Baʽal Zephon (; Akkadian: ''Bēl Ḫazi'' (^dIM ḪUR.SAG);

Ugaritic Ugaritic () is an extinct Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language known through the Ugaritic texts discovered by French archaeology, archaeologists in 1928 at Ugarit, including several major literary texts, notably the Baal cycl ...

: ''baʿlu ṣapāni'';

Hurrian The Hurrians (; ; also called Hari, Khurrites, Hourri, Churri, Hurri) were a people who inhabited the Ancient Near East during the Bronze Age. They spoke the Hurro-Urartian language, Hurrian language, and lived throughout northern Syria (region) ...

: '' Tešub Ḫalbağe'';

Egyptian ''Egyptian'' describes something of, from, or related to Egypt. Egyptian or Egyptians may refer to: Nations and ethnic groups * Egyptians, a national group in North Africa ** Egyptian culture, a complex and stable culture with thousands of year ...

: ''bꜥr ḏꜣpwnꜣ''), also transliterated as Baal-zephon, was an epithet of the Canaanite

storm god A weather god or goddess, also frequently known as a storm god or goddess, is a deity in mythology associated with weather phenomena such as thunder, snow, lightning, rain, wind, storms, tornadoes, and hurricanes. Should they only be in charge of ...

Baʿal Baal (), or Baʻal, was a title and honorific meaning 'owner' or 'lord' in the Northwest Semitic languages spoken in the Levant during antiquity. From its use among people, it came to be applied to gods. Scholars previously associated the t ...

( "Lord") in his role as lord of

Jebel Aqra Jebel Aqra (, ; ) is a limestone mountain located on the Syrian– Turkish border near the mouth of the Orontes River on the Mediterranean Sea. Rising from a narrow coastal plain, Jebel Aqra is a mariners' landmark that gathers thunderstorms. ...

, called "Mount Zaphon" in antiquity. He is identified in Ugaritic texts as

Hadad Hadad (), Haddad, Adad ( Akkadian: 𒀭𒅎 '' DIM'', pronounced as ''Adād''), or Iškur ( Sumerian) was the storm- and rain-god in the Canaanite and ancient Mesopotamian religions. He was attested in Ebla as "Hadda" in c. 2500 BCE. From ...

. Because of the mountain's importance in the Biblical narrative and location, ''Zephon'' () came to metonymously signify "

north North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating Direction (geometry), direction or geography. Etymology T ...

" in

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

. The name is, therefore, sometimes given in translation as . Baʿal Zephon was equated with the

Greek god In ancient Greece, deities were regarded as immortal, anthropomorphic, and powerful. They were conceived of as individual persons, rather than abstract concepts or notions, and were described as being similar to humans in appearance, albeit larg ...

and later with the

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

. Because Baʿal Zephon was considered a protector of maritime trade, sanctuaries were constructed in his honor around the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern Eur ...

by his

Canaan CanaanThe current scholarly edition of the Septuagint, Greek Old Testament spells the word without any accents, cf. Septuaginta : id est Vetus Testamentum graece iuxta LXX interprets. 2. ed. / recogn. et emendavit Robert Hanhart. Stuttgart : D ...

ite and

Phoenicia Phoenicians were an Ancient Semitic-speaking peoples, ancient Semitic group of people who lived in the Phoenician city-states along a coastal strip in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily modern Lebanon and the Syria, Syrian ...

n devotees. "Baal-zephon" thereby became a placename—most notably mentioned in the

Book of Exodus The Book of Exodus (from ; ''Šəmōṯ'', 'Names'; ) is the second book of the Bible. It is the first part of the narrative of the Exodus, the origin myth of the Israelites, in which they leave slavery in Biblical Egypt through the strength of ...

as the location where the miraculous

Passage of the Red Sea The Parting of the Red Sea or Crossing of the Red Sea (, lit. "parting of the sea of reeds") is an episode in The Exodus, a foundational story in the Hebrew Bible. It tells of the escape of the Israelites, led by Moses, from the pursuing Egypt ...

happened during

the Exodus The Exodus (Hebrew language, Hebrew: יציאת מצרים, ''Yəṣīʾat Mīṣrayīm'': ) is the Origin myth#Founding myth, founding myth of the Israelites whose narrative is spread over four of the five books of the Torah, Pentateuch (specif ...

God

The name Baʿal Zaphon never appears in the mythological texts discovered at

Ugarit Ugarit (; , ''ủgrt'' /ʾUgarītu/) was an ancient port city in northern Syria about 10 kilometers north of modern Latakia. At its height it ruled an area roughly equivalent to the modern Latakia Governorate. It was discovered by accident in 19 ...

