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Hadad

For the family name, seeHaddad.For other uses, seeHadad (disambiguation).
"Adad", "Ishkur", and "Ramman" redirect here. For other uses, seeIshkur's Guide to Electronic Music,Ramman (festival),andRam-Man.

Hadad(Ugaritic:𐎅𐎄,romanized:Haddu),Haddad,Adad(Akkadian:𒀭𒅎DIM,pronounced asAdād), orIškur(Sumerian) was thestorm and rain godin theCanaaniteandancient Mesopotamian religions. He was attested inEblaas "Hadda" in c. 2500 BCE.[1][2]From theLevant,Hadad was introduced to Mesopotamia by theAmorites,where he became known as theAkkadian(Assyrian-Babylonian) god Adad.[3][4][5][6]Adad and Iškur are usually written with thelogogram𒀭𒅎dIM[7]—the same symbol used for the Hurrian godTeshub.[8]Hadad was also calledRimon/Rimmon,Pidar,Rapiu,Baal-Zephon,[9]or often simplyBaʿal(Lord), but this title was also used for other gods. Thebullwas the symbolic animal of Hadad. He appeared bearded,[10][11]often holding a club and thunderbolt and wearing a bull-horned headdress.[12][13]Hadad was equated with theGreekgodZeus,theRomangodJupiter(Jupiter Dolichenus), as well as theBabylonianBel.[citation needed]

Hadad
God of Weather, Hurricanes, Storms, Thunder and Rain
Assyriansoldiers carrying a statue of Adad
AbodeHeaven
SymbolThunderbolt, bull, lion
Genealogy
ParentsMost common tradition:SinandNingal,orDagon
SiblingsKishar,Inanna
ConsortShala,Medimsha
ChildrenGibilorGirra
Equivalents
CanaaniteBaal
GreekZeus
RomanJupiter
EgyptianHorus
HurrianTeshub

TheBaal Cycleor Epic of Baal is a collection of stories about the Canaanite Baal, also referred to as Hadad. It was composed between 1400 and 1200 B.C. and rediscovered in the excavation ofUgarit,an ancient city in modern-daySyria.

The storm god Adad and the sun godShamashjointly became the patron gods oforaclesand divination in Mesopotamia.

Adad in Akkad and Sumer

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In Akkadian, Adad is also known asRammanu( "Thunderer" ) cognate withImperial Aramaic:רעמאRaˁmāandHebrew:רַעַםRaˁam,a byname of Hadad. Many scholars formerly took Rammanu to be an independent Akkadian god, but he was later identified with Hadad.

Though originating in northern Mesopotamia, Adad was identified by the same SumerogramdIMthat designated Iškur in the south.[14]His worship became widespread in Mesopotamia after theFirst Babylonian dynasty.[15]A text dating from the reign ofUr-Ninurtacharacterizes the two sides of Adad/Iškur as threatening in his stormy rage, and benevolent in giving life.[16]

Iškurappears in the list of gods found atShuruppakbut was of far less importance, perhaps because storms and rain were scarce inSumerand agriculture there depended on irrigation instead. The godsEnlilandNinurtaalso had storm god features that diminished Iškur's distinct role, and he sometimes appears as the assistant or companion of these more prominent gods.

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 ofAnu,lord of Karkara; twin-brother ofEnki,lord of abundance, lord who rides the storm, lion of heaven.

In other texts Adad/Iškur is sometimes son of the moon godNanna/SinbyNingaland brother ofUtu/Shamash andInanna/Ishtar. He is also sometimes described as the son of Enlil.[17]

The bull was portrayed as Adad/Iškur's sacred animal starting in the Old Babylonian period[18](early 2nd millennium BCE).

Adad/Iškur's consort (both in early Sumerian and the much later Assyrian texts) was the grain goddessShala,who is also sometimes associated with the godDagānu.She was also calledGubarrain the earliest texts. The fire godGibil(Girra in Akkadian) is sometimes the son of Iškur and Shala.

He is identified with theAnatolianstorm-godTeshub,whom the Mitannians designated with the same SumerogramdIM.[8]Occasionally he is identified with the Amorite godAmurru.[citation needed]

The Babylonian center of Adad/Iškur's cult was Karkara in the south, his chief temple beingÉ.Kar.kar.a;his spouse Shala was worshipped in a temple namedÉ.Dur.ku.InAssyria,Adad was developed along with his warrior aspect. During theMiddle Assyrian Empire,from the reign ofTiglath-Pileser I(1115–1077 BCE), Adad had a double sanctuary with Anu inAssur,and the two are often associated in invocations. The name Adad and various alternate forms (Dadu,Bir,Dadda) are often found in Assyrian king names.

