Maher or Maḥrem is a god of the Aksumites and the Himyarites. He was the son of the main god Ashtar, and his counterpart was Beher, god of the sea. He was the deity of war, comparable to Mars or Ares in ancient Greek mythology, who used both forms of the interpretatio. The god Maher (or Mahrem) held a place of special importance with the Axumites; the gods of period were all called the Sons of the Invincible Mahrem
Beher was the pre-Christian Ethiopian (Aksumite) god of the sea. He was the head of a trinity of pre-Christian Ethiopian religion, together with Ashtar (the supreme god) and Ashtar's son Maher (god of war).
Attar (god), an Ethiopian Aksumite god
During the Yeha period, the Ethiopian religion seems to have been little different from that of Sheba. The major deities were the familiar Semitic triad of the Sun, the Moon, and Venus. In the Aksumite period a somewhat different triad emerged, consisting of Ashtar (Venus), the sea god Behr, and the earth god Medr. The sun was a female deity, called by the Sabaean name Zat-Badar. As the military power of Aksum expanded, the war god Mahram assumed increasing importance and became the special tutelary of the Aksumite rulers.
At Yeha, Aksum, and various provincial towns there were temples and altars dedicated to several of the principal deities.The buildings stood upon an elevated, stepped platform and were approached by a monumental stairway. Very few interior details of the temples have survived, but the exterior walls were embellished with various patterns of projecting and recessed paneling. Outside the temples were votive stelae and offering tables, many of them commemorating the military victories of particular rulers. Animal and also human sacrifices were apparently a regular feature of the victory celebrations.
The most extraordinary monuments of Aksumite religious architecture are the great stone stelae erected over the tombs of many rulers. They are elaborately carved in the form of miniature skyscrapers, with a false door at the bottom and row upon row of false windows above. They are, however, devoid of inscription. Underground, the royal dead were interred in large rock-cut burial chambers, but these have been so thoroughly plundered that no offerings have ever been found in them. For this reason, and in the absence of inscriptions, it is difficult to form an impression of the part that mortuary ritual played in the religious life of the ancient Ethiopians.