. Instead, it occurs in guides to ritual and in letters, where it is used to differentiate this form of Baʿal from others such as Baʿal Ugarit. The iconography of a storm god standing on two mountains is associated with him. The earliest discovered depiction of the god – where he stands astride two mountains in a smiting posture (a posture associated with Baal in general) – dates to the 18th century BC. Other depictions show him crowned and bearing a scepter. As a protector of maritime trade, his temples also received

votive A votive offering or votive deposit is one or more objects displayed or deposited, without the intention of recovery or use, in a sacred place for religious purposes. Such items are a feature of modern and ancient societies and are generally ...

stone

anchor An anchor is a device, normally made of metal, used to secure a vessel to the bed of a body of water to prevent the craft from drifting due to wind or current. The word derives from Latin ', which itself comes from the Greek (). Anch ...

s. The treaty between Asarhaddon and King Baʿal of Tyre ranks Baʿal Zaphon third behind Baʿal Shamem and Baʿal Malage. In addition to his temple at

and

, Baʿal Zaphon is known to have been worshipped at Tyre and

Carthage Carthage was an ancient city in Northern Africa, on the eastern side of the Lake of Tunis in what is now Tunisia. Carthage was one of the most important trading hubs of the Ancient Mediterranean and one of the most affluent cities of the classic ...

and served as the chief god of the

colony A colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule, which rules the territory and its indigenous peoples separated from the foreign rulers, the colonizer, and their ''metropole'' (or "mother country"). This separated rule was often orga ...

at Tahpanes. A 14th-century letter from the king of Ugarit to the Egyptian pharaoh ( KTU2 2.23) places Baʿal Zaphon as equivalent to

Amun Amun was a major ancient Egyptian deity who appears as a member of the Hermopolitan Ogdoad. Amun was attested from the Old Kingdom together with his wife Amunet. His oracle in Siwa Oasis, located in Western Egypt near the Libyan Desert, r ...

. Temples to Zeus Kasios are attested in Egypt,

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

Epidauros Epidaurus () was a small city (''polis'') in ancient Greece, on the Argolid Peninsula at the Saronic Gulf. Two modern towns bear the name Epidavros: '' Palaia Epidavros'' and '' Nea Epidavros''. Since 2010 they belong to the new municipality of ...

Delos Delos (; ; ''Dêlos'', ''Dâlos''), is a small Greek island near Mykonos, close to the centre of the Cyclades archipelago. Though only in area, it is one of the most important mythological, historical, and archaeological sites in Greece. ...

Corfu Corfu ( , ) or Kerkyra (, ) is a Greece, Greek island in the Ionian Sea, of the Ionian Islands; including its Greek islands, small satellite islands, it forms the margin of Greece's northwestern frontier. The island is part of the Corfu (regio ...

Sicily Sicily (Italian language, Italian and ), officially the Sicilian Region (), is an island in the central Mediterranean Sea, south of the Italian Peninsula in continental Europe and is one of the 20 regions of Italy, regions of Italy. With 4. ...

, and

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

, with the last mention occurring on

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

's German border in the 3rd century.

Location

1st-millennium BC Assyrian texts mention Baʿal Zaphon as the name of the mountain itself. Locally, this mountain was worshipped in its own right. The books of

Exodus Exodus or the Exodus may refer to: Religion * Book of Exodus, second book of the Hebrew Torah and the Christian Bible * The Exodus, the biblical story of the migration of the ancient Israelites from Egypt into Canaan Historical events * Ex ...

and

Numbers A number is a mathematical object used to count, measure, and label. The most basic examples are the natural numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and so forth. Numbers can be represented in language with number words. More universally, individual numbers can ...

in the

Hebrew Scriptures The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. ''

Israelites Israelites were a Hebrew language, Hebrew-speaking ethnoreligious group, consisting of tribes that lived in Canaan during the Iron Age. Modern scholarship describes the Israelites as emerging from indigenous Canaanites, Canaanite populations ...

were instructed by

YHWH The TetragrammatonPronounced ; ; also known as the Tetragram. is the four-letter Hebrew-language theonym (transliterated as YHWH or YHVH), the name of God in the Hebrew Bible. The four Hebrew letters, written and read from right to left, a ...

to camp across from a place named "Baʿal Zaphon" in order to appear trapped and thereby entice the

Pharaoh Pharaoh (, ; Egyptian language, Egyptian: ''wikt:pr ꜥꜣ, pr ꜥꜣ''; Meroitic language, Meroitic: 𐦲𐦤𐦧, ; Biblical Hebrew: ''Parʿō'') was the title of the monarch of ancient Egypt from the First Dynasty of Egypt, First Dynasty ( ...

