Baal

Baʿal
God of fertility, weather, rain, wind, lightning, seasons, war, sailors
Solid cast bronze of a votive figurine representing the god Baal discovered at Tel Megiddo, dating to the mid-2nd millennium BC.
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[4]
Mesopotamian equivalent	Hadad
Hurrian equivalent	Teshub
Egyptian equivalent	Set (due to being a foreign god in Egypt, since Set was the god of foreigners – otherwise Baal Zephon equivalent with Hadad who is analogous to Ba’al, was also equated with Horus)[5]

Baal (/ˈbeɪ.əl, ˈbɑː.əl/),^[6][a] or Baʻal^[b] (Hebrew: בַּעַל baʿal), was a title and honorific meaning 'owner' or 'lord' in the Northwest Semitic languages spoken in the Levant during antiquity. From its use among people, it came to be applied to gods.^[11] Scholars previously associated the theonym with solar cults and with a variety of unrelated patron deities, but inscriptions have shown that the name Ba'al was particularly associated with the storm and fertility god Hadad and his local manifestations.^[12]

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.

The Ugaritic god Baal is the protagonist of one of the lengthiest surviving epics from the ancient Near East, the Baal Cycle.

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