Hadad
This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. (August 2010) |
Hadad | |
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God of Weather, Hurricanes, Storms, Thunder and Rain | |
Jupiter | |
Canaanite equivalent | Baal |
Egyptian equivalent | Horus |
Hurrian equivalent | Teshub |
Deities of the ancient Near East |
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Religions of the ancient Near East |
Hadad (
The Baal Cycle, also known as the Epic of Baal, is a collection of stories about the god Baal from the Canaanite area who is also referred to as Hadad, the storm-god. This collection of stories is dated between 1400 and 1200 B.C. and was found in Ugarit, an ancient city located in modern-day Syria.
Adad in Akkad and Sumer
In Akkadian, Adad is also known as Rammanu ("Thunderer") cognate with
Though originating in northern Mesopotamia, Adad was identified by the same Sumerogram
The form Iškur appears in the list of gods found at Shuruppak but was of far less importance, probably partly because storms and rain were scarce in Sumer and agriculture there depended on irrigation instead. The gods Enlil and Ninurta also had storm god features that decreased Iškur's distinctiveness. He sometimes appears as the assistant or companion of one or the other of the two.
When Enki distributed the destinies, he made Iškur inspector of the cosmos. In one litany, Iškur is proclaimed again and again as "great radiant bull, your name is heaven" and also called son of Anu, lord of Karkara; twin-brother of Enki, lord of abundance, lord who rides the storm, lion of heaven.
In other texts Adad/Iškur is sometimes son of the moon god
The bull was portrayed as Adad/Iškur's sacred animal starting in the Old Babylonian period[18] (the first half of the 2nd millennium BCE).
Adad/Iškur's consort (both in early Sumerian and the much later Assyrian texts) was
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He is identified with the Anatolian storm-god Teshub, whom the Mitannians designated with the same Sumerogram dIM.[8] Occasionally Adad/Iškur is identified with the god Amurru, the god of the Amorites.[citation needed]
The Babylonian center of Adad/Iškur's cult was Karkara in the south, his chief temple being É.Kar.kar.a; his spouse Shala was worshipped in a temple named É.Dur.ku. In Assyria, Adad was developed along with his warrior aspect. During the Middle Assyrian Empire, from the reign of Tiglath-Pileser I (1115–1077 BCE), Adad had a double sanctuary in Assur which he shared with Anu. Anu is often associated with Adad in invocations. The name Adad and various alternate forms and bynames (Dadu, Bir, Dadda) are often found in the names of the Assyrian kings.
Adad/Iškur presents two aspects in the hymns, incantations, and votive inscriptions. On the one hand he is the god who, through bringing on the rain in due season, causes the land to become fertile, and, on the other hand, the storms that he sends out bring havoc and destruction. He is pictured on monuments and cylinder seals (sometimes with a horned helmet) with the lightning and the thunderbolt (sometimes in the form of a spear), and in the hymns the sombre aspects of the god on the whole predominate. His association with the sun-god, Shamash, due to the natural combination of the two deities who alternate in the control of nature, leads to imbuing him with some of the traits belonging to a solar deity.
According to Alberto Green, descriptions of Adad starting in the Kassite period and in the region of Mari emphasize his destructive, stormy character and his role as a fearsome warrior deity,[19] in contrast to Iškur's more peaceful and pastoral character.[20]
Shamash and Adad became in combination the gods of oracles and of divination in general. Whether the will of the gods is determined through the inspection of the liver of the sacrificial animal, through observing the action of oil bubbles in a basin of water or through the observation of the movements of the heavenly bodies, it is Shamash and Adad who, in the ritual connected with divination, are invariably invoked. Similarly in the annals and votive inscriptions of the kings, when oracles are referred to, Shamash and Adad are always named as the gods addressed, and their ordinary designation in such instances is bele biri ("lords of divination").
Hadad in Ugarit
In religious texts,
In texts from
The Baal Cycle is fragmentary and leaves much unexplained that would have been obvious to a contemporary. In the earliest extant sections there appears to be some sort of feud between El and Ba‘al. El makes one of his sons who is called both prince Yamm ("Sea") and judge Nahar ("River") king over the gods and changes Yamm's name from yw (so spelled at that point in the text) to mdd ’il, meaning "Darling of El". El informs Yamm that in order to secure his power, Yamm will have to drive Ba‘al from his throne.
In this battle Ba‘al is somehow weakened, but the divine craftsman Kothar-wa-Khasis strikes Yamm with two magic clubs, Yamm collapses, and Ba'al finishes the fight. ‘Athtart proclaims Ba‘al's victory and salutes Ba‘al/Hadad as lrkb ‘rpt ("Rider on the Clouds"), a phrase applied by editors of modern English Bibles to Yahweh in Psalm 68.4. At ‘Athtart's urging Ba‘al "scatters" Yamm and proclaims that Yamm is dead and heat is assured.
A later passage refers to Ba‘al's victory over
A palace is built for Ba‘al/Hadad with cedars from Mount Lebanon and Sirion and also from silver and from gold. In his new palace Ba‘al hosts a great feast for the other gods. When urged by Kothar-wa-Khasis, Ba’al, somewhat reluctantly, opens a window in his palace and sends forth thunder and lightning. He then invites Mot 'Death' (god of drought and underworld), another son of El, to the feast.
But Mot is insulted. The eater of human flesh and blood will not be satisfied with bread and wine. Mot threatens to break Ba‘al into pieces and swallow Ba‘al. Even Ba‘al cannot stand against Death. Gaps here make interpretation dubious. It seems that by the advice of the goddess
Seven years later Mot returns and attacks Ba‘al in a battle which ceases only when Shapsh tells Mot that El now supports Ba’al. Thereupon Mot at once surrenders to Ba‘al/Hadad and recognizes Ba‘al as king.
