitic and Hismaic inscriptions, it is probable that she was worshiped as Lat (lt). F. V. Winnet saw al-Lat as a lunar deity due to the association of a crescent with her in 'Ayn esh-Shallāleh and a Lihyanite inscription mentioning the name of Wadd, the Minaean moon god, over the title of 'fkl lt. René Dussaud and Gonzague Ryckmans linked her with Venus while others have thought her to be a solar deity. John F. Healey considers that al-Uzza actually might have been an epithet of al-Lāt before becoming a separate deity in the Meccan pantheon.[45] Paola Corrente, writing in Redefining Dionysus, considers she might have been a god of vegetation or a celestial deity of atmospheric phenomena and a sky deity.[46]

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Al-Lat ( Arabic : اللات ‎, romanized :  Al-Lāt , pronounced  [alːaːt] ), also spelled Allat , Allatu and Alilat , is a pre-Islamic Arabian goddess worshipped under various associations throughout the entire peninsula, including Mecca where she was worshipped alongside Manat and al-'Uzza . The word Allat or Elat has been used to refer to various goddesses in the ancient Near East , including the goddess Asherah-Athirat . Al-Lat was attested in south Arabian inscriptions as Lat and Latan , but she had more prominence in north Arabia and the Hejaz , and her cult reached as far as Syria . [3] The writers of the Safaitic script frequently invoked al-Lat in their inscriptions. She was also worshipped by the Nabataeans and she was associated with al-'Uzza . The presence of her cult was attested in both Palmyra and Hatra . Under Greco-Roman influence, her iconography began to show the attributes of Athena , the Greek goddess of war, as well as her Roman equivalent Min...
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