** The extension of this term to Syrian countries is proved in the Israelitish epoch by Canaanitish names, such as Adonizedek and Adonibezek, or Jewish names such as Adonijah, Adonikam, Adoniram-Adoram.
*** Movers tried to prove that there was one particular god named Baal, and his ideas, popularised in Prance by M. de Vogiié, prevailed for some time: since then scholars have gone back to the view of Münter and of the writers at the beginning of this century, who regarded the term Baal as a common epithet applicable to all gods.
The Baal who ruled at Zebub was styled Master of Zebub, or Baal-Zebub;* and the Baal of Hermon, who was an ally of Gad, goddess of fortune, was sometimes called Baal-Hermon, or Master of Hermon, sometimes Baal-G-ad, or Master of Gad; ** the Baal of Shechem, at the time of the Israelite invasion, was Master of the Covenant--Baal-Berîth--doubtless in memory of some agreement which he had concluded with his worshippers in regard to the conditions of their allegiance.
* Baal-Zebub was worshipped at Ekxon during the Philistine supremacy.
** The mountain of Baal-Hermon is the mountain of Baniâs, where the Jordan has one of its sources, and the town of Baal-Hermon is Baniâs itself. The variant Baal-Gad occurs several times in the Biblical books.
*** Baal-Berith, like Baal-Zebub, only occurs, so far as we know at present, in the Hebrew Scriptures, where, by the way, the first element, Baal, is changed to El, El-Berith.
[Illustration: 226.jpg LOTANÛ WOMEN AND CHILDREN FROM THE TOMB OF RAKHMIEÎ]
Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from coloured sketches by Prisse dAvennes.
The prevalent conception of the essence and attributes of these deities was not the same in all their sanctuaries, but the more exalted among them were regarded as personifying the sky in the daytime or at night, the atmosphere, the light,* or the sun, Shamash, as creator and prime mover of the universe; and each declared himself to be king--_melek_--over the other gods.** Bashuf represented the lightning and the thunderbolt;*** Shalmân, Hadad, and his double Bimmôn held sway over the air like the Babylonian.
* This appears under the name _Or_ or _Ur_ in the Samalla inscriptions of the VIIIth century B.C.; it is, so far, a unique instance among the Semites.