text: The earliest record of ʿAttar-Šamayin is from an Aramaic inscription on the 8th-century BC cylinder seal belonging to an individual named , who is described in the inscription as a  (. ); Barruq's own name, which means "thunder," was a reference to ʿAttar-Šamayin in his role as a god associated with thunder and lightning.
  In Africa
  In the Kingdom of Aksum situated in the Horn of Africa, ʿAttar was worshiped: as the god of the sun and moon and as the father of the other members of the Axumite pantheon: Maher and Beher, the former of which they shared with the Himyarite Kingdom. He was associated with the god Zeus.
  In South Arabia
  Among the ancient South Arabians,  () was a masculine deity who had retained the prominence of his role as the deity of the planet Venus as the Morning Star, and was a god presiding over thunderstorms and who provided natural irrigation as rain. ʿAṯtar thus held a very important place within the ancient South Arabian pantheon, in which he replaced the old Semitic high god ʾIl as the supreme deity.
  The name of ʿAṯtar was suffixed with a mimation in the South Arabian kingdom of Ḥaḍramawt, thus giving the Ḥaḑramitic form  ().