166 herbert niehr
a greek sanctuary. although, there is evidence of votive offerings of inter-
national provenance in samos,190 the horse blinders were probably loot
made by greek mercenaries in the service of the assyrian king tiglath-
pileser iii (756–727 B.c.) during the sack of Damascus in 732 B.c. they
then brought these pieces to samos, respectively to eretria.191
this mention of the god hadad of Unqi corresponds to a dedication
of a metal disc with an assyrian inscription found in tell tayinat. it says:
“For adad, the regulator of the waters of heaven (and) earth, the great
lord... .”192 like in the inscription on the statue found in tell Fekheriye
(Kai 309) the aramaean weather-god with epithets typical for addu is
adapted to the Mesopotamian weather-god.
Further information about the pantheon of Unqi can be found in the
iconography of the horse’s head-piece and the horse blinder.
Depicted on the head-piece (pl. xxVi) is a naked goddess wearing
a winged solar disk on her head. she is standing on a lion’s head and
holds in each of her hands another lion’s head on each of which stands
another naked goddess holding her breasts. Between the two goddesses
and below the solar disc is another naked breast-holding goddess. this
central fi gure represents the “mistress of the animals” and might be the
goddess astarte.193
shown on the blinder are a lion and a hero holding two other lions’
hind legs.
there is another head-piece from tell tayinat connecting the motifs of
the blinder and the above-mentioned head-piece. on it a woman holding
her breasts stands above lion heads; above her is a hero striding over two
lions and holding two sphinxes by their tails.194
the oldest references to the pantheon of hamath on the orontes195 are
the hieroglyphic luwian inscriptions from hamath and its surroundings.
Under the aspect of religio-historical cultural contact the goddess paha-
latis is of particular interest. she is mentioned in the luwian inscriptions
from hamath and its surrounding area. her name is traced back to the
semitic baʿalat (“mistress”, “lady”), a title, which the goddess of Byblos
190 on the international provenance of the votive gifts in the heraion of samos, cf.
petersen – Wagner 2005; ebbinghaus 2006; Bumke 2007.
191 cf. ebbinghaus 2006: 209–212 and luraghi 2006: 38–41.
192 the text is found in schwemer 2001: 620.
193 cf. Uehlinger 1998–2001: 53–64, this 64.
194 cf. Braun-holzinger – rehm 2005: 36 n. 30 with pl. 7.
195 on the kingdom of hamath, cf. the references in Dion 1997: 137–170; lipiński 2000a:
249–318; niehr 2010a: 289–300.