Baal

Picture: Gold and silver foil-covered image of the Canaanite god Baal. The god's name means 'lord' or 'master' and could apply to several deities with similar characteristics. Canaanite, c. 1900 BC.

Mythology of Baal

Baal was the West Semitic storm god, the equivalent of the Amorite deity Adad or Hadad, and the centrally important deity of the Canaanites. The Hebrew Bible records the ancient Israelites apostasizing interaction with this god, and Late Bronze Age texts found at Ras Shamra (the ancient Ugarit) on the Levantine coast show that by c. 1400 BC Baal had displaced the god El to become the most prominent deity in the local pantheon. Believed to be active in storms, he was known as 'rider of the clouds' and 'lord of heaven and earth'; he also controlled the earth's fertility. According to the surviving ancient Near Eastern myths, Baal vanquished Yam, the tyrannical god of the sea, but was eventually himself overcome by Mot, a personification of death, and descended into the underworld. Baal returned to life with the help of his sister-consort Anat in a manner similar to the death and ressurection of Osiris; and although the two gods do not seem to have been directly connected in Egypt, the similar background may well have aided Baal's acceptance there. His bellicose nature as god of storm meant that he was naturally equated with the Egyptian god Seth, and Ramesses II himself was said to appear at the Battle of Kadesh like Seth and "Baal himself".

Iconography of Baal

Usually represented in anthropomorphic cform, Baal was depicted as a powerful warrior with long hair and a full, sightly curved Syrian-style beard. He was a conical, funnel-like helmet with two horns attached at its base and often carried a straight-balded sword at the belt or a short kilt. The god was also often depicted grasping a cedar tree club or spear in his left hand and a weapon or thunderbolt in his upraised right hand. This imagery is common to many Near Eastern storm gods and may have been the origin of the later iconography of the Greek god Zeus. Baal's cult animal was the bull symbolizing his power and fertility - and in Near Eastern art he is frequently depicted standing on the back of a bull.

Worship of Baal

By the 18th dynasty Baal worship had penetrated Egypt, and the god was formally served at several sites, and important cult center being located at Baal Saphon near Peluseum in the northern Delta. He was also popular at Memphis and in several other areas, his popularity being attested in Egyptian theophoric names during New Kingdom and later times.