Bronze figurine of a Baal, ca. fourteenth-twelfth century BC,
found at Ras Shamra (ancient Ugarit) near the Phoenician coast.
Musée du Louvre.
The Baal cycle
The Baal Cycle is a Ugaritic cycle of stories about the Canaanite god Baal, also known as Hadad the god of rain, storm and fertility. It represents Baal’s destruction of Yam (the chaos sea monster), demonstrating the relationship of Canaanite chaoskampf with those of Mesopotamia and the Aegean: a warrior god rises up as the hero of the new pantheon to defeat chaos and bring order.
They are written in Ugaritic, a language written in a cuneiform alphabet, on a series of clay tablets found in the 1920s in the Tell of Ugarit (modern Ras Shamra), situated on the Mediterranean coast of northern Syria, a few kilometers north of the modern city of Latakia, far ahead of the now known coast.
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The Baal Cycle series of stories are summarized thus:
Yam wants to rule over the other gods and be the most powerful of all
Baal-Hadad opposes Yam and slays him
Baal-Hadad, with the help of Anath and Athirat, persuades El to allow him a palace
Baal-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 Baal-Hadad
Anath brutally kills Mot, grinds him up and scatters ashes
Baal-Hadad returns to Mount Saphon
Mot, having recovered from being ground up and scattered, challenges Baal-Hadad
Baal-Hadad refuses; Mot submits
Baal-Hadad rules again
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