Who Were the Gods of Panamuwa I?

Abstract Panamuwa I , king of Samʾal/ Yʾdy , commissioned a statue of Hadad in approximately the second quarter of the eighth century BCE . The inscription on the statue, written in the Samʾalian language, contains four lists of gods. In lines 2–3 and 18–19, these gods are Hadad, El, Rešef, Rākib-El, and Šamaš. The list in line 11, however, contains a theonym that is not attested in the other three lists; it is usually read Arqû-Rešef. A collation of the inscription yields a new reading and interpretation of the text in line 11 that sheds light not only on the identity of the enigmatic Arqû-Rešef, but also on the whole list of gods in line 11.