In his work The Archaeology of the Arabian Gulf (1994), Michael Rice states that Failaka has long enjoyed a reputation as a place, “sacred to the goddess–under whatever name.” Hans Erik Mathiesen writes in his work The Terracotta Figurines (1982) that, “some goddess or a number of goddesses received particular veneration in the cults on Ikaros.” Here are some of the different goddesses that have been associated with the island throughout its ancient past:

Šiduri: in the Epic of Gilgamesh, the world’s oldest extant piece of literature, the titular character embarks on a failed quest to achieve immortality. Along the way, he meets a veiled goddess and sort of cosmic barmaid named Šiduri. Rice writes that she keeps a tavern on, “an island on the edge of the ocean which is known as the Garden of the Sun… said to bear trees laden with jewels.” Šiduri encourages Gilgamesh to give up his quest, accept his mortality, and enjoy the simple pleasures afforded to us in this life. But he pushes on. Some scholars, including Rice, have identified her island as Failaka. Below you can see images from a Babylonian-inspired tarot set.

Ninḫursaĝa/Bēlet-ilī: the Dilmunites colonized Failaka around 1900 BCE. They built temples dedicated to Inzak, their tutelary god who was believed to have created the sacred date palm. In his work The cuneiform texts from Failaka (2024), Gianni Marchesi writes that, “Inzak appears to have been the most important deity. It should be noted, however, that Inzak [is not] attested as [a] recipient of votive offerings. In contrast, votive offerings are attested for Ninḫursaĝa/Bēlet-ilī… Inzak’s mother, according to the Sumerian myth ‘Enki and Ninḫursaĝa.’ A votive stamp seal from Tell F3, with its dedication to Bēlet-ilī, suggests that the open air shrine in Tell F3 may have been devoted to the cult of this goddess.” Below are images of Tell F3 from the 1960s.

Various: in the 4th century BCE, Alexander the Great conquered the Achaemenid Empire. After his Indian campaign, he sent expeditions into the Gulf as a first step in a plan to colonize the region. Reports came back of Failaka, which he ordered to be called Ikaros. According to the “Anabasis of Alexander” by the Greek historian Arrian, when the Greco-Macedonian soldiers came across Failaka/Ikaros, the island was thickly-forested and bore a sanctuary dedicated to Artemis, the Greek goddess of the hunt, wilderness, chastity, nurturing children and by Hellenistic times, the moon. Not to be confused with the famous temple that the Greco-Madedonians themselves built and which was first excavated by the Danes, the ruins of the sanctuary mentioned by Arrian do not remain, but are suspected to have been located at Tell Khazneh. As the population of the island at the time was not Greek, it is unlikely there would have been a sanctuary dedicated to Artemis. In his work “Looking for Dilmun” (1969), Geoffrey Bibby writes, “so the Ikaros on which we stood… had a temple of Artemis before ever the temple which we were excavating had been built. That temple had presumably not been in the name of the actual Greek goddess, but of some deity which the Greeks identified with their own Artemis. What deity that had been we did not know.” Here are suggestions by scholars:

• Bibby suggests Ningal of Ur. The first image below is a statuette from Ur, excavated in 1925 and speculatively identified as Ningal.
• Dorothea Stavrou suggests, “Anahita, an ancient Iranian goddess or… Nananya, spouse of Nabu.” The second image below is a lotus flower, which represents Anahita and the third is a statuette of Nananya.
• John Wheelan suggests Meskilak (Ninsikilla), the spouse of Inzak. In the poem Enki and Ninhursag (the fourth image is a cuneiform tablet of the poem), she is appointed to preserve Dilmun as a pure place where all animals live in peace.
• Jehan Rajab notes that Ishtar, the Mesopotamian goddess of fertility, “was worshipped all over the Middle East,” perhaps an implication that she was the island’s goddess. The fifth image is from an Akkadian seal.

