Dictionary Of God And Godedesses

6 BBa (1)Goddess of drought. Chinese. She is identifiedin some texts as the daughter of the god HUANGTI.Ba (2)Ram god. Egyptian (Lower). A fertilitydeity from early in Egyptian religion invokedparticularly at Mendes. In a later cult, thename ba comes to represent the spirituality of adeity, often represented in an animal, e.g. thebull, or the mortal manifestation of a god aspharaoh.Ba XianCollective name for gods. Taoist (Chinese). Agroup of eight divine beings, once mortal,who achieved immortality through theirexemplary lifestyles. There are many suchgroups in Chinese religious belief. The BaXian are probably the most widely revered.Many people carry amulets and other charmsin the form of the symbols of these deities.The eight gods are Cao Guo-jiu; HAN XIANG-ZI; HE XIAN-GU; LAN CAI-HE; LI TIE-GUAI; LUDONG-BIN; ZHANG GUO-LAO; and ZHONG-LIQUAN.BAAL (lord)ORIGIN Western Semitic (Canaanite) [northernIsrael, Lebanon and later Egyptian]. Vegetationdeity and national god.KNOWN PERIOD OF WORSHIP circa 2000 BC orearlier to 200 BC.SYNONYMS Aliyn Baal; HADAD.CENTER(S) OF CULT Ugarit [Ras Šamra andJebel el Aqra]; Ašdod during Philistine period.Otherwise generally down the corn-bearingcoastal plain of the eastern Mediterranean,including Baal-Hazor, Baal-Sidon and Baal-Tyre [Lebanon]. Memphis [Egypt].ART REFERENCES a stele from Ras Šamra has aseated god with bull horns which is thought tobe either Baal or IL; a model calf recently discoveredthere may also symbolize Baal.LITERARY SOURCES Ugaritic creation texts fromRas Šamra, particularly the legends of Baal andANAT and Baal and MOT; Vetus Testamentum.Baal may have originated in pre-agricultural timesas god of storms and rain. He is the son of DAGANand in turn is the father of seven storm gods, theBaalim of the Vetus Testamentum, and seven midwifegoddesses, the SASURATUM. He is consideredto have been worshiped from at least the nineteenthcentury BC. Later he became a vegetationgod concerned with fertility of the land. Baal is41