History Myth / CanaaniteMythology

* SpotlightStealingSquad: Of all the old Semitic deities, only [[{{God}} YHWH]] has survived to the modern day as the sole deity of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Then again, some scholars believe he wasn't a Canaanite deity before being adopted by the Israelites, so he probably stole the show in more ways than that.

The Middle East is the birth place of the Abrahamic religions; the two dominant religions of the modern world, UsefulNotes/{{Christianity}} and UsefulNotes/{{Islam}}, were born there. Prior to them, UsefulNotes/{{Judaism}} was already present there, and it was the monotheistic Jews that the Romans met and had conflicts with.

Few people in the Western world realize that Judaism, and by extension Christianity, Islam and the Baha'i faith, are essentially WrittenByTheWinners versions of older Semitic religions present in the Levant. The gods of the pre-monotheistic Canaanites, Phoenicians, Hebrews, Arabs and other Semitic groups were dominant in what is now exclusively Muslim, Jewish and Christian territory, and the Phoenicians got them spread around the Mediterranean and North Africa. The Assyrians, Akkadians, and Babylonians, on the other hand, adopted [[Myth/MesopotamianMythology Sumerian mythology]] in a similar fashion to the Roman appropriation of Greek mythology that occurred centuries later. Despite their geographical proximity to Greek and Egyptian deities, these old gods of the Levant are barely remembered by modern people, largely due to the historical efforts of the Israelites/Jews to eliminate competition to their religions. Nowadays, only the gods that were literally {{Demoniz|ation}}ed (in that they became demons in Jewish and Christian theology), such as Moloch, have any presence in the popular imaginarium.

Where or when the Jewish god, Yahweh, came from is almost totally unknown. He wasn't attested to before being the Israelites' god, and nothing similar to his character has been seen in the Middle East; even his name isn't totally understood. In fact, the earliest surviving mentions of Yahweh are in reference to him being the God of Israel. Regardless of how Yahweh came to Israel, eventually his followers became the dominant people of Canaan. After cultural diffusion led to Yahweh absorbing El(ion), the Israelites began absorbing other gods and goddesses into their supreme deity, whether it be their characteristics, deeds, or even familial relationships (For a while God absorbed El's consort Asherah as his own. He also absorbed Hadad's story about killing a giant sea snake, which is where the Leviathan came from. There's plenty of others). Eventually, the peoples of the Middle East were conquered and assimilated, except for the Jews, [[WrittenByTheWinners and their own personalized account of history]], and the rest is history. As seen by Leviathan, some fragments of the older polytheistic religion remained in parts of [[Literature/TheBible Hebrew Bible]], which sometimes seem strange when outside their original context. Another example of this are mysterious references to "{{Nephilim}}" (sometimes translated as "Giants"), which in Canaanite mythology referred to heroic demigods of the sort that are common in many polytheistic faiths but quite impossible in the monotheistic Abrahamic religions, though the heroic roles of such demigods are usually fulfilled by otherwise *human* prophets nonetheless.

[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canaanite_religion Here's a list of the most well known deities]], although more information can be obtained in Website/TheOtherWiki. See also Myth/MesopotamianMythology for the myths that originated in what is now Iraq amongst the Sumerians, who were *not* Semitic speakers unlike their modern brethren as well as Myth/EgyptianMythology, whose language is more related but still a degree removed from the Semitic Canaanites and their Arab cousins. These myths from the slightly more ancient civilizations heavily impacted Canaanite, Assyrian and Arabian myths.

UsefulNotes/{{Judaism}} naturally overlaps as it *is* a form of Canaanite Mythology with UsefulNotes/{{Christianity}}, also itself from the Levant, and UsefulNotes/{{Islam}} taking it one step further by being universal faiths that *everyone* regardless of background should be directed to follow.

* HumanSacrifice: The Israelites claimed this was done for Moloch (well, Milcom, scholars are convinced it's another word for Moloch since the monotheistic Hebrews [[SpeakOfTheDevil preferred not to call gods by their true names]]) while the Greeks and Romans claimed this was done for Baal-Hammon. Even if this is true all three of those societies did this themselves [[OldShame at some point or another]]. Emperor Tiberius had to put down some child sacrifices being done by the cult of Tank (a nickname for war goddess Tanit). What would become the Jews and the later the Christian and Islamic splinters famously made it a point *not* to do this to distinguish themselves from other religions in the areas.

** Yahweh was famously the national God of Israel and as Judaism denied the existence of other Gods, conflated him and El together which is even referenced by God himself in *Exodus* when he speaks to Moses about how he was known as El Shaddai. Thus Judaism saw its top God as the only one, with Christianity then proclaiming that the worship of Yahweh was to be done by *all* of humanity as Christ's message was also for the Gentiles. Islam followed suit with Allah, or El as written in Arabic, being seen as the only God and the same one as Yahweh, the national God of the Israelites who the Arab ancestor Ishmael also worshipped with Muhammed being the Prophet sent to all of humanity.

