Hadad

For other uses, see Hadad (disambiguation).

Haddad בעל הדד (in Ugaritic Haddu) was a very important northwest Semitic storm and rain god, cognate in name and origin with the Akkadian god Adad. Hadad is often called simply Ba‘al (Lord), but this title is also used for other gods. Hadad was equated with the Anatolian storm-god Teshub, the Egyptian god Set, the Greek god Zeus, and the Roman god Jupiter.

Hadad in Ugarit

In the mythological tablets found in Ugarit, especially the Baal cycle, the god hd (theoretically vocalized as Haddu) occurs often, usually normalized as Hadad in translations and scholarly writings. In these texts, Hadad is usually called by the title b‘l (theoretically vocalized as Ba‘l), meaning 'Lord'. Other titles give him include ‘lyn (‘Aliyan), meaning 'Most High, Victorious'; and ‘Aliyan Ba‘l. Ba‘l is usually normalized to Ba‘al or Baal in translations and discussions.

Relief of Baal-Hadad found at Ugarit

In Canaanite religious texts, Ba‘al/Hadad is the lord of the sky who governs the rain and thus the germination of plants. He is the protector of life and growth to the agricultural people of the region. The absence of Ba‘al causes dry spells, starvation, death, and chaos.

Ba‘al is many times called son of the god Dagon and also the son of El and Asherah. References to El being Ba‘al's father may not be a variant tradition but are thought by some to refer to El's status as father to all the gods, and thus Hadad's grandfather. Ba‘al-Hadad is himself the father of three goddesses, named Pidray ('Shining'), Tallay ('Rainy'), and (Arṣay) 'Earthy', with no mother named. Their mother may be ‘Athtart, also called ‘Athtart-name-of-Ba‘l. The goddess "Virgin" ‘Anat in these texts is Ba‘al's sister, savior, and lover but not specified as the mother of these goddesses.

Ba’al-Hadad has his home on Mount Ṣapan, presumably the biblical Mount Zephon on the northern coast of Syria, called Hazi in Hittite, Mons Casius in Latin, and today known as Jebel al-Aqra‘. This mountain, 1780 meters high, stands only 15 km north of the site of Ugarit, clearly visible from the city itself. In the Ugaritic texts El, the supreme god of the pantheon, resides on Mount Lel (possibly meaning 'Night') and it is there that the assembly of the gods meet.

In the earliest sections the Ba‘al Cycle describe some sort of feud between El and Ba‘al-Hadad. El makes his "darling" son, the sea and river god Yamm, king over the gods and changes. Yam, however, turns tyrant. The compassionate 'Mother of the gods' Asherah attempts to convince Yam to change his ways, but he agrees to do so only after she agrees to offer him her body. Baal-Hadad is outraged at this arrangement and determines to confront Yam. The divine craftsman Kothar-wa-Khasis provides Baal with with two magic weapons, and Baal ultimately proves victorious after a titanic battle. ‘Athtart proclaims his victory and salutes Ba‘al-Hadad as lrkb ‘rpt 'Rider on the Clouds'. At ‘Athtart's urging, Ba‘al "scatters" Yam and proclaims that Yam is dead and heat is assured.

A later passage refers to Ba‘al's victory over Lotan, the many-headed sea-dragon who appears in the Hebre Bible as Leviathan. Due to gaps in the text it is not known whether Lotan is another name for Yam or a reference to another similar story. In the Mediterranean area, ships were often lost to storms and sea, and crops were threatened by sea-driven winds, storms, and floods, indicating why the ancients feared the fury of this cosmic being.

A Hittite cult image of Hadad.

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. Ba’al opens a window in his palace and sends forth thunder and lightning. He then invites Mot ('Death'—the god of drought and underworld), another son of El, to the feast.

