Baal

Baʿal
God of fertility, weather, rain, wind, lightning, seasons, war, sailors
The stele of Baal with Thunderbolt found in the ruins of Ugarit
Symbol	Bull, ram, thunderbolt
Region	Ancient Syria, especially Halab Near, around and at Ugarit Canaan North Africa Middle Kingdom of Egypt
Personal information
Parents	Dagan and Shalash (in Syria) El and Athirat (in some Ugaritic texts)
Siblings	Hebat (in Syrian tradition), Anat
Consorts	possibly Anat and/or Athtart[1][2]
Offspring	Pidray, Tallay, Arsay[3]
Equivalents
Greek equivalent	Zeus
Mesopotamian equivalent	Hadad
Hurrian equivalent	Teshub
Egyptian equivalent	Set

Baal (/ˈbeɪəl, ˈbɑːəl/),^[4][a] properly Baʽal,^[b] was a title and honorific meaning "owner", "lord" in the Northwest Semitic languages spoken in the Levant during antiquity. From its use among people, it came to be applied to gods.^[9] Scholars previously associated the theonym with solar cults and with a variety of unrelated patron deities but inscriptions have shown that the name Baʿal was particularly associated with the storm and fertility god Hadad and his local manifestations.^[10]

The Hebrew Bible includes use of the term in reference to various Levantine deities, often with application towards Hadad, who was decried as a false god. That use was taken over into Christianity and Islam, sometimes under the form Beelzebub in demonology.

Etymology[]

The spelling of the English term "Baal" derives from the Greek Báal (Βάαλ which appears in the New Testament^[11] and Septuagint,^[12] and from its Latinized form Baal, which appears in the Vulgate.^[12] These forms in turn derive from the vowel-less Northwest Semitic form BʿL (Phoenician and Punic: WIKI