Oracle of Artemis Tauropolos: as discussed above, when Greco-Macedonians first came across Failaka/Ikaros, they reported that there was a sanctuary located on the island. Arrian states that it was dedicated to Artemis, whereas Strabo states that it was dedicated to Apollo. Strabo also mentions an oracle, a human vessel through which the gods were believed to speak. In his work “Geographica” Strabo writes, “and Eratosthenes says that Androsthenes, who sailed ’round the gulf with a fleet, states that in making the coasting voyage, with the continent on the right, one sees next after Teredon the island Icarus and a temple sacred to Apollo and an oracle of Tauropolus.” In his work “The Archaeology of the Arabian Gulf” Michael Rice writes, “it is difficult to suggest what might have been the nature of the oracle on Failaka… the oracle… might be less permanent in its structure, a sacred grove perhaps or some wise woman lurking in a cave.” In his work “The Power of the Bull” Rice writes, “Artemis is a menacing, slightly sinister goddess, unpredictable and, in certain moods, implacable. [Her] most meaningful, if ominous, epithet was ‘Tauropolos’, Bull-slayer. According to Greek reports, the shrine of the goddess [on Failaka] was a place of sacrifice. The scent of the fires, ‘sweetly smelling of grilled meat’… could be detected on approaching the island.” Likely the most famous (and thereby most depicted) oracle in the ancient Greek world was the Pythia at Delphi. The first image is a 4th century bell krater, located in the British Museum, depicting Orestes visiting the Pythia. The second image is “Pythia, High Priestess of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi” by Heinrich Leutemann, 1884. The third image is “Priestess of Delphi” by John Collier, 1891. The fourth is “The Oracle” by Camillo Miola, 1880.

Artemis: following Alexander the Great’s death in 323 BCE, his empire was split between his generals. Seleucus I Nicator founded the Seleucid Empire. Around the year 300 BCE, he sent his son Antiochus to establish a military outpost on Failaka/Ikaros in order to control trade in the Gulf. A fortress was built (the archaeological site of F5), which had two temples inside. The better known of the two, temple A, was a syncretic blend of architectural styles, featuring typical Greek ornament known as acroteria and Ionic columns, but with Achaemenid style bases. It has a rectangular altar. Temple B has less decoration and a circular altar. In his work “The Sacred Enclosure in the Early Hellenistic Period” (1989) Kristian Jeppesen writes, “no archaeological finds furnish clear and unequivocal indications for an identification of the deities to whom the temples and their altars were dedicated.” But the primary god for the Seleucids was Apollo and so Jeppesen continues, “as the establishment of the sanctuary on Ikaros evidently occurred on the initiative of the king… it is tempting to assume that he was… granted divine honours in the form of annual sacrifices on the temple’s altar as Apollo’s implicit cult associate.” In his work “Architecture and Politics in the King of the Seleucids” (2020), Angeliki Kottaridi writes, “Jeppesen is probably right when he claims that the large temple is devoted to Apollo. Considered by the Greeks as the island’s old goddess, Artemis stands beside her brother.” So while the famous temple A may not have been dedicated to Artemis, perhaps the adjacent temple B was. Another Hellenistic sanctuary (B6) was built along the shore around 200 BCE. In the 1980s, a French team uncovered a dedication to Artemis. In Failaka’s 2025 submission to become a UNESCO world heritage site, they describe it as, “a small sanctuary… with evidence of ritual activities suggesting a cult dedicated to Artemis. This building is currently under immediate risk and partially underwater.” 