Mot however, is insulted. An eater of human flesh and blood, he is not satisfied with bread and wine. Mot threatens to break Ba‘al-Hadad into pieces and swallow he. Even the mighty Hadad cannot stand against god of death, and the Lord consequently dies in the withering desert. Gaps here make interpretation dubious, but it seems that by the advice of the goddess Shapsh. News of the Lord's apparent death leads even El to mourn. Anat, Ba‘al's sister, finds his corpse, and she buries the body with a funeral feast. Another god is appointed to take Ba‘al's place, but he is a poor substitute. Meanwhile Anat avenges her brother's loss. She dares to approach Mot, cleaves him with a sword, burns him with fire, and throws his remains on the field for the birds to eat. But the earth is still cracked with drought until Shapsh descends to the underworld and fetches back the life-giving Lord. El, who has had a prophetic dream of Baal-Hadad's resurrection rejoices, and the earth springs back to life.

Seven years later Mot returns and attacks Ba‘al in a mighty battle in which both gods are severely wounded but no clear victor emerges. The fight ceases only when Shapsh convinces Mot that El now supports Ba’al-Hadad. Thereupon Mot surrenders and recognizes the Lord as king.

Sanchuniathon

In Sanchuniathon's account Hadad is once called Adodos but mostly named Demarûs, a puzzling form, possibly a Greek corruption of Hadad Ramān. Sanchuniathon's Hadad is son of Sky by a concubine who is then given to the god Dagon while she is pregnant by Sky. This appears to be an attempt to combine two accounts of Hadad's parentage, one of which is the Ugaritic tradition that Hadad was son of Dagon. The cognate Akkadian god Adad is also often called the son of Anu 'Sky'. The corresponding Hittite god Teshub is likewise son of Anu (after a fashion).

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.

Hadad in Aram and Palestine

In the second millennium BCE, the king of Aleppo, or Halab, received a statue of Ishtar from the king of Mari, as a sign of deference, to be displayed in the temple of Hadad in Kilasou. The god "Adad" is called on a stele of the Assyrian king Shalmaneser I "the god of Aleppo."

The name Hadad appears in the name of Hadadezer 'Hadad-is-help', the Aramean king defeated by David. Later Aramean kings of Damascus seem to have habitually assumed the title of Benhadad, or son of Hadad, just as a series of Egyptian monarchs are known to have been accustomed to call themselves sons of Ammon.

An example is Benhadad 'Son of Hadad', the king of Aram whom Asa, king of Judah, employed to invade the northern kingdom, Israel, according to 1Kings 15:18. In the 9th or 8th century BCE, the name of Bar-Hadad 'Son of Hadad', king of Aram, is inscribed on his votive basalt stele dedicated to Melqart, found in Bredsh, a village north of Aleppo (National Museum, Aleppo, accession number KAI 201).

As a byname we find Aramaic rmn, Old South Arabic rmn, Hebrew rmwn, Akkadian Rammānu 'Thunderer', presumably originally vocalized as Ramān in Aramaic and Hebrew. The Hebrew spelling rmwn with Massoretic vocalization Rimmôn (2Kings 5:18) 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) Hadad-rimmon" (Zechariah 12:2), has been a subject of much discussion. According to Jerome and all the older Christian interpreters, the mourning is for something that occurred at a place called Hadad-rimmon (Maximianopolis) in the valley of Megiddo. The event alluded to was generally held to be the death of Josiah (or, as in the Targum, the death of Ahab at the hands of Hadadrimmon). But even before the discovery of the Ugaritic texts some suspected that Hadad-rimmon might be a dying god like Adonis or Tammuz, perhaps even the same as Tammuz, and the allusion could then be to mournings for Hadad such as those which usually accompanied the Adonis festivals. (Hitzig on Zechariah 12:2, Isaiah 17:8; Movers, Phonizier, 1.196).

T. K. Cheyne (Encyclopædia Biblica s.v.) pointed out that the Septuagint reads simply Rimmon, and argues that this may be a corruption of Migdon (Megiddo), in itself a corruption of Tammuz-Adon. He would render the verse, "In that day there shall be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of the women who weep for Tammuz-Adon" (Adon means 'lord').

No further evidence has come to light to resolve such speculations.

See also

Hadad Portal

Template:Ancient Near East portal

• Adramelech
• Baal cycle

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Hadad, Husni & Mja'is, Salim, Ba'al Haddad, A Study of Ancient Religious History of Syria, 1993.

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

External links

• Online text: The Epic of Ba'al (Hadad)
• Kadash Kinahu: Complete Directory
• Gateways to Babylon: Adad/Rimon

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