Relief of Allat seated between two lions

In this base relief the Goddess Al’lat is represented seated between two lions, grasping a lance with her right hand and holding a shield with the left.
The goddess wears a helmet. This martial aspect makes her appear to be an Athena in spite of being seated between the two lions.

According to Javier Teixidor’s The Pantheon of Palmyra.  “The assimilation of Al’lat to Athena, however, could hardly have demanded new forms of cult or developed any particular theology. Presumably Athena’s cult meant only the acceptance of an iconography that was in vogue and not a true change in the traditional worship of the Arab goddess. The warrior aspect of Al’lat derived from her being the Arab Venus of the Bedouin, but a satisfactory understanding of these two related aspects of the goddess’ personality seems unobtainable today.

The inscription in two lines at the base of the relief reads as follows:

1. l’lt wrhm ‘bd wmwd’ rb’l br ‘wyd’ br yd’w

2. wdkyr slm’ br qsyn’

Translation

To Allat and Rahim. [This is what] Rabbel son of Awida son of Iad ‘u has erected in thanksgiving. And remembered be Shalma son of Cassianus.

Unfortunately, the monument does not represent Rahim. Beside the goddess the artist has carved only the figure of the donor burning incense.

The god Rahim (rhm) formed part of the Arab pantheon at Palmyra. He was worshiped together with Shamash and Allat in the temple erected in the western quarter of the city, as an inscription of March, 129, attests (lnv. V, 8; CISem. II, 3955).”

The Aramaic inscription in the bottom of the item (Texador – The Palmyrene Pantheon)