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>The interest of the Ugaritic documents lies above all in the fact that they illustrate the phases of the passage from one religious ideology to another. EI is the head of the pantheon. His name means "god" in Semitic, but among the West Semites he is a personal god. He is called "Powerful," "Bull," "Father of Gods and Men," "King," "Father of the Years." He is "holy," "merciful," "very wise." On a stela ofthe fourteenth century he is represented enthroned, majestic, bearded, clad in a long robe, and wearing a tiara crowned by horns. Up to the present, no cosmo gonic text has been found. However, the creation of the stars by hierogamy can be interpreted as reflecting Canaanite cosmogonic conceptions. And indeed text number ("The birth of the gracious and beautiful gods") describes EI impregnating his two wives, Asherah and Anath, with the Morning Star and the Evening Star. Asherah, herself" engendered by EI," is named "Mother of the Gods" (text number); she bore seventy divine sons. Except for Baal, all the gods descend from the first couple, EI-Asherah >Yet, despite the epithets that present him as a powerful god, true "Lord of the Earth," despite the fact that in the sacrificial lists his name is always mentioned first, EI appears in the myths as physically weak, indecisive, senile, resigned. Certain gods treat him with scorn. Finally, his two wives, Asherah and Anath, are taken from him by Baal. We must conclude that the laudatory epithets reflect an earlier situation, when EI was in fact the head of the pantheon
Anonymous
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>We must conclude that the laudatory epithets reflect an earlier situation, when EI was in fact the head of the pantheon. The replacement of an old creator and cosmocrator god by a more dynamic young god, "specialized" in cosmic fertility, is a rather frequent phenomenon. Often the creator becomes a deus otiosus and withdraws farther and farther from his creation. Sometimes his replacement is the result of a conflict between divine generations or between their representatives. Insofar as it is possible to reconstruct the essential themes of Ugaritic mythology, we may say that the texts show us the advancement of Baal to the supreme rank. But it is an advancement obtained by force and cleverness, and it does not lack a certain ambiguity >Baal is the only god who, while reckoned among the sons of El (since the latter was the father of all the gods), is called "Son of Dagan." This god, whose name signifies "grain," was venerated in the third millennium in the Upper and Middle Euphrates regions. However, Dagan plays no part in the mythological texts from Ugarit, where Baal is the chief protagonist. The common noun baal ("master") became his personal name. He also has a proper name, Haddu, that is, Hadad. He is called "Rider of the Clouds," "Prince, Master of the Earth." One of his epithets is Aliyan, the "Powerful," the "Sovereign." He is the source and principle of fertility but is also a warrior, as his sister and wife Anath is at once the goddess of love and war. Beside them, the most important mythological personages are Yam, "Prince Sea, River Regent," and Mot, "Death," who challenge the young god for the supreme power. In fact, a great part of Ugaritic mythology is devoted to the conflict between El and Baal and to Baal's combats with Yam and Mot to impose and maintain his sovereignty
Anonymous
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>Baal captures the sovereignty and triumphs over the Dragon >According to a badly mutilated text. Baal and his confederates attack El by surprise in his palace on Mount Sapan and succeed in tying him up and wounding him. Apparently "something" falls to the ground, which can be interpreted as the castration of the father of the gods. The hypothesis is plausible, not only because, in similar conflicts for the sovereignty, Uranus and the Hurrian/Hittite god Anu are castrated, but also because, despite the hostility he shows to Baal, EI will never attempt to recover his supreme position, not even when he learns that Baal has been killed by Mot. For in the ancient East, such a mutilation excludes the victim of it from sovereignty. Besides, except for text number, in which EI proves his virility by engendering the planetary gods, the Ugaritic documents seem to make him impotent. This explains his submissive and hesitant attitude and also the fact that Baal carries off his wife >By usurping his throne on Mount Sapan, Baal forces EI to take refuge at the end of the world, "at the source of the Rivers, in the hollow of the Abysses," which will henceforth be his dwelling place. Ellaments and implores the help of his family. Yam is the first to hear him, and offers him a strong drink. EI blesses him, gives him a new name, and proclaims him his successor. He further promises to build a palace for him; but he also urges him to drive Baal from the throne
Anonymous
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>The text that describes the combat between Yam and Baal is interrupted by lacunae. Though Yam now appears to be the sovereign, EI is seen, with the majority of the gods, on a mountain that is obviously no longer Mount Sapan. Since Baal has insulted Yam, by declaring that he has presumptuously raised himself to his position and that he will be destroyed, Yam sends messengers and demands that Baal surrender. The gods are frightened, and Baal reprimands them: "Raise your heads, gods, from your knees, and I myself will frighten Yam's messengers!" But EI receives the messengers and declares that Baal is their slave and will pay a tribute to Yam. And since it appears that Baal will prove to be threatening, EI adds that the messengers can easily subdue him. However, helped by Anath, Baal prepares to confront Yam. (According to another tablet, Yam drove Baal from his throne, and it was Anath who vanquished him.) >The divine blacksmith, Koshar-wa-Hasis ("Adroit and Skillful"), brings him two magical cudgels, which have the ability to hurl themselves like arrows from the hands of the user. The first cudgel strikes Yam on the shoulder, but he does not fall. The second strikes his "- forehead, and" Prince Sea" crashes to the ground. Baal finishes him off, and the goddess Athtart asks him to dismember and scatter his corpse
