CANAANITE MYTHOLOGY

El Elyon or El - (meaning

"God Most High").

Ba'al - meaning "lord", "owner", "master", or "husband". He was the son of El, the chief god, and Asherah, the goddess of the sea. Was revered as the god with power over rain, wind, clouds, and therefore over fertility.

> The name Canaan means "Land of Purple"(a purple dye was extracted from a murex shellfish found near the shores of Palestine).

> The largest collection of early documents from the Canaanite lands was found in Ugarit. The first Semitic settlement was formed there around 3000 BCE. The texts offer insights into the religious practices of the community. However, the extent of these practices throughout the region cannot be known. It is doubtful that the practices of the Ugarit settlement were found throughout all of the Palestinian region referred to in the Hebrew Bible as the Land of Canaan.

> Canaan is an area of the Ancient Near East that encompasses the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea. It includes parts of modern Lebanon, Syria, and Palestine. The Canaanites were never a cohesive empire, nation, or state, but as a collection of city-states and kingdoms they shared a geographic region and cultural similarities.

Asherah or Athirat or Astoret- "walker of the sea", mother Goddess, wife of El (also known as Elat), known after the Bronze Age as Asherah. supposedly brought fertility to the people who worshipped her.

Anat or Anath - virgin goddess of War and

Strife, mate and sister of Ba'al Hadad.

Daugther of El.

Astarte - She was a fertility goddess often worshipped through dancing and self-mutilation with knives and whips.

Ba'al Hadad - A storm god who superseded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.

“Canaan”

-Was the name of a large and prosperous country.

-The origin of the name "Canaan" for the land comes from various ancient text (among them the Hebrew Bible) and there is no scholarly consensus or precisely where the name originated nor what it was intended to convey about the land.

●According to the Bible the land was named after a man called Canaan the grandson of Noah (Genesis10)

●"Canaan" as derived from Hurrian language for "purple" and, as the Greeks knew the Canaanites as "Phoenicians"

BA’AL CYCLE

Basic synopsis:

The Baʿal Cycle series of stories are summarized thus:

>Yam wants to rule over the other gods and be the most powerful of all

>Baʿal Hadad opposes Yam and slays him

>Baʿal Hadad, with the help of Anath and Athirat, persuades El to allow him a palace

>Baʿal Hadad commissions Kothar-wa-Khasis to build him a palace.

>King of the gods and ruler of the world seeks to subjugate Mot

>Mot kills Baʿal Hadad

>Anath brutally kills Mot, grinds him up and scatters ashes

>Baʿal Hadad returns to Mount Saphon

>Mot, having recovered from being ground up and scattered, challenges Baʿal Hadad

>Baʿal Hadad refuses; Mot submits

>Baʿal Hadad rules again

BACKGROUND:

STORY OF KERET

CHARACTERS:

El: The head of the pantheon, father to many of the gods and mankind, patron of mortal kings, consort of the goddess Asherah. Common epithets include "Father", "Bull El", "El the Compassionate". Generally a benevolent guy who likes to help his kids out.

Keret: A Demi-God; King of Hubur.

King Pubala: King of Udum.

Hariya: Daughter of King Pubala.

Athirat or Asherah: Goddess of the Sea.

Elhu: Youngest son of King Keret.

Tatmanat: Only daughter of King Keret.

Shatiqtu: Winged woman who healed Keret.

Yassub: Oldest son of King Keret.

Horonu: Master of Demons.

Dagon - God of crop fertility, usually described as father of Hadad.

Eshmun or Baalat Asclepius - God of healing

(or goddess).

Other Deities:

o The Kathirat (or the Kotharat) - Goddesses of marriage and pregnancy.

o Mot - God of death.

o Yam - God of Sea.

o Baalat (or Baalit) - The wife or female counterpart of Baal (also Belili).

o Attar or Ashtar or Athar - God of the morning star.

o Kothar-wa-Khasis - The skilled, god of craftsmanship.

o Molech or Moloch - God of fire.

o Nikkal - Goddess of orchards and fruit.

o Qadeshtu or Qetesh - Holy One, goddess of love.

o Resheph -God of plague and healing.

o Shalim and Shachar - The Gracious Gods, the Twins.

o Shamayim - The god of the heavens.

o Shapash (Shapshu) - goddess of the sun; sometimes equated with the Mesopotamian sun god Shemesh.

o Yarikh - God of the moon, lover of Nikkal.

STORY OF AQHAT

CHARACTERS:

Ilu/ El: The head of the pantheon, father to many of the gods and mankind, patron of mortal kings, consort of the goddess Asherah. Common epithets include "Father", "Bull El", "El the Compassionate". Generally a benevolent guy who likes to help his kids out.

Danel: A sage and king of the Haranamites

Aqhat: Son of Danel; Mortal

Kothar-wa-Khasis: The skilled, God of craftsmanship.

