Translations:Hellenization/2/en

Arabian Paganism Under Hellenistic Influence

Popular religion among Arabs remained mostly unchanged in the Greco-Roman period with the exception of minor things like the addition of Greek deities such as Nemesis and Tyche or giving Allāt Athena's iconography. The reverence for holy places such as sacred groves and high mountains, baetyls, the various types of sacrifices, the use of altars (nsb), the role of kahins/priests, all remained mostly the same. Basically, the system worked, it didn't need to change. The divine responded to human prayers and this was acknowledged throughout the ancient Near East. In fact, many inscriptions about offerings end with "because the god has listened to the prayer." In Greek this idea is known as epekooi, the ones who listen to prayers. For example, epekoos, was an epithet of Baʿal Samay (Baal Shamin), who although was an Aramaic god, was popular among the Arab nomads of the Al-Harrah basalt desert, and Atargatis, who was worshipped in Nabataea, was invoked as theoi epekooi.