Hadad in Egypt
This section relies largely or entirely upon a single source.(March 2024) ) |
In the
Hadad in Aram and ancient Israel
This section uses secondary sources that critically analyze them.(July 2019) ) |
In the second millennium BCE, the king of
The element Hadad appears in a number of theophoric names borne by kings of the region. Hadad son of Bedad, who defeated the Midianites in the country of Moab, was the fourth king of Edom.
A set of related bynames include the Aramaic rmn, Old South Arabic rmn, Hebrew rmwn, and Akkadian Rammānu ("Thunderer"), presumably originally vocalized as Ramān in Aramaic and Hebrew. The Hebrew spelling rmwn with Masoretic vocalization Rimmôn[27] is identical with the Hebrew word meaning 'pomegranate' and may be an intentional misspelling and parody of the original.
The word Hadad-rimmon, for which the inferior reading Hadar-rimmon is found in some manuscripts in the phrase "the mourning of (or at)
In the
Sanchuniathon
In
In Sanchuniathon's account, it is Sky who first fights against Pontus ("Sea"). Then Sky allies himself with Hadad. Hadad takes over the conflict but is defeated, at which point unfortunately no more is said of this matter. Sanchuniathion agrees with Ugaritic tradition in making Muth, the Ugaritic Mot, whom he also calls "Death", the son of El.
See also
Notes
- ISBN 9780674015173.
- ISBN 9781614512363.
- ISBN 9781597527187.
- ISBN 9781465546708.
- ISBN 9780520040915.
- ^ Green (2003), p. 166.
- ^ ORACC – Iškur/Adad (god)
- ^ a b Green (2003), p. 130.
- ISBN 978-0567080899.
- ^ Sacred bull, holy cow: a cultural study of civilization's most important animal. By Donald K. Sharpes –Page 27
- ^ Studies in Biblical and Semitic Symbolism - Page 63. By Maurice H. Farbridge
- ^ Academic Dictionary Of Mythology - Page 126. By Ramesh Chopra
- ^ The New Encyclopædia Britannica: Micropædia. By Encyclopædia Britannica, inc – Page 605
- ^ Green (2003), pp. 51–52.
- ^ Green (2003), p. 52.
- ^ Green (2003), p. 54.
- ^ Green (2003), p. 59.
- ^ Green (2003), pp. 18–24.
- ^ Green (2003), pp. 59–60.
- ^ Green (2003), pp. 58–59.
- ^ Kramer 1984, p. 266.
- ^ Niehr (1999), p. 153.
- ISBN 9780199646678.
- ^ Ulf Oldenburg. The Conflict Between El and Ba'al in Canaanite Religion. p. 67.
- ^ 1Kings 15:18
- ^ National Museum, Aleppo, accession number KAI 201.
- ^ 2Kings 5:18
- ^ Zechariah 12:11
- ^ Hitzig on Zechariah 12:2, Isaiah 17:8; Movers, Phonizier, 1.196.
- Encyclopædia BiblicaIV "Rimmon".
- ^ Day (2000), p. 75.
- ^ Oldenburg, Ulf. The conflict between El and Baʿal in Canaanite religion. Brill Archive. pp. 59–. GGKEY:NN7C21Q6FFA. Retrieved 7 April 2013.
- ^ Schwemer 2007, p. 156.
References
- Day, John (2000). "Yahweh and the Gods and Goddesses of Canaan". Journal for the Study of the Old Testament. 265. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press. ISBN 9781850759867..
- Driver, Godfrey Rolles, and John C. L. Gibson. Canaanite Myths and Legends. Edinburgh: Clark, 1978. ISBN 9780567023513.
- Green, Alberto R. W. (2003). The Storm-God in the Ancient Near East. Winona Lake, Indiana: Eisenbrauns. ISBN 9781575060699.
- Hadad, Husni & Mja'is, Salim (1993) Ba'al Haddad, A Study of Ancient Religious History of Syria
- Handy, Lowell K (1994). Among the Host of Heaven: The Syro-Palestinian Pantheon As Bureaucracy. Winona Lake, Indiana: Eisenbrauns. ISBN 9780931464843.
- Rabinowitz, Jacob (1998). The Faces of God: Canaanite Mythology As Hebrew Theology. Woodstock, CT: Spring Publications. ISBN 9780882141176..
- Smith, Mark S. (2002). The Early History of God: Yahweh and the Other Deities in Ancient Israel. ISBN 978-0802839725..
- public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Adad". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. This article incorporates text from a publication now in the
- Niehr, H. (1999), "Baal-zaphon", Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible, 2nd ed., Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, pp. 152–154.
- Kramer, Samuel Noah (1984). Studies in Literature from the Ancient Near East: Dedicated to Samuel Noah Kramer. American Oriental Society. ISBN 978-0-940490-65-9.
- Schwemer, Daniel (2007). "The Storm-Gods of the Ancient Near East: Summary, Synthesis, Recent Studies Part I" (PDF). Journal of Ancient Near Eastern Religions. 7 (2): 121–168. ISSN 1569-2116.
External links
- Jewish Encyclopedia
- Britannica Online Encyclopedia
- Online text: The Epic of Ba'al (Hadad)
- Kadash Kinahu: Complete Directory
- Gateways to Babylon: Adad/Rimon
- Ancient Mesopotamian Gods and Goddesses: Iškur/Adad (god)
- Britannica Online Encyclopedia
- Mesopotamian Gods: Adad (Ishkur)
- Stela with the storm god Adad brandishing thunderbolts