| Name ▲▼ | Origin ▲▼ | Description ▲▼ |
|---|---|---|
| God name "ADONIS (lord)" | Lebanon / Syria | Fertility and vegetation god. Adonis is modeled on the Mesopotamian dying vegetation god DUMUZI (Hebrew: Tammuz). He appears as a youthful deity. The river Adonis [Nahr Ibrahim] is sacred to him largely because its waters flow red after heavy Winter Rains, having become saturated with ferrous oxide. In Hellenic tradition he is the son of the mythical Cyprian king Cinyras and his mother is MYRRHA. According to Hesiod he is also the son of Phoenix and Alphesiboea. He is the consort of APHRODITE. Tradition has it that he was killed by a boar during a hunting expedition and is condemned to the underworld for six months of each year, during which the earth's vegetation parches and dies under the summer Sun and drought. He was honored in a spring festival when priests in effeminate costume gashed themselves with knives. Frequently depicted nude and sometimes carrying a lyre. Also ATTIS (Phrygian); ATUNIS (Etruscan).... |
| Goddess name "ASERAH" | Amorite, Canaanite,Phoenician, Lebanon, Syria | Mother goddess. Aserah is the great mother goddess of Canaan. Known as Lady Aserah of the sea, she seems to have lived close by the place of IL, the Canaanite creator god, and is said to have had many sons. She is described as the creatress of the gods and the matron of a number of other goddesses who oversee the natural world. She is also ambiguous in her attitude to BAAL. She intercedes with Il when Baal wishes to build a palace of his own yet, when he is vanquished, she attempts to place one of her own offspring on the throne.... |
| Goddess name "ASTARTE (star)" | Semitic, Phoenician, Lebanon, Syria / The goddess of the evening star, of war / of sexual love | Fertility goddess. Inscriptions from the fifth century BC in her major temple at Sidon suggest she was perceived as an emanation of BAAL SAMIN, personifying his Divine power. She is also his consort. Her animal is the sphinx, which typically appears on either side of her throne.... |
| Goddess name "ASTORETH" | Philistine , Israel, Lebanon | Fertility goddess. Astoreth equates with the Syrian goddess ASTARTE, both being modeled on the Mesopotamian ISTAR. She was adopted, typically, as goddess of both love and war. She is usually depicted wearing a horned headdress.... |
| Goddess name "Astoreth" | Israel | Goddess of fertility Palestine / Israel / Lebanon |
| Goddess name "BAAL (lord)" | Western Semitic / Canaanite / northern Israel, Lebanon / later Egypt | vegetation deity and national god. Baal may have originated in pre-agricultural times as god of storms and Rain. He is the son of DAGAN and in turn is the father of seven storm gods, the Baalim of the Vetus Testamentum, and seven midwife goddesses, the SASURATUM. He is considered to have been worshiped from at least the nineteenth century BC. Later he became a vegetation god concerned with fertility of the land. From the mid-sixteenth century BC in the Egyptian New kingdom, Baal enjoyed a significant cult following, but the legend of his demise and restoration was never equated with that of OSIRIS. In the Greco-Roman period, Baal became åśśimilated in the Palestine region with ZEUS and JUPITER, but as a Punic deity [Carthage] he was allied with SATURNUS, the god of seed-sowing.... |
"Christmas Decorations" | Christian | The great feast of Saturn was held in December, when the people decorated the temples with such green things as they could find. The Christian custom is the same but transferred Jesus. The holly or holy-tree is called Christ's-thorn in Germany and Scandinavia, from its use in church decorations and its putting forth its berries about Christmas time. The early Christians gave an emblematic turn to the custom, referring to the "righteous branch," and justifying the custom from Isaiah lx. 13- "The glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee; the fir-tree, the pine-tree, and the box together, to beautify the place of my sanctuary." |
| God name "Il" | Canaan | Creator god Syria / Canaan / Lebanon |
| God name "MOT (death)" | Canaanite / Phoenician / northern Israel, Lebanon / Syrian coastal regions | God of natural adversity. ot is the Canaanite representation of adversity in the natural world. He lives in a pit within the earth and is responsible for its annual death from drought and heat: he has scorched the olive, the produce of the earth and the fruit of the trees. He engages in the clåśśic confrontation with the Canaanite hero and national god, BAAL. Though the duel results in Baal's demise, his death is avenged by his twin sister ANAT, who slays Mot, then cleaves, winnows, burns and grinds him with a millstone, in what appears to be a ritual allied to the sowing of seed and harvesting (see OSIRIS). Baal is later restored. The conflict probably formed the basis of an annual ritual drama at the Canaanite New Year which was held in the autumn. In the texts Mot is the son of Il and his mother is AS'ERAH (ATHIRAT).... |
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