Baal

**Baal**, also known as **Ba'al**, was an important god among the West Semitic people, notably the Canaanites. He was seen as the god of fertility, weather, rain, wind, lightning, seasons, war, and sailors.

## Overview

### Original mythology

At some point Baal replaced the prominent god El within the West Semitic and Canaanite pantheons, and he was notably worshipped in the ancient city of Ugarit around 1400 BCE. His was most commonly paired with either Anath, his sister-consort and the goddess of war, the sky and the hunt or Ashtoreth, the goddess of war and sexuality.

In the surviving myths of Ugarit, Baal ascends as the head of the pantheon, but in order to so, he has to battle several chaotic foes: Lotan, the dragon from the sea, Yamm, the god of the sea and rivers, and eventually Mot, the god of death and the underworld, whom he managed to overcome and eventually come back to life with the help of Anat and ascending to Mount Zaphon.

### Baal in the Bible

The worship of Baal among the Israelites (along all other pagan deities) is condemned within the Old Testament of the Bible.

The most notable case is likely within the Book of Kings, where the Phoenician princess Jezebel married Ahab, the king of Israel and introduced the worship of Baal into the land. Yahweh's prophet Elijah notably confronted 450 prophets of Baal, claiming whosoever god answers his worshippers to perform a miracle (lighting a fire on a sacrificed bull) should be worshipped in Israel. The competition ended in Elijah's victory.

He would later be associated with the figure of Satan and lead to the figure of Beelzebub, a prince of demons.

### Baal in Other Mythologies

Baal's ascendency and domination of chaos is similar to other Mediterranean and Ancient Near Eastern mythologies and religions. Baal's combat with Yamm is likely based on earlier Mesopotamian traditions, such as Ninurta's struggle against the Anzû-bird or Marduk's struggle combat against Tiamat.

The worship of Baal arrived in Egypt mainly through the Hyksos, and he received worship from the locals. While Baal's story of resurrection made him somewhat similar to Osiris, the Egyptian god of the underworld and fertility, he was more closely associated with Seth, the god storms, deserts and chaos or Montu, a falcon-headed war god.

Imagery and titles of Baal (and other storm gods) was used in the Old Testament when describing figures such as YHWH and the Son of Man in the Book of Daniel, who would later be identified with Jesus Christ in the New Testament. Examples of this is the battle between YHWH and Leviathan in the Psalms and Isiah as well as the use of the title "rides on the clouds".

## Different Baal's

The word Baal was a common title for "master" or "lord", and could be applied to several different local deities deities in ancient West Semitic cities.

### Notable Baal's:

* **Baal-Addir**, patron god of the city of Byblos, associated with fertility and the underworld.
* **Baal-Biq'ah**, patron god of the city of Baalbek, associated with weather, sky and the sun, later syncretised with Zeus.
* **Baal-Hadad**, patron god of the city of Ugarit, associated with the Mesopotamian god of storm-god Adad. Usually seen as the standard "Baal", who battles Yam and Lotan.
* **Baal Hammon**, patron-god of Carthage and important deity among the Phoenicians. He was a god of fertility and children were sacrificed to him. The Greeks and Romans associated him with Cronus and Saturn.