Arsu was a god worshipped in

Palmyra Palmyra (; Palmyrene: () ''Tadmor''; ar, تَدْمُر ''Tadmur'') is an ancient city in present-day Homs Governorate, Syria. Archaeological finds date back to the Neolithic period, and documents first mention the city in the early secon ...

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

. A deity known from Syrian and northern Arabian lands, being sometimes in male or in female (most often) representation. Arsu was connected with the evening star. Frequently portrayed as riding a camel and accompanied by his

twin Twins are two offspring produced by the same pregnancy.MedicineNet > Definition of TwinLast Editorial Review: 19 June 2000 Twins can be either ''monozygotic'' ('identical'), meaning that they develop from one zygote, which splits and forms two em ...

brother

Azizos In ancient Arab mythology, Azizos or Aziz ( Palmyrene: 𐡰𐡦𐡩𐡦 ''ʿzyz'') is the Palmyran Arab god of the morning star. He is portrayed as riding a camel with his twin brother Arsu, although one source says that "Azizos is depicted as a ...

; both were regarded as the protectors of caravans. His worship is also confirmed by material evidences in

Temple of Adonis, Dura-Europos The Temple of Adonis in Dura-Europos was discovered by a French-American expedition of Yale University led by Michael Rostovtzeff and was excavated between 1931 and 1934. The temple complex was the last great temple of the city to be built under ...

. In the temple complex there was a relief, which shows Arsu on a camel. The inscription under the figure goes: "Oga the sculptor has made (this to) 'Arsu the camel-rider, for the life of his son". It is likely he was associated with the planet Mercury early on. Elsewhere in pre-

Islamic Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God (or '' Allah'') as it was revealed to Muhammad, the ma ...

Arabia, he was equated with Ruda (literally ''benign'').

References

Arabian gods Stellar gods Venusian deities Palmyra Divine twins {{MEast-myth-stub