Terracotta Figurines of various: in his work The Terracotta Figurines (1982) Hans Erik Mathiesen writes, “in F4, excavated in 1958, a block of rooms was uncovered containing a remarkable number of moulds for the manufacture of terracotta figurines. In the campaign of 1960 [at F5]… Temple A was completely excavated. Terracottas were abundant… [they are] a very mixed assortment…  which may indicate that both Oriental and Greek divinities were worshipped on the island. The number of female figurines may be taken to suggest that some goddess or a number of goddesses received particular veneration in the cults on Ikaros. The complete evidence… seems to suggest that there existed on Ikaros a fertility cult, a sun cult, and a moon cult, although the figurines give no clue to the names of the divinities implied.” Here is information about specific terracottas:

• No. 4 was uncovered in F5 in a dwelling. Mathiesen writes, “in Failaka 24 female figurines were found. It cannot be determined with certainty whom they represent… but [they are] numerous in areas where the Great Fertility Goddess was worshipped. The statuettes are found not only in sanctuaries but also in tombs and for this reason could be interpreted as amulets–symbols of fertility and love.”
• No. 72 was uncovered in F5 in front of temple B. The object is an incense-burner and features a woman wearing a high kalathos. It might represent a chthonic goddess, who were associated with the underworld and death or fertility. 
• No. 77 was uncovered in F5 in a dwelling. The object is a statuette featuring a woman dressed in a chiton. Some publications theorize that this represents Aphrodite, although Mathiesen makes no mention of that. He does, however, speculate that another artifact (no. 94 – uncovered in F4, a mould for a female figurine) might represent Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty.
• No. 93 was uncovered in F4. It is a mould of Nike, the goddess of victory.
• No. 100 was uncovered in F4. It is a mould for a figurine of a fish. Mathiesen writes, “such figurines may have served as votive offerings. Figurines [from other places] had a magical and religious nature. In the Orient fishes were sacred to Atargatis.”

Here are some of the gods associated with Failaka’s past:

Inzak: In 1878, the British captain Edward Law Durand reported that there was a black basalt stone that bore a cuneiform inscription embedded in the outer wall of a mosque in Bahrain. Upon inspection, it was found to be shaped like a shoe, so presumably had been part of a statue. The inscription read, “the palace of Rimum, servant of (the god) Inzak, (and) man of (the tribe of) Agarum.” According to Harriet Crawford, “sadly, it has since disappeared and is thought to have been destroyed in the London blitz.” From 1889 to 1900, the University of Pennsylvania dug at Nippur, Sumer’s holy city. During the excavations, fragments of the poem Enki and Ninhursag were uncovered. Samuel N. Kramer tells us that the poem has two functions: to explain the famed fertility of Dilmun’s soil and to establish that Inzak/Enšag is the Lord of Dilmun. The Dilmunites settled on Failaka beginning around 1900 BCE. Their tutelary [protector] deity was Inzak and their temple at F6 was likely dedicated to Inzak. There was a temple at Susa dedicated to Inzak, so perhaps the Dilmunites had colonized this area, as well. Inzak was believed to have created the date palm. Crawford writes, “the date palm is arguably one of the most useful plants known to man… the fruit is very nutritious with a high sugar content; the sap is also a sweetener and can be used to make a fermented drink; the stones can be used for charcoal or ground up to make animal fodder high in protein; the leaves are woven into mats used, amongst other things, to build the traditional barasti huts of the region; palm fibers can be twisted into rope, while the trunks provide timber for building and other purposes. In addition, the shade below the palms in the date gardens provides the perfect environment for growing fruit trees and tender plants of many kinds.” 