Anath or Anat: Virgin Goddess of War and Strife.

Yatpan: Henchman of Anath.

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.

- Was polytheistic, and in some cases monolatristic.

- Was an agricultural religion, with pronounced fertility motifs.

- Their main gods were called the Baalim (Lords) and their consorts the Baalot (Ladies) or Asherah (singular) usually known by the personal plural name Ashtoret.

MYTHS / STORIES:

THE BETROTHAL OF YARIKH AND NIKKAL-IB

CHARACTER:

Yarikh: The Canaanite moon god and consort of Nikkal-Ib. A common epithet is "The luminary of the sky."

Nikkal-Ib: Likely a Mesopotamian moon goddess (Ningal) associated with the moon and orchards. Consort of Yarikh.

Khirikhbi: Matchmaker.

Pidray: Ba'al's daughter.

Yaparudmay: Ashtar/Astarte's daughter

Kathart: Seven goddess associated with conception and birth. Their epithet is "The radiant daughters of the new moon."

RELIGION:

CANAANITE DEITIES:

> The religion, beliefs and practices prevalent in ancient Palestine and Syria during the 2nd and 1st millennia B.C. centering primarily on the deities El, Baal, and Anath. From time to time it subverted the essential monotheism of the Israelites after they occupied Canaan, the Promised Land of the Old Testament.

> The religion of the Canaanite peoples was a crude and debased form of ritual polytheism. It was associated with sensuous fertility-cult worship of a particularly lewd and orgiastic kind, which proved to be more influential than any other nature religion in the ANE.

> Before the modern Ugaritic discoveries, all we knew about Canaanite religion came from Old Testament descriptions. Based on contemporary findings, scholars believe that the Canaanites worshipped a family of gods and goddesses.

Canaanite deities had two striking features: their personality and power were constantly changing, and their names had meanings and sources that could be easily traced. From these facts, most scholars have concluded that the Canaanite religion was relatively primitive.

CULTURES:

FAST FACTS:

What?

What was Canaan? Canaan was an ancient nation of diverse peoples and widespread idolatry. The Israelites, led by Joshua, conquered many of the Canaanite city-states.

Where?

Where was the land of Canaan? The land occupied much of Palestine west of the Jordan river and some parts of southern Syria.

When?

When did Canaan exist? It existed from about 2500 BC until about 1100 BC. It eventually disappeared as the Israelites conquered the western territories and the Philistines invaded from the coastal areas.

Why?

The Canaanites were notorious for their orgies and other perverted forms of worship. The Israelites had to fight a constant battle to avoid the decay that came from the dangerous idolatry of Canaan.

How?

How did God choose to end the evil influence of the Canaanites? The Lord ordered Joshua to destroy the idols and everything associated with Canaan’s corrupt culture. Sadly, many Israelites refused to take the warning seriously and harmed their nation.

Sacrifices in Worship

As the Canaanites struggled to survive in a hostile land, they offered sacrifices to the gods they believed would help them prosper. If the gods and goddesses were pleased by the worship, the result would be a plentiful harvest. Canaanite worship featured a shrine or "high place" where sacrifices were offered. Archaeological evidence indicates that animals of all sizes were offered at great temple—shrines such as Beth-shan. (Cities often received their names from the temple located there: beth means "temple," and Shan was patron deity of that particular city.)

One grim practice that Canaanites came to include was human sacrifice mentions Mesha, king of Moab, who offered up his son as a burnt offering to his god Chemosh after losing a battle.

Child Sacrifice

Child sacrifice is the ritualistic killing of children in order to please, propitiate or force a god or supernatural beings in order to achieve a desired result. As such, it is a form of human sacrifice. The practice has received considerable opposition throughout history, and it has often become a target for those engaged in criticism of religion. Child sacrifice is thought to be an extreme extension of the idea that, the more important the object of sacrifice, the more devout the person giving it up is.

Afterlife beliefs and Cult of the Dead

Canaanites believed that following physical death, the npš (usually translated as "soul") departed from the body to the land of Mot. Bodies were buried with grave goods, and offerings of food and drink were made to the dead to ensure that they would not trouble the living. Dead relatives were venerated and sometimes asked for help.

BIRTH OF THE GRACIOUS GODS/SHACHAR AND SHALIM

CHARACTERS:

Ilu/ El: The head of the pantheon, father to many of the gods and mankind, patron of mortal kings, consort of the goddess Asherah. Common epithets include "Father", "Bull El", "El the Compassionate". Generally a benevolent guy who likes to help his kids out.

Schachar and Shalim: The Gracious Gods, the Twins. The morning and evening star.

CANAANITE MYTHOLOGY

PRESENTED BY:

• EUNISSE APIADO
• JERLENE MAE GAGUTE
• DANIELLE MARIZ OMBRETE