to pursue them: Gmirkin identified this as

Arsinoe Arsinoe (), meaning "elevated mind", may refer to: People * Arsinoe of Macedon, mother of Ptolemy I Soter * Apama II or Arsinoe (c. 292 BC–after 249 BC), wife of Magas of Cyrene and mother of Berenice II * Arsinoe, probable mother of Lysimachu ...

on the

Gulf of Suez The Gulf of Suez (; formerly , ', "Sea of Calm") is a gulf at the northern end of the Red Sea, to the west of the Sinai Peninsula. Situated to the east of the Sinai Peninsula is the smaller Gulf of Aqaba. The gulf was formed within a relative ...

. A

Ptolemaic Ptolemaic is the adjective formed from the name Ptolemy, and may refer to: Pertaining to the Ptolemaic dynasty *Ptolemaic dynasty, the Macedonian Greek dynasty that ruled Egypt founded in 305 BC by Ptolemy I Soter *Ptolemaic Kingdom Pertaining t ...

-era geographical text at the

Cairo Museum The Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, commonly known as the Egyptian Museum (, Egyptian Arabic: ) (also called the Cairo Museum), located in Cairo, Egypt, houses the largest collection of Egyptian antiquities in the world. It houses over 120, ...

lists four border fortresses, the third being "Midgol and Baʿal Zaphon". In context, it appears to have been located on a route to the Red Sea coast, perhaps on the canal from

Pithom Pithom (; ; or , and ) was an ancient city of Egypt. References in the Hebrew Bible and ancient Greek and Roman sources exist for this city, but its exact location remains somewhat uncertain. Some scholars identified it as the later archaeo ...

to a location near Arsinoe. On the other hand, David A. Falk has noted that Baal-zephon is mentioned in ''Papyrus Sallier IV'' as an ancient Egyptian place, which was probably located northeast of the

Wadi Tumilat Wadi Tumilat (Old Egyptian Tjeku/Tscheku/Tju/Tschu) is the dry river valley (wadi) to the east of the Nile Delta. In prehistory, it was a distributary of the Nile. It starts near the modern town of Zagazig and the ancient town of Bubastis and ...

. According to

Herodotus Herodotus (; BC) was a Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus (now Bodrum, Turkey), under Persian control in the 5th century BC, and a later citizen of Thurii in modern Calabria, Italy. He wrote the '' Histori ...

(who considered it to mark the boundary between Egypt and Syria), at

Ras Kouroun Ras Kasaroun () or El-Kas (), also known as Casius Mons in Latin, or Kasion Oros () to Greek geographers such as Herodotus (who considered it to mark the boundary between Egypt and Syria), is a small mountain and a former town near the marshy La ...

, a small mountain near the marshy

Lake Bardawil Lake Bardawil ( or ), is a large, very saline lagoon nearby the protected area of Zaranik (also known for diversities of insects and waterbirds) in Egypt on the north coast of the Sinai Peninsula. Lake Bardawil is about long, and wide (at its ...

, the "

Serbonian Bog The Serbonian Bog (, , ) was an area of wetland in a lagoon lying between the eastern Nile Delta, the Isthmus of Suez, Mount Casius, and the Mediterranean Sea in Egypt, with Lake Sirbonis at its center. The lagoon still exists, and is the second ...

" of Herodotus, where Zeus' ancient opponent

Typhon Typhon (; , ), also Typhoeus (; ), Typhaon () or Typhos (), was a monstrous serpentine giant and one of the deadliest creatures in Greek mythology. According to Hesiod, Typhon was the son of Gaia and Tartarus. However, one source has Typhon as t ...

was "said to be hidden".Lane Fox 2009:253-56. Here, Greeks knew, Baal Sephon was worshipped.

Ba'al Zephon stele

The only instance where the Canaanite god is depicted in both image and language is a wholly Egyptian work featuring Ba'al Zephon. Eythan Levy notes a parallel between Ba'al Zephon and the "Asiatic Seth." Seth's attributes are horns, an ankh in one hand, a was sceptre in the other, and a beard. He wears a conical hat resembling the white crown of Egypt with a long string ending in a tassel that looks like a lotus flower. Ba'al here seems to be depicted largely the same way.

Notes and references

Notes

References

Bibliography

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External links

Jewish Encyclopedia: Baal-zephon
{{DEFAULTSORT:Baal-Zephon Torah places Deities in the Hebrew Bible Hebrew Bible mountains Baal Phoenician mythology Crossing the Red Sea Canaanite religion

God