Enki: Enki was the god of water. Samuel N. Kramer said that he is the personification of salt sea-water as well as fresh-river water. Marchesi names him, “the lord of subterranean water.” He is described by Michael Rice as the god of Sweet Waters, Lord of the Abzu, the patron of fishes, and a chthonic divinity, “his dwelling place the [Abzû], far from the haunts of man.” He was known as Enki to the Sumerians, Ea to the Akkadians, and Aos to the Greeks. According to Gianni Marchesi in his chapter of the recent publication Failaka/Dilmun: The Second Millennium Settlements (Copper, Cuneiform Inscriptions and Other Finds), “a temple named Ekara once existed on Failaka, perhaps built in the second half of the second millennium BCE. Ekara means ‘House of the Harbor,’ so it may have been located on the bay near Tell Sa’ad and Sa’id or the bay of Al-Khidr. The ruins of the temple are yet to be discovered, but it is known through artifacts, including a metal vessel with the inscription, “to Ea, the lord of the apsû, who dwells in the Ekara [temple].” Like Ekara on Failaka, the Barbar temple in Bahrain also seems to have been sacred to him, as the spring it surrounds may have been thought to represent the “abzu,” the primeval & divine freshwater ocean that lay beneath the earth. The Sumerian poem “Enki and Ninhursag” credits Dilmun’s famed fertility to Enki, as he provided the land with fresh water. The poem opens with the famous lines, “the land of Dilmun is holy, the land of Dilmun is pure.” At the end of the poem, Ninhursag facilitates the birth of eight deities, including Inzak, essentially making Enki the father of Inzak.

Shamash: The Neo-Assyrian Empire came to prominence following the Bronze Age Collapse. They were likely present on Failaka. In his work Archaeology of the Arabian Gulf, Michael Rice also discusses the temple Ekara. He writes, “there was a temple named e-kara on the island during the Assyrian times. The name e-kara may have served as the etymon for Ikaros, as, the Greeks had a boundless capacity for the distortion of foreign placenames…. [and e-kara] would have sounded to a Greek as indistinguishable from Ichara, and the presence of bull cults on both islands would have made their identification very natural.” Rice states that the temple was dedicated to Shamash [Šamaš], the sun-god who played an important part in the Epic of Gilgamesh, however, more recent scholarship refutes this idea and asserts that the temple was more likely dedicated to Enki – see above.

Nabu: The Neo-Assyrian Empire came to an end around 609 BCE when Babylonians and Medes destroyed the Assyrian cities of Nimrud and Nineveh, thereby demolishing the Library of Ashurbanipal and burying The Epic of Gilgamesh for more than 2,000 years. The Neo-Babylonian Empire only ruled until 539 BCE. During this transition period between the Assyrians and the Babylonians, “the pace of trade in the Gulf quickened considerably… Makkan, Meluhha, and Dilmun reappear in the cuneiform texts as points either of origin or for transshipment of trade goods. Failaka may have functioned as a locus for this exchange.” (AJ Ferrara) The Neo-Babylonians left behind seals on Failaka that featured Nabu, the god of literacy and wisdom.

Apollo: Apollo was the Greek god of music, prophecy, healing, poetry, and by Hellenistic times, the personification of the sun. According to the work “Geography” by Strabo, when Alexander the Great sent expeditions to explore the Arabian coast, Androsthenes came across an island that had a temple dedicated to Apollo. Later, during the time of the Emperor Hadrian, the historian Arrian diverted from this tradition and wrote in his work “The Anabasis” that the temple was dedicated to Artemis, the twin-sister of Apollo. It is said that Alexander named the island to be called Ikaros, as it apparently resembles an island in the Aegean Sea, which itself took its name from the myth of Daedalus and his son Icarus. Alexander died in 323 BCE and his empire was split amongst his generals. The Seleucid Empire was named for its founder Seleucus I Nicator. Their patron god, from whom they claimed divine lineage, was Apollo. Around the year 300 BCE, Seleucus sent his son Antiochus to establish a colony on Failaka/Ikaros. They built a fortress with two temples inside: Temple A and B. Kristian Jeppesen writes, “it is highly likely that the first and larger of the temples… was dedicated to… Apollo.” Angeliki Kottaridi agrees that the larger Temple A was probably dedicated to Apollo and that the smaller Temple B may have been dedicated to Artemis. He writes, “considered by the Greeks as the island’s old goddess, Artemis stands beside her brother.” Beginning in 1958, the temple was excavated by Danish archaeologists. In a 1960 article Otto Mørkholm writes, “among the most important discoveries which made the excavations in 1960 so noteworthy was a hoard of coins from Hellenistic times. A hoard of coins! Fig. 3, no. 1 can be said with certainty to have been minted by the Syrian king Antiochus III, who ruled the Seleucid Empire from 223 to 187 BC. On the reverse is a picture of the god Apollo, the ancestor and patron god of the Seleucid dynasty.”