Adad/Iškur presents two aspects in hymns, incantations, and votive inscriptions. On the one hand, he brings rain in due season to fertilize the land; on the other, he sends storms to wreak havoc and destruction. He is pictured on monuments and cylinder seals (sometimes with ahorned helmet) with the lightning and the thunderbolt (sometimes in the form of a spear), and in hymns his sombre aspects predominate. His association with the sun-god Shamash, with the two deities alternating in the control of nature, tends to imbue him with some traits of a solar deity.

According to Alberto Green, descriptions of Adad starting in theKassiteperiod and in the region ofMariemphasize 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 jointly became the gods oforaclesand divination, invoked in all the ceremonies to determine the divine will: through inspecting a sacrificial animal's liver, the action of oil bubbles in a basin of water, or the movements of the heavenly bodies. They are similarly addressed in royal annals and votive inscriptions asbele biri(lords of divination).

Hadad in Ugarit

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Stele ofBaal with Thunderbolt,15th–13th century BCE. Found at the acropolis in Ras Shamra (ancient city of Ugarit).

In religious texts,Ba‘al/Hadad is the lord of the sky who governs rain and crops, master of fertility and protector of life and growth. His absence brings drought, starvation, and chaos. Texts of theBaal CyclefromUgaritare fragmentary and assume much background knowledge.

The supreme godElresides on Mount Lel (Night?) where the assembly of the gods meets. At the beginning of the cycle, there appears to a feud between El and Ba‘al. El appoints one of his sons, called both princeYamm(Sea) and judge Nahar (River), as king over the gods and changes Yamm's name fromywtomdd ’il(darling of El). El tells his son that he will have to drive off Ba‘al to secure the throne.

In this battle Ba‘al is somehow weakened, but the divine craftsmanKothar-wa-Khasiscrafts two magic clubs for Ba’al as weapons that help Ba’al strike down Yamm and Ba'al is supreme.‘Athtartproclaims Ba‘al's victory and salutes Ba‘al/Hadad aslrkb ‘rpt(Rider on the Clouds), a phrase applied by editors of modern English Bibles toYahwehinPsalm68.4. At ‘Athtart's urging Ba‘al "scatters" Yamm and proclaims that he is dead and warmth is assured.

A later passage refers to Ba‘al's victory overLotan,the many-headed sea dragon. Due to gaps in the text it is not known whether Lotan is another name for Yamm or a character in a similar story. These stories may have been allegories of crops threatened by the winds, storms, and floods from theMediterraneansea.

A palace is built for Ba‘al with silver, gold, and cedar wood fromMount LebanonandSirion.In his new palace Ba‘al hosts a great feast for the other gods. When urged by Kothar-wa-Khasis, Ba’al reluctantly opens a window in his palace and sends forth thunder and lightning. He then invitesMot(Death, the god of drought and the underworld), another son of El, to join the feast.

But Mot, the eater of human flesh and blood, is insulted when offered only bread and wine. He threatens to break Ba‘al to pieces and swallow him, and even Ba‘al cannot stand against Death. Gaps here make interpretation dubious. It seems that by the advice of the sun goddessShapash,Ba‘al mates with a heifer and dresses the resultant calf in his own clothes as a gift to Mot, and then himself prepares to go down to the underworld in the guise of a helpless shade. News of Ba‘al's apparent death leads even El to mourn. Ba‘al's sister ‘Anatfinds Ba‘al's corpse, presumably really the dead calf, and she buries the body with a funeral feast. The god‘Athtaris appointed to take Ba‘al's place, but he is a poor substitute. Meanwhile, ‘Anat finds Mot, cleaves him with a sword, burns him with fire, and throws his remains to the birds. But the earth is still cracked with drought until Shapsh fetches Ba‘al back.

Seven years later Mot returns and attacks Ba‘al, but the battle is quelled when Shapsh tells Mot that El now supports Ba’al. Mot surrenders to Ba‘al and recognizes him as king.

