Ba'al

**Ba'al** is a term in the Middle East referring to Gods, or Lords. Most of these titles were associated with the Egyptian god of storms, lightning, rain, and fertility, Ba'al. Many "false" gods such as Hadad and Beezelbub also share this title among their worshippers.

## Semitic Religion

### Generic

Like EN in Sumerian, the Akkadian *bēlu* and Northwest Semitic *baʿal* (as well as its feminine form *baʿalah*) was used as a title of various deities in the Mesopotamian and Semitic pantheons. Only a definitive article, genitive or epithet, or context could establish which particular god was meant.

### Hadad

Baʿal was also used as a proper name by the third millennium BCE, when he appears in a list of deities at Abu Salabikh. Most modern scholarship asserts that this Baʿal—usually distinguished as "The Lord" (הבעל, *Ha Baʿal*)—was identical with the storm and fertility god Hadad; it also appears in the form *Baʿal Haddu*. Scholars propose that, as the cult of Hadad increased in importance, his true name came to be seen as too holy for any but the high priest to speak aloud and the alias "Lord" ("Baʿal") was used instead, as "Bel" was used for Marduk among the Babylonians and "Adonai" for Yahweh among the Israelites. A minority propose that Baʿal was a native Canaanite deity whose cult was identified with or absorbed aspects of Adad's. Regardless of their original relationship, by the 1st millennium BCE, the two were distinct: Hadad was worshipped by the Aramaeans and Baʿal by the Phoenicians and other Canaanites.

### El

The Phoenician Baʿal is generally identified with either El or Dagan.

### Baʿal

Baʿal is well-attested in surviving inscriptions and was popular in theophoric names throughout the Levant but he is usually mentioned along with other gods, "his own field of action being seldom defined". Nonetheless, Ugaritic records show him as a weather god, with particular power over lightning, wind, rain, and fertility. The dry summers of the area were explained as Baʿal's time in the underworld and his return in autumn was said to cause the storms which revived the land. Thus, the worship of Baʿal in Canaan—where he eventually supplanted El as the leader of the gods and patron of kingship—was connected to the regions' dependence on rainfall for its agriculture, unlike Egypt and Mesopotamia, which focused on irrigation from their major rivers. Anxiety about the availability of water for crops and trees increased the importance of his cult, which focused attention on his role as a rain god. He was also called upon during battle, showing that he was thought to intervene actively in the world of man, unlike the more aloof El. The Lebanese city of Baalbeck was named after Baal.

The Baʿal of Ugarit was the epithet of Hadad but as the time passed, the epithet became the god's name while Hadad became the epithet. Baʿal was usually said to be the son of Dagan, but appears as one of the sons of El in Ugaritic sources. Both Baʿal and El were associated with the bull in Ugaritic texts, as it symbolized both strength and fertility. The virgin goddess ʿAnat is his older sister and wife. She is sometimes mentioned bearing his child.[*citation needed*] He held special enmity against snakes, both on their own and as representatives of Yammu (lit. "Sea"), the Canaanite sea god and river god. He fought the Tannin (*Tunnanu*), the "Twisted Serpent" (*Bṭn ʿqltn*), "Lotan the Fugitive Serpent" (*Ltn Bṭn Brḥ*, the biblical Leviathan), and the "Mighty One with Seven Heads" (*Šlyṭ D.šbʿt Rašm*). Baʿal's conflict with Yammu is now generally regarded as the prototype of the vision recorded in the 7th chapter of the biblical Book of Daniel. As vanquisher of the sea, Baʿal was regarded by the Canaanites and Phoenicians as the patron of sailors and sea-going merchants. As vanquisher of Mot, the Canaanite death god, he was known as Baʿal Rāpiʾuma (*Bʿl Rpu*) and regarded as the leader of the Rephaim (*Rpum*), the ancestral spirits, particularly those of ruling dynasties.

From Canaan, worship of Baʿal spread to Egypt by the Middle Kingdom and throughout the Mediterranean following the waves of Phoenician colonization in the early 1st millennium BCE. He was described with diverse epithets and, before Ugarit was rediscovered, it was supposed that these referred to distinct local gods. However, as explained by Day, the texts at Ugarit revealed that they were considered "local manifestations of this particular deity, analogous to the local manifestations of the Virgin Mary in the Roman Catholic Church". In those inscriptions, he is frequently described as "Victorious Baʿal" (*Aliyn* or *ẢlỈyn Baʿal*), "Mightiest one" (*Aliy* or *ʿAly*) or "Mightiest of the Heroes" (*Aliy Qrdm*), "The Powerful One" (*Dmrn*), and in his role as patron of the city "Baʿal of Ugarit" (*Baʿal Ugarit*). As Baʿal Zaphon (*Baʿal Ṣapunu*), he was particularly associated with his palace atop Jebel Aqra (the ancient Mount Ṣapānu and classical Mons Casius). He is also mentioned as "Winged Baʿal" (*Bʿl Knp*) and "Baʿal of the Arrows" (*Bʿl Ḥẓ*). Phoenician and Aramaic inscriptions describe *Bʿl Krntryš*, "Baʿal of the Lebanon" (*Bʿl Lbnn*), "Baʿal of Sidon" (*Bʿl Ṣdn*), *Bʿl Ṣmd*, "Baʿal of the Heavens" (*Baʿal Shamem* or *Shamayin*), Baʿal ʾAddir (*Bʿl ʾdr*), Baʿal Hammon (*Baʿal Ḥamon*), *Bʿl Mgnm*.

### Baʿal Hammon

Baʿal Hammon was worshipped in the Tyrian colony of Carthage as their supreme god. It is believed that this position developed in the 5th century BCE following the severing of its ties to Tyre following the 480 BCE Battle of Himera. Like Hadad, Baʿal Hammon was a fertility god. Inscriptions about Punic deities tend to be rather uninformative, though, and he has been variously identified as a moon god[*citation needed*] and as Dagan, the grain god. Rather than the bull, Baʿal Hammon was associated with the ram and depicted with his horns. The archaeological record seems to bear out accusations in Roman sources that the Carthaginians burned their children as human sacrifices to him. He was worshipped as Baʿal Karnaim ("Lord of the Two Horns"), particularly at an open-air sanctuary at Jebel Bu Kornein ("Two-Horn Hill") across the bay from Carthage. His consort was the goddess Tanit.

The epithet Hammon is obscure. Most often, it is connected with the NW Semitic *ḥammān* ("brazier") and associated with a role as a sun god. Renan and Gibson linked it to Hammon (modern Umm el-‘Amed between Tyre in Lebanon and Acre in Israel) and Cross and Lipiński to Haman or Khamōn, the classical Mount Amanus and modern Nur Mountains, which separate northern Syria from southeastern Cilicia.