Zeus and Poseidon: Zeus and Poseidon were powerful brothers in Greek mythology. Zeus was the king of the gods who ruled the sky, while Poseidon was the god of the sea and earthquakes. In the 1930s, a piece of sandstone bearing a Greek inscription was uncovered at Tell Al Khazneh. According to Jehan Rajab, “in 1937 one of the islanders found a stone with ‘strange’ inscriptions on it in one of the old Tells. They sometimes quarried for stones (south of the town) when building a new house. The stone was presented to Colonel Dickson who sent a photograph to the British Museum.” The inscription reads, “Soteles, citizen of Athens, and the soldiers (dedicated this) to Zeus Soter (the saviour), to Poseidon, and Artemis Soteira (the saviouress).” This artifact is known as Soteles I, as later another inscription by Soteles would be uncovered. Some scholars posit that Soteles and his men were shipwrecked and took refuge on the island. Mary Ann Tétreault writes, “Failaka’s special connection to early deities continued into the era of the Greeks. It is reputed to have been the refuge of the fourth-century BCE Greek traveler Sotelos and his companions, who were saved from sinking by this island refuge and who left an engraved stela dedicated to Zeus and Artemis, the Greek goddess of the moon and patron of hunting.” Safwat Ali Nourel-Din writes, “the words imply that the writer of this inscription and his companion had survived a shipwreck, so they had offered this writing to that holy island which was believed to be the dwelling of Poseidon, the sea god.” Helene David-Cuny and Johanne Azpeitia write, “Failaka… saved the Greek traveller Sotelos and his companions from sinking. Shortly after this first testimony of Greek visitors, Failaka gets some permanent residents from the Hellenistic empire.” Rather than being shipwrecked, some scholars (such as Joseph Naveh) believe that Soteles was commander of the Seleucid military garrison on Ikaros. In addition to this artifact, coins showing Zeus have been uncovered on the island. Mørkholm writes, “on the reverse [of 12 coins] Olympian Zeus is enthroned, bearing on his outstretched right hand his sacred bird, the eagle. In his left hand he holds a long spectre.” He dates them to being roughly contemporary with Antiochus III, who ruled the Seleucid Empire from 223 to 187 BCE.

Herakles: Herakles (Hercules to the Romans) was a heroic son of Zeus in Greek mythology, famous for his strength. Michael Rice says that Gilgamesh, the archetypal hero, may be the inspiration for Herakles. There may have been a Herakles cult on Failaka Island. Joan Breton Connelly writes, “the worship of Herakles in the Greek East is well attested. The royal Macedonian claim of descent from the hero is celebrated in the coinage of Alexander the Great… Alexander’s special devotion to Herakles along the campaign routes is well attested in the literary sources which report his frequent stops to offer sacrifice to his famous ‘ancestor’.” Terracottas of Herakles found on Failaka include “a head that likely represents a, ‘youthful, unbearded Herakles'” and “the mould of a body: ‘terracotta votives showing this strong Herakles equipped with club, lion’s skin, and occasionally, a baldric have been found throughout Mesopotamia and Susiana. A figurine from Susa… may well come from the same mould'” as well as “a rough sandstone head, with ‘strong, heavy features of the oriental Herakles type that is found all across the Near East'”. In addition to terracottas, coins bearing the likeness of Herakles have also been uncovered on the island. Mørkholm writes, “on the obverse [of 12 coins] there is a representation of the hero Herakles, bearing the lion skin which he wore after his victory over the Nemean lion.”