Hadad in Egypt

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In theAmherst Papyrus,Baal Zephon(Hadad) is identified with the Egyptian godHorus:"May Baal from Zephon bless you",Amherst Papyrus 63,7:3 and in 11:13–14: "and from Zephon may Horus help us". Classical sources translate this name asZeus Kasios,since in Pelusium, the statue of Zeus Kasios was considered the image ofHarpocrates(Horus the Child).[21]Zeus Casius had inherited some traits fromApolloas well. They also recall his conflict withTyphonover that mountain (Mount Casiuson the Syrian–Turkish border orCasionnearPelusiumin Egypt). The reason why Baal could be both identified with Horus and his rivalSet;is because in Egypt the element of the storm was considered foreign as Set was a god of strangers and outsiders, thus because the Egyptians had no better alternative to identify their native god Set with another neighboring deity, they tentatively associated him with Hadad since he was a storm-god, but when the godBaal(Hadad) is not specifically attributed the traits of rain and thunder and is instead perceived as a god of the sky generically, which is what is embodied by his form "Baal Zaphon" as the chief deity who resides on the mountain (for example a 14th-century letter from the king of Ugarit to the Egyptian pharaoh places Baʿal Zaphon as equivalent toAmunalso),[22]in that case he's more similar to the Egyptian Horus in that capacity (comparable toBaalshaminas well). The different interpretation could also be based on the fact that Set had been associated with Hadad by theHyksos.Most likely originally Set referred to another deity also addressed by the title "Baal" (one of the many; an example of this would be theBaal of Tyre) who happened to display storm-like traits especially in Egypt since they were foreign and as such duly emphasized; when instead his weather features probably weren't all that prominent in other cultures who worshipped equivalents of him, but given that the only storm-god available for identification in Semitic culture was Hadad and in HittiteSutekh(a war-god who's been hypothesized to be an alternative name ofTeshub,but it remains unclear), the traits matched the characteristics of the Egyptian deity, and an association between the two was considered plausible, also given by the fact that both theHittitesandSemiticHyksos were foreigners in the Egyptian land who brought their gods with them, and their main god happened to display storm-like traits and was also associated with these foreigners who came toEgypt,a characteristic that would make him similar to the perception that the Egyptians had of Set. This would once again echo the mythological motif of a previous chief of the Pantheon who gets replaced by the new generation of deities represented by the younger ascendant ruler and newly appointed chief of the gods, as is the case also for the Hittite "Cycle ofKumarbi"whereTeshubdisplaces the previously establishedfather of the godsKumarbi. In Amherst XII/15 the same identification as before is once again stated: "Baal from Zephon, Horus" (BT mn Şpn Hr).

Hadad in Aram and ancient Israel

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Colossal statue of Hadad,from Gerdshin near Sam'al, 775 BCE, Pergamon Museum

In the second millennium BCE, the king ofYamhador Halab (modernAleppo), who claimed to be "beloved of Hadad", received the tribute of statue ofIshtarfrom the king ofMari,to be displayed in the temple of Hadad in Halab Citadel.[23][24]Hadad is called "the god ofAleppo"on a stele of the Assyrian kingShalmaneser I.

The elementHadadappears in a number of theophoric names borne by kings of the region. Hadad son of Bedad, who defeated the Midianites in Moab, was the fourth king of Edom.Hadadezer( "Hadad-is-help" ) was theArameanking defeated byDavid.Later Aramean kings ofDamascusseem to have habitually assumed the title of Ben-Hadad (son of Hadad). One wasBen-Hadad,the king of Aram whom theJudeankingAsasent to invade the northernKingdom of Israel.[25]A votive basalt stele from the 9th or 8th century, BCE found in Bredsh north of Aleppo, is dedicated toMelqartand bears the name Ben-Hadad, king of Aram.[26]The seventh of the twelve sons of Ishmael is also named Hadad.

A set of related bynames include Aramaicrmn,Old South Arabicrmn,Hebrewrmwn,and AkkadianRammānu( "Thunderer" ), presumably originally vocalized asRamānin Aramaic and Hebrew. The Hebrew spellingrmwnwith Masoretic vocalizationRimmôn[27]is identical with the Hebrew word meaning 'pomegranate' and may be an intentional misspelling and/or parody of the deity's original name.[28]

A stele fromBethsaida(et-Tell) depicting a Canaanite deity, possibly Hadad. On display at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.[29]

The wordHadad-rimmon(orHadar-rimmon) in the phrase "the mourning of (or at)Hadad-rimmon",[30]has aroused much discussion. According toJeromeand the older Christian interpreters, the mourning is for something that occurred at a place called Hadad-rimmon (Maximianopolis) in the valley ofMegiddo.This event was generally held to be the death ofJosiah(or, as in theTargum,the death ofAhabat the hands of Hadadrimmon). But even before the discovery of the Ugaritic texts, some suspected that Hadad-rimmon might be adying-and-rising godlikeAdonisorTammuz,perhaps even the same as Tammuz, and the allusion could then be to mournings for Hadad such as those of Adonis festivals.[31]T. K. Cheyne pointed out that theSeptuagintreads simply Rimmon, and argues that this may be a corruption of Migdon (Megiddo) and ultimately of Tammuz-Adon. He would render the verse, "In that day there shall be a great mourning inJerusalem,as the mourning of the women who weep for Tammuz-Adon "(Adonmeans "lord" ).[32]No further evidence has come to light to resolve such speculations.

