Resheph was a deity of warfare and disease, first venerated at Ebla in the third millennium BC, where he became one of the leading members of the local pantheon and existed in distinct local forms tied to particular settlements such as Tunip; the goddess Adamma served as his spouse in Eblaite tradition. His worship spread across Syria and beyond during the second millennium BC, achieving particular prominence at Ugarit, where he appears often in ritual texts and personal names though playing only a modest role in mythology. The Hurrians adopted him as Irsappa and linked him with commerce, and his cult reached Egypt, possibly through Hyksos mediation, gaining notable standing in the Ramesside period with evidence of household worship at Deir el-Medina. References to him grow scarce after the first millennium BC, though he remained prominent in the Phoenician pantheon of Cyprus even as his standing declined elsewhere; the Greeks identified him with Apollo.
Facts
Attestation
Era of Attestation Veneration TodayHistorically attested; no continuous cult 1 HistoricityNot a historical person: a divine or other-than-human being 1 Belief
TheologyPolytheistic: many gods 1 Function
Domain / Function Sources
1. The Facts on File Encyclopedia of World Mythology and Legend
Anthony S. Mercatante, revised and expanded by James R. Dow, Facts on File
2. Resheph, Structured Record (Wikidata Q)
3. The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt
Donald B. Redford (ed.), Oxford University Press, 2001Resheph, Egyptian and Ugaritic attestationView the Source Reader Challenges (0)
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