Canaanite Gods
Canaanite religion is the name for the group of Ancient
Semitic religions practiced by the Canaanites living in the ancient Levant from
at least the early Bronze Age through the first centuries of the Common Era.
Canaanite religion was polytheistic, and in some cases monolatristic.
In Canaanite mythology there were twin mountains Targhizizi and Tharumagi which
hold the firmament up above the earth-circling ocean, thereby bounding the
earth. The idea of two mountains being
associated here as the breasts of the Earth, fits into the Canaanite mythology
quite well. The ideas of pairs of mountains seem to be quite common in Canaanite
mythology (similar to Horeb and Sinai in the Bible).
The late period of this cosmology makes it difficult to tell what influences
(Roman, Greek, or Hebrew) may have informed Philo's writings.
In the Baal cycle, Ba'al Hadad is challenged by and defeats Yam, using two magical weapons (called "Driver" and "Chaser") made for Him by Kothar-wa-Khasis. Afterward, with the help of Athirat and Anat, Ba'al persuades El to allow Him a palace. El approves, and the palace is built by Kothar-wa-Khasis. After the palace is constructed, Ba'al gives forth a thunderous roar out of the palace window and challenges Mot. Mot enters through the window and swallows Ba'al, sending Him to the Underworld. With no one to give rain, there is a terrible drought in Ba'al's absence. The other deities, especially El and Anat, are distraught that Ba'al has been taken to the Underworld. Anat goes to the Underworld, attacks Mot with a knife, grinds Him up into pieces, and scatters Him far and wide. With Mot defeated, Ba'al is able to return and refresh the Earth with rain.
The Akkadian word "kinahhu", however referred to the purple-colored wool, dyed from the Murex molluscs of the coast, which was throughout history a key export of the region. When the Greeks later traded with the Canaanites, this meaning of the word seems to have predominated as they called the Canaanites the Phoenikes or "Phoenicians", which may derive from the Greek word "Phoenix" meaning crimson or purple, and again described the cloth for which the Greeks also traded. The Romans transcribed "phoenix" to "poenus", thus calling the descendants of the Canaanite settlers in Carthage "Punic". Thus while "Phoenician" and "Canaanite" refer to the same culture, archaeologists and historians commonly refer to the Bronze Age, pre-1200 BC Levantines as Canaanites and their Iron Age descendants, particularly those living on the coast, as Phoenicians. More recently, the term Canaanite has been used for the secondary Iron Age states of the interior, that were not ruled by Aramaean peoples, a separate and closely related ethnic group which included the Philistines and the states of Israel and Judah.
Canaanite religion was strongly influenced by their more powerful and populous
neighbors, and shows clear influence of Mesopotamian and Egyptian religious
practices. Like other people of the Ancient Near East Canaanite religious
beliefs were polytheistic, with families typically focusing worship on ancestral
household gods and goddesses, the Elohim, while acknowledging the existence of
other deities such as Baal and El. Kings also played an important religious role
and in certain ceremonies, such as the sacred marriage of the New Year Festival
may have been revered as gods. "At the center of Canaanite religion was
royal concern for religious and political legitimacy and the imposition of a
divinely ordained legal structure, as well as peasant emphasis on fertility of
the crops, flocks, and humans." Canaanite religion was influenced by its
peripheral position, intermediary between Egypt and Mesopotamia, whose religions
had a growing impact upon Canaanite religion. The Hurrian
goddess Hebat was worshiped in Jerusalem, and Baal was closely considered
equivalent to the Hurrian storm god Teshub and the Hittite storm god Tarhunt.
Canaanite divinities seem to have been almost identical in form and function to
the neighboring Aramaeans to the east, and Baal Hadad and El can be
distinguished amongst earlier Amorites, who at the end of the Early Bronze Age
invaded Mesopotamia.
Carried west by Phoenician sailors, Canaanite religious influences can be seen
in Greek mythology, particularly in the tripartite division between the
Olympians Zeus, Poseidon and Hades, mirroring the division between Baal, Yam and
Mot, and in the story of the Labours of Hercules, mirroring the stories of the
Tyrian Melkart, who was often equated with Hercules.
Some Canaanite Gods;
Anat - virgin goddess of war and strife, sister and putative mate of Ba'al Hadad
Athirat - "walker of the sea", Mother Goddess, wife of El (also known as Elat and after the Bronze Age as Asherah)
Athtart - better known by her Greek name Astarte, assists Anat in The Myth of Ba'al
Baalat - or Baalit, the wife or female counterpart of Baal (also Belili)
Ba'al Hadad - storm god, perhaps superseded El as head of the Pantheon
Baal Hammon - god of fertility and renewer of all energies in the Phoenician colonies of the Western Mediterranean
Dagon - god of crop fertility and grain, father of Baal or Hadad
Eshmun - god, or as Baalat Asclepius, goddess, of healing
Ishat - goddess of fire. She was slain by Anat.
Kotharat - goddesses of marriage and pregnancy
Kothar-wa-Khasis - the skilled, god of craftsmanship
Lotan - serpent ally of Yam
Marqod - God of Dance
Melqart - king of the city, the underworld and cycle of vegetation in Tyre
Molech - or Moloch, putative god of fire
Mot - or Mawat, god of death (not worshiped or given offerings)
Nikkal-wa-Ib - goddess of orchards and fruit
Qadeshtu - putative goddess of love, modernly thought to be a sacred prostitute, although there is no evidence of sacred prostitution in ancient Canaanite cities
Resheph - god of plague and of healing
Shachar - and Shalim, twin gods of dawn and dusk, respectively
Shamayim - the god of the heavens
Shapash - also transliterated Shapshu, goddess of the sun; sometimes equated with the Mesopotamian sun god Shemesh whose gender is disputed
Yam-nahar - or Yaw, also called Judge Nahar.
Yarikh - god of the moon and husband of Nikkal
Some Hittite Gods;
A'as - god of wisdom, derived from the Mesopotamian god Enki
Alalus - primordial entity
Arinna - sun goddess and consort of Tarhunt
Arinniti - sun goddess, possibly another name for Arinna
Arma - minor moon god
Aruna - god of the sea and son of Kamrusepa
Aserdus - goddess of fertility and wife of Elkunirsa
Elkunirsa - creator god and husband of Aserdus
Ellel - god of the sky and protector of oaths
Halki - god of grain
Hannahannah - mother goddess
Hanwasuit - goddess of sovereignty
Hasameli - god of metalworkers and craftsmen
Hazzi - god of the mountains and oaths
Hutena - goddesses of fate, similar to the Moirae
Inara - goddess of the wild animals of the steppe
Ishara - goddess of oaths and love
Istanu - god of the sun and of judgement
Jarri - god of plague and pestilence
Kamrusepa - goddess of healing, medicine and magic
Kaskuh - god of the moon
Khipa - tutelary deity
Lelwani - goddess of the underworld
Pirwa - deity of uncertain nature
Rundas - god of the hunt and good fortune
Sandas - lion god
Sarruma - god of the mountains, son of Teshub and Hebat
Šauška - goddess of fertility, war and healing
Sutekh - weather god, possibly another name for Teshub
Telepinu - god of farming
Teshub - god of the sky, weather and storms
Tilla - bull god
Upelluri - god of dreaming
Wurrukatte - god of war
Zababa - god of war, possibly another name for Wurrukatte