Banqueting in honour of the gods. Notes on the marzēaḥ of Palmyra

This contribution starts with the analysis of the available data concerning the marzēaḥ, a specific kind of gathering of drinking societies – but not connected with any funerary cult, as it has long been believed – which had been diffused all over the Near East since the third millennium BCE until the Roman period. As far as Palmyra is concerned, this word was translated into Greek as symposion, which occurs many times in inscriptions and tokens (tesserae) discovered there. A full analysis of all the Semitic and Greek terminology related to that kind of gatherings is provided as well, with in-depth reflections on the role that this peculiar social aspect played in Palmyra according to the internal evolution of 3rd century Palmyrene society, the thread being a notable of the city called Septimius Worod, a symposiarch according to the news in IGLS XVII/1, 67. A comparison with the news transmitted by Strabo and concerning these gatherings among the Nabataeans (16.4.26) allows to argue that the identity of Palmyra was shaped thanks to these gatherings and to explain which was the religious value of the marzēaḥ for both the Nabataeans and the Palmyrenes. Textual comparison with Iranian text form Central Asia allows to argue that the organization of the drinking societies, which is also discussed in this contribution, was inherited by the Manichaean church.