Baʽalat Gebal
Baʽalat Gebal, 'Lady of Byblos', was the goddess of the city of Byblos, Phoenicia in ancient times. She was sometimes known to the Greeks as Baaltis or Atargatis.[1][2]
| Fertile Crescent myth series | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Mesopotamian | |
| Levantine | |
| Arabian | |
| Near Eastern Religions | |
| The Levant | |
Baʽalat Gebal was generally identified with the pan-Semitic goddess ʽAshtart (Astarte) and, like ʽAshtart, equated with the Greek goddess Aphrodite. However, Sanchuniathon presents Baʽalat Gebal as a sister of ʽAshtart and Asherah, and calls Baʽalat Gebal by the name Dione, meaning that he identified her either with Asherah or with the mother of Greek Aphrodite, the Titan goddess Dione. According to Sanchuniathon, Baaltis/Dione, like Asherah and ʽAshtart, was a sister and wife of 'El. He states that she bore daughters to El and that it was El who gave the city of Byblos to her.
Baʽalat Gebal was distinguished in iconography from ʽAshtart or other aspects of ʽAshtart or similar goddesses by two, tall, upright feathers in her headdress.
The temple of Baʽalat Gebal in Byblos was built around 2700 BC. Dedications from Egyptians begin appearing from the second to the 6th Egyptian dynasties. Two of these inscriptions equate Baʽalat Gebal with the Egyptian goddess Hathor. Frank Moore Cross writes that at Sinai Baʽalat seems to have referred to Hathor and possibly to Qudšu (see Qetesh), who is Asherah.[3]
Bibliography
- Jean-Pierre Thiollet, Je m'appelle Byblos (My name is Byblos), H & D, 2005. ISBN 2 914 266 04 9
References
- "The Role of the Temple of Ba'alat Gebal as Intermediary between Egypt and Byblos during the Old Kingdom". JSTOR 25152861. Missing or empty
|url=(help) - "Bronze figure of Ba'alat Gebal". The British Museum. Retrieved 1 September 2014.
- Frank Moore Cross (30 June 2009). Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic: Essays in the History of the Religion of Israel. Harvard University Press. pp. 28–. ISBN 978-0-674-03008-4. Retrieved 11 July 2013.