Anonymous
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>Yam is portrayed as at once god and demon. He is the son "loved by El," and, as a god, he receives sacrifices like the other members of the pantheon. On the other hand, he is an aquatic monster, a seven-headed dragon, "Prince Sea," principle and epiphany of the subterranean waters. The mythological meaning of the combat is manifold. On the one hand, on the plane of seasonal and agricultural imagery, Baal's victory signifies the triumph of rain over the sea and the subterranean waters; the rhythm of rain, representing the cosmic norm, replaces the chaotic and sterile immensity of the sea and catastrophic floods. Baal's victory marks the triumph of confidence in order and in the stability of the seasons. On the other hand, the battle with the aquatic Dragon illustrates the emergence of a young god as champion, and hence as new sovereign, of the pantheon. Finally, we can read in this episode the vengeance of the firstborn (Yam) against the usurper who has castrated and dethroned his father (El) >Such combats are paradigmatic, that is, can be repeated indefinitely. It is for this reason that Yam, though "killed" by Baal, will reappear in the texts. Nor is he alone in enjoying a "circular existence." As we shall see, Baal and Mot have a similar mode of being
Anonymous
Anonymous
I thought baal was just a title
Anonymous
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>>19519048 They're all just titles or terms people argue over. Names wouldn't do no good, anyhow.
Anonymous
>>19519048 Baal is not a proper name, but a Lordship title. The most famous god with that title was Hadad, who was the Canaanite/Phoenician version of Zeus/Jupiter, symbolized by a fertile young warrior who controlled the weather. Although associated with bulls, this was because of their fertile/vigorous nature. This is not the case with old El, the Canaanite/Phoenician version of Cronos/Saturn, the King of the Gods who was no longer the fertile bull of his glory days. Moloch means King and El was the King of the Gods, both are associated with Cronos/Saturn, even more so the Carthaginian version of El, Hammon, who the Romans called "African Saturn" and were said to be offered firstborn male babies in scorching blaze in his belly. Making Moloch a chthonic aspect of El/Hammon, an old infertile bull who wanted first male babies/fertility.
A Phoenician historian named Sanchuniathon confirms all of this.
Anonymous
>>19519050 >An account ascribed by the historian Eusebius to the semi-legendary pre-Trojan War Phoenician historian, Sanchuniathon, indicates that Cronus was originally a Canaanite ruler who founded the city of Byblos and was subsequently deified. This report gives his alternate name as Elus or Ilus, and states that in the thirty-second year of his reign, he castrated, slew and deified his father Epigeius. Epigeius, the narrative claims, was thereafter known as Uranus. It further states that after ships were invented, Cronus, visiting the 'inhabitable world', bequeathed Attica to his own daughter, Athena, and Egypt to Thoth, the son of Misor >We are told that ʼĒl slew his own son Sadidus (a name that some commentators think might be a corruption of Shaddai, one of the epithets of the Biblical ʼĒl) and that ʼĒl also beheaded one of his daughters. Later, perhaps referring to this same death of Sadidus we are told: >"But on the occurrence of a pestilence and mortality Cronus offers his only begotten son as a whole burnt-offering to his father Sky and circumcises himself, compelling his allies also to do the same." >A fuller account of the sacrifice appears later: >"It was a custom of the ancients in great crises of danger for the rulers of a city or nation, in order to avert the common ruin, to give up the most beloved of their children for sacrifice as a ransom to the avenging daemons; and those who were thus given up were sacrificed with mystic rites. Cronus then, whom the Phoenicians call Elus, who was king of the country and subsequently, after his decease, was deified as the star Saturn, had by a nymph of the country named Anobret an only begotten son, whom they on this account called Iedud, the only begotten being still so called among the Phoenicians; and when very great dangers from war had beset the country, he arrayed his son in royal apparel, and prepared an altar, and sacrificed him." Anonymous
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>>19519051 >As in the Greek and Hittite theogonies, Sanchuniathon's Elus/Cronus overthrows his father Sky or Uranus and castrates him. However, Zeus Demarûs (that is, Hadad Ramman), purported son of Dagon but actually son of Uranus, eventually joins with Uranus and wages war against Cronus. To El/Cronus is attributed the practice of circumcision. Twice we are told that El/Cronus sacrificed his own son. At some point, peace is made, and Zeus Adados (Hadad) and Astarte reign over the land with Cronus' permission. An account of the events is written by the Cabeiri and by Asclepius, under Thoth's direction
