Temple of Dushares, Bosra
About
Dushara was the chief god of the Nabataean pantheon, and Bosra's temple to him anchored a sacred precinct of three temples reached by a monumental arch and a colonnaded processional road. Built while Bosra served as the Nabataean kingdom's northern royal seat under King Rabbel II, the temple was already old by the time Trajan's officials arrived in 106 CE. Romans elsewhere equated Dushara with Dionysus, but at Bosra his cult and shrine carried on largely unchanged through the new province's first decade of Roman rule.
What happened here
The building itself is a house for the god, and most people never go inside. Everything public happens on the steps and at the altar in front: an animal led up, examined, killed cleanly, its organs read, the meat divided and eaten. The priest covers his head and a flute player keeps up a noise so no ill-omened word is heard. Worshippers leave what they can afford — a terracotta figure, a coin, a model of the body part they want healed — and the accumulated clutter is periodically cleared and buried on site. On festival days the doors are opened and the cult statue is dressed, garlanded, and sometimes carried out through the streets. The temple also holds money, which is why towns keep their treasury in one.
Sources
Nearby
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