In theBooks of Kings,Jezebel– the wife of the NorthernIsraeliteKingAhabpromoted the cult of Ba'al in her adopted nation.John Dayargues that Jezebel's Baʿal was possiblyBaʿal Shamem(Lord of the Heavens), a title most often applied to Hadad.[33]

Sanchuniathon

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InSanchuniathon's account Hadad is once called Adodos, but is mostly named Demarûs. This is a puzzling form, probably from Ugariticdmrn,which appears in parallelism with Hadad,[34]or possibly a Greek corruption ofHadad Ramān.Sanchuniathon's Hadad is son of Sky by a concubine who is then given to the godDagonwhile 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.[35]The cognate Akkadian god Adad is also often called the son ofAnu( "Sky" ). The corresponding Hittite godTeshubis likewise son of Anu (after a fashion).

In Sanchuniathon's account, it is Sky who first fights againstPontus( "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

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Notes

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  1. ^Sarah Iles Johnston (2004).Religions of the Ancient World: A Guide.Harvard University Press. p. 173.ISBN9780674015173.
  2. ^Spencer L. Allen (5 March 2015).The Splintered Divine: A Study of Istar, Baal, and Yahweh Divine Names and Divine Multiplicity in the Ancient Near East.Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. p. 10.ISBN9781614512363.
  3. ^Albert T. Clay (1 May 2007).The Origin of Biblical Traditions: Hebrew Legends in Babylonia and Israel.Wipf and Stock Publishers. p. 50.ISBN9781597527187.
  4. ^Theophilus G. Pinches(1908).The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria.Library of Alexandria. p. 15.ISBN9781465546708.
  5. ^Joseph Eddy Fontenrose (1959).Python: A Study of Delphic Myth and Its Origins.University of California Press. p. 157.ISBN9780520040915.
  6. ^Green (2003),p. 166.
  7. ^ORACC – Iškur/Adad (god)
  8. ^abGreen (2003),p. 130.
  9. ^Gibson, John C. (1 April 1978).Canaanite Myths and Legends.T&T Clark. p. 208.ISBN978-0567080899.
  10. ^Sacred bull, holy cow: a cultural study of civilization's most important animal. By Donald K. Sharpes –Page 27
  11. ^Studies in Biblical and Semitic Symbolism - Page 63. By Maurice H. Farbridge
  12. ^Academic Dictionary Of Mythology - Page 126. By Ramesh Chopra
  13. ^The New Encyclopædia Britannica: Micropædia. By Encyclopædia Britannica, inc – Page 605
  14. ^Green (2003),pp. 51–52.
  15. ^Green (2003),p. 52.
  16. ^Green (2003),p. 54.
  17. ^Green (2003),p. 59.
  18. ^Green (2003),pp. 18–24.
  19. ^Green (2003),pp. 59–60.
  20. ^Green (2003),pp. 58–59.
  21. ^Kramer 1984,p. 266.
  22. ^Niehr (1999),p. 153.
  23. ^Trevor Bryce (March 2014).Ancient Syria: A Three Thousand Year History.OUP Oxford. p. 111.ISBN9780199646678.
  24. ^Ulf Oldenburg.The Conflict Between El and Ba'al in Canaanite Religion.p. 67.
  25. ^1Kings 15:18
  26. ^National Museum, Aleppo, accession number KAI 201.
  27. ^2Kings 5:18
  28. ^SeeKlein, Reuven Chaim (2018).God versus Gods: Judasim in the Age of Idolatry.Mosaica Press. pp. 351–354.ISBN978-1946351463.OL27322748M.
  29. ^Stefan Jakob Wimmer 2011,Eine Mondgottstele aus et-Turra/Jordanien.Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins ZDPV 127/2, 2011, 135-141 - academia.edu
  30. ^Zechariah 12:11
  31. ^Hitzig onZechariah 12:2,Isaiah 17:8;Movers,Phonizier,1.196.
  32. ^T. K. Cheyne (1903),Encyclopædia BiblicaIV"Rimmon".
  33. ^Day (2000),p. 75.
  34. ^Oldenburg, Ulf.The conflict between El and Baʿal in Canaanite religion.Brill Archive. pp. 59–. GGKEY:NN7C21Q6FFA.Retrieved7 April2013.
  35. ^Schwemer 2007,p. 156.

References

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Wikisourcehas the text of the1911Encyclopædia Britannicaarticle "Hadad".
Wikimedia Commons has media related toHadad.
Wikimedia Commons has media related toAdad.
Wikiquote has quotations related toHadad.
Look upAdadin Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

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