06 Primarily benificent and non-hostile gods p4 (Canaanite/Ugaritic Mythology)
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This article is from the Canaanite/Ugaritic Mythology FAQ, by Christopher B. Siren cbsiren@hopper.unh.edu with numerous contributions by others.
06 Primarily benificent and non-hostile gods p4 (Canaanite/Ugaritic Mythology)
Sheger ('offspring of cattle') - god of cattle
Ithm - god of sheep
Hirgab - father of the eagles.
S,umul - mother of the eagles. She ate the body of Aqhat.
Elsh - the steward (carpenter?) of El and of Baal's house. His wife is
the stewardess(carpenter?) of the goddesses.
Sha'taqat 'drives away' - flying demoness who drives away Keret's disease
on behalf of El with a touch of her wand to his head. She is created by
El out of mud.
'god(s) of the fathers' - ancestral or clan deities, commonly associated
with one family or another, outside of the main pantheon.
Nikkal-and-Ib 'great lady and clear/bright/fruit' or 'Great goddess of
fruit' (Ningal) - possibly the daughter of Dagon of Tuttul, or else of
Khirkhib. She is romanced by Yarikh and marries him after Yarikh aranges
a brideprice with Khirkhib and pays it to her parents.
Khirkhib (was thought to be Hiribi), king of summer, king of the raiding
season (autumn), - probably a Hurrian deity. He acts as a matchmaker
between Yarikh and Nikkal-and-Ib, initially trying to dissuade Yarikh
from pursuing her suggesting Pidray and Ybrdmy as alternative choices.
Dagon of Tuttul - a Syrian version of Dagon, and the probable father of
Nikkal-and-Ib. Ugarit's Dagon was the father of Baal and may have been
identified with El. There were also temples to Dagon in Mari and Emar.
Baal-Shamen (Baal-Shamain) - 'lord of the skies' and of the Assembly of
the gods at Gubla. He was the great god of the Aramaean kingdoms of Hama
and Laash and the protector of their rulers.
Milqart (Melqart, Baal Tsur, Milkashtart?) - 'king of the city', the hunter,
'fire in heaven'. Patron god of Tyre. He was the god of the Metropolis
and of Tyre and Carthage's monarchies. His cult spread throughout the
Meditereanean region, but has not been found in second
millenium sites. As with the Babylonian Nergal/Erra, he has been
identified with Heracles archetypes. Greek sources imply that he was a
dying and rising vegetation god, and that he was associated with the
sacred marriage like the Sumerian god, Dumuzi. In an annual festival,
he was burned in a ritual cremation which may explain Elissa's manner
of death. He also was associated with the sea and was pictured riding a
hippocampus.
Eshmun - 'the holy prince' god of healing and the great god in Sidon. He
was known in Tyre, Cyprus, and Carthage, but not in Ugarit. In the 5th
century AD, Damascius identified him with the Greek god Aesclepius.
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