Shalim

Shalim (derived from the triconsonantal Semitic root S-L-M, and also romanized as Shalem, Salem, and Salim) was the name of a god in the Canaanite religion pantheon, mentioned in inscriptions found in Ugarit (Ras Shamra) in Syria.Golan, 2003, p. 82. "The name of the Canaanite deity of the setting sun Salim, or Salem, [...] The names [of Sahar and Salim] are rendered in modern scholarly texts as Shakhar and Shalim [...]" William F. Albright identified Shalim as the god of dusk, and Shahar, as the goddess of the dawn.Albright, 1990,p. 187; cf. the Akkadian word for sunset, šalām šamši. In the Dictionary of deities and demons in the Bible, Shalim is also identified as the deity representing Venus or the "Evening Star," and Shahar, the "Morning Star".
==Ugaritic inscriptions==
An Ugaritic myth known as The Gracious and Most Beautiful Gods, describes Shalim and his sister Shahar as offspring of El through two women he meets at the seashore. They are both nursed by "The Lady", likely Anat (Athirat or Asherah), and have appetites as large as "(one) lip to the earth and (one) lip to the heaven." In other Ugaritic texts, they are associated with the sun goddess.van der Toorn et al., 1999, pp. 755-6.
Another inscription is a sentence repeated three times in a para-mythological text, "Let me invoke the gracious gods, the voracious gods of ym." Ym in most Semitic languages means "day," and Shalim and Shahar the twin deities of the dusk and dawn, were conceived of as its beginning and end.van der Toorn et al., 1999, p. 222.
Shalim is also mentioned separately in the Ugaritic god lists and forms of his name also appear in personal names, perhaps as a divine name or epithet.
Many scholars believe that the name of Shalim is preserved in the name of the city Jerusalem.N. Na'aman, Canaanite Jerusalem and its central hill country neighbours in the second millenium B.C.E., Ugarit-Forschungen Vol. 24 (1992), pp275-291.L. Grabbe, Ethnic groups in Jerusalem, in Jerusalem in Ancient History and Tradition (Clark International, 2003) pp145-163.John Day, Yahweh and the gods and goddesses of Canaan, Sheffield Academic Press 2002, p180
==References==
==Bibliography==
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==See also==
*Almaqah
*Wadd
*Shahar
Category:Middle Eastern gods
Category:Night gods
Category:Solar gods
Category:Phoenician mythology