The story of the ancient Nabataean civilization which flourished in the first centuries B.C. and A.D., in what is now the Transjordan area.

Preliminary material -- INTRODUCTION -- EDESSA'S HISTORY AND CULTURE -- THE SOURCES FOR THE STUDY OF EDESSA'S RELIGION -- THE CULT OF NEBO AND BEL -- THE CULT OF ATARGATIS -- THE CULT OF SIN LORD OF THE GODS AT SUMATAR HARABESI -- THE CULT OF AZIZOS AND MONIMOS AND OTHER ARAB DEITIES -- EDESSAN RELIGION, PAGANISM IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE, AND EARLY CHRISTIANITY -- INDEX -- LIST OF PLATES -- PLATES I-XXXIV.

New York Times bestselling author P. C. Cast presents the first novel in her Goddess Summoning series... Home alone on the night of her twenty-fifth birthday, Air Force Sergeant Christine Canady yearned for something to cure her loneliness. After drinking too much champagne, she recited a divine invocation to revive her humdrum life. But how was she to know the spell would actually work? When her plane crashes into the ocean, CC’s life changes forever. She awakens, bewildered, to find herself in a legendary time and place ruled by magic—and in the body of the mythic mermaid Undine. But danger lurks in the waters, ready to swallow CC whole. Taking pity on her, the goddess Gaea turns her into a damsel, that she might seek shelter on land. But when a dashing knight comes to CC’s rescue—a dream-come-true she should be falling for—she instead aches for the sea and the darkly sexy merman who’s stolen her heart…

Javier Teixidor has found evidence that belief in a supreme god developed during the first millennium B.C. The Phoenician and Aramaic inscriptions he discusses indicate a trend toward monotheism that facilitated the spread of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The author concludes that the traditional characteristics of the popular religions were preserved during this period and that the Hellenistic culture and the mystery cults did not have a significant effect on popular piety. Here, then, is a major reinterpretation of the religious life of the Near East in the Greco-Roman period based on a reliable source of information. Originally published in 1977. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.