Baal Hammon

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Baʿal Ḥammon
King of the Gods
Statue of Baʿal Hammon on his throne with a crown and flanked by sphinges, 1st century.
ConsortTanit
Equivalents
Greek equivalentCronus
Roman equivalentSaturn
Canaanite equivalentEl
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Ancient Semitic religion
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Deities of the ancient Near East
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Religions of the ancient Near East

Baal Hammon, properly Baʿal Ḥamon (

King of the Gods. He was depicted as a bearded older man with curling ram's horns.[2] Baʿal Ḥammon's female cult partner was Tanit.[3]

Etymology

He is clearly identified as one of the Phoenician deities covered under the name of

Mount Amanus, a peak in the Nur Mountains which separate Syria from Cilicia.[5] In the 19th century, when Ernest Renan excavated the ruins of Hammon (Ḥammon), the modern Umm al-‘Awamid between Tyre and Acre, he found two Phoenician inscriptions dedicated to El-Hammon.[6]

Others have proposed Hammon as a syncretic association with the Egyptian god Amun,[7] while a last current has called instead for a connection with the Northwest Semitic word ḥammān ("brazier"), suggesting the sense "Lord of the Brazier".[6]

Cult and attributes

The worship of Baʿal Hammon flourished in the

Tyre were broken off at the time of the Battle of Himera (480 BC).[8] Baal Hammon was known as the Chief of the pantheon of Carthage and the deity that made vegetation grow; as with most deities of Carthage, he was seemingly propitiated with child sacrifice, likely in times of strife or crisis, or only by elites, perhaps for the good of the whole community. This practice was recorded by Greeks and Romans, but dismissed as propaganda by modern scholars, until archeologists unearthed urns containing the cremated remains of infants in places of ritual sacrifice. Some scholars believe this confirms the accounts of child sacrifice, while others insist these are the remains of children who died young. [9][dubious – discuss
]

He has been identified with a solar deity,

Edward Lipinski identifies him with the god Dagon.[11] In Carthage and North Africa Baʿal Hammon was especially associated with the ram and was worshiped also as Baʿal Qarnaim ("Lord of Two Horns") in an open-air sanctuary at Jebel Boukornine ("the two-horned hill") across the bay from Carthage, in Tunisia.[12]

The interpretatio graeca identified him with the Titan Cronus. In ancient Rome, he was identified with Saturn, and the cultural exchange between Rome and Carthage as a result of the Second Punic War may have influenced the development of the festival of Saturnalia.[13][clarification needed]. Attributes of his Romanized form as an African Saturn indicate that Hammon (Amunus in Philo's work) was a fertility god.[14]

An incense burner depicting Ba'al-Hamon, 2nd century BC

Legacy

There is a survival in modern times in

Canaanite language sister to Phoenician, already in the 2nd century CE Mishnah.[16]

A street in modern Carthage, located near the Punic Ports, bears the name of Baal Hammon.[17]

The city of Carmona (Andalusia, Spain) is believed to derive its name from Kar-Hammon, "city of Hammon."[18]

See also

References

  1. ISBN 90-429-0770-3
    .
  2. ^ Brouillet, Monique Seefried, ed. From Hannibal to Saint Augustine: Ancient Art of North Africa from the Musee du Louvre. Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University: Atlanta GA, 1994.
  3. ^ Serge Lancel. Carthage: A History. p. 195.
  4. ^ "Carthaginian Religion". World History Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2017-08-04.
  5. ISBN 9780674091764
    . Retrieved 19 January 2017.
  6. ^ a b c Walbank, Frank William (1979). A Historical Commentary on Polybius, Volume 2, Clarendon Press, p. 47
  7. ^ S. G. F. Brandon, Dictionary of Comparative Religion, 1970, Littlehampton, 978-0297000440
  8. ISBN 1-85043-533-2
  9. ^ Kennedy, Maev (21 January 2014). "Carthaginians sacrificed own children, archaeologists say". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 May 2020.
  10. JSTOR 23734250
    .
  11. ISBN 2-503-50033-1
    ).
  12. ^ Roberto Peter Bongiovanni (2014). "The Interchange of Plain Velar and Aspirate in Kronos/Chronos: A Case for Etymological Equivalence". Master's thesis at City University of New York.
  13. Robert E.A. Palmer
    , Rome and Carthage at Peace (Franz Steiner, 1997), pp. 63–64.
  14. ^ Serge Lancel (1995). Carthage: A History, p197.
  15. ^ Ottavo contributo alla storia degli studi classici e del mondo antico Arnaldo Momigliano - 1987 p240.
  16. ^ "Mishnah Sheviit 2:9". www.sefaria.org. Retrieved 2021-08-10.
  17. ^ /place/Rue+Baal+Hammon,+Tunisie/@36.8480006,10.3239041,753m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x12e2b4cac8227357:0x5d79c4f871806c6!8m2!3d36.8479963.26d19028, Rue Baal Hammon Archaeological Site of Carthage, Tunisia, at google.com/maps
  18. ^ Garvey, G., Ellingham, M. (2003:326). The Rough Guide to Andalucia. United Kingdom: Rough Guides.

External links

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