* MakingASplash: Yam, the sea god and his rival Baal-Hadad the storm god, as well as some other deities associated with water obviously like Yaw, judge of the rivers.

Where or when the Jewish god, Yahweh, came from is almost totally unknown. He wasn't attested to before being the Israelites' god, and nothing similar to his character has been seen in the Middle East; even his name isn't totally understood. In fact, the earliest surviving mentions of Yahweh are in reference to him being the God of Israel. Regardless of how Yahweh came to Israel, eventually his followers became the dominant people of Canaan. After cultural diffusion led to Yahweh absorbing El(ion), the Israelites began absorbing other gods and goddesses into their supreme deity, whether it be their characteristics, deeds, or even familial relationships (For a while God absorbed El's consort Asherah as his own. He also absorbed Hadad's story about killing a giant sea snake, which is where the Leviathan came from. There's plenty of others). Eventually, the peoples of the Middle East were conquered and assimilated, except for the Jews, [[WrittenByTheWinners and their own personalized account of history]], and the rest is history. As seen by Leviathan, some fragments of the older polytheistic religion remained in parts of [[Literature/TheBible Hebrew Bible]], which sometimes seem strange when outside their original context. Another example of this are mysterious references to "{{Nephilim}}" (sometimes translated as "Giants"), which in Canaanite mythology referred to heroic demigods of the sort that are common in many polytheistic faiths but quite impossible in the monotheistic Abrahamic religions.

Modern Hebrew paganism is still practiced in the form of "Jewitchery", although needless to say Jewish pagans are rare and heavily frowned upon by other Jews. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canaanite_religion Here's a list of the most well known deities]], although more information can be obtained in Website/TheOtherWiki.

* CanonImmigrant: Astarte is considered homogeneous with the Mesopotamian goddess Inanna[=/=]Ishtar, and is identified with the Egyptian goddess Isis and the Greek goddess Aphrodite.
* DemotedToExtra: Many of the Semitic gods were adopted by Egypt but their former importance rarely carried over. Anat, Ashera and Ashirat for example were combined together and [[InNameOnly called Qadeshtu]], essentially deleting four very different figures. They also turned king of the Elohim Baal-Hadad into Set, god of foreigners (hence his storm powers), and Astarte into Isis. This happened to Melqart so often we hardly know anything about it in comparison to the figures it was equated with.

* HijackedByJesus: Long before Jesus himself was born, the Israelites created two figures out of one by both demonizing Baal-Zephon as the false god Beelzebub or Beelzebul ''and'' accepting Zephon as an angel minus the Baal (Baal means lord and Zephon means out looking, they believed Zephon was a good guy looking out for them but not something to worship; in contrast Beelzebub means lord of the flies. Alternately, Beelzebul more accurately reflects the original name of the god, Baal-Zebul meaning lord of the high or lofty place, and the Israelites deliberately changed it to Beelzebub). Anat becomes Ishtar's mother Antu [[Myth/MesopotamianMythology in later Akkadian texts]] ([[ContinuitySnarl Ishtar's earlier equation with her mother Athirat is the least of the problems with this]]) and the angel Anathiel in the Zohar. Much later, by the New Testament era, Beelzebub was understood as another name for the prince of demons himself, {{Satan}}. In the succeeding centuries, Moloch (also Molech) was also literally demonized, this time by the Christians, understood to a demon in hell instead of just a false god like Beelzebub had been.
* HumanSacrifice: The Israelites claimed this was done for Moloch (well, Milcom, scholars are convinced it's another word for Moloch since the monotheistic Hebrews [[SpeakOfTheDevil preferred not to call gods by their true names]]) while the Greeks and Romans claimed this was done for Baal-Hammon. Even if this is true all three of those societies did this themselves [[OldShame at some point or another]]. Emperor Tiberius had to put down some child sacrifices being done by the cult of Tank (a nickname for war goddess Tanit).

* LoveGoddess: Qadeshtu. It is debated among scholars whether or not her worship amounted to "sacred prostitution" along with Astarte, whose worship definitely included it.

* DivineRanks / OurGodsAreDifferent: El(ion) was essentially what modern people see God as, whereas the Elohim were essentially the morally flawed pagan gods. Elyon is a name in the Bible, most famously in ''Numbers'' and ''Psalms'' (usually rendered as "Most High") but it is almost always used interchangeably with Elohim (rejecting the divine ranks). Sometimes Elohim refers to men or angels instead, though it refers to God enough times, perhaps as a holdover from the Hebrew's polytheistic past. When Ezekiel relays "...and I YHWH will be your God." the Hebrew reads "...and I YHWH will be your Elohim."

* ShockAndAwe[=/=]BoltOfDivineRetribution: Baal-Hadad, the sky god. These traits were later given to Yahweh in the Bible.

Where or when the Jewish god, Yahweh, came from is almost totally unknown. He wasn't attested to before being the Israelites' god, and nothing similar to his character has been seen in the Middle East; even his name isn't totally understood. In fact, the earliest surviving mentions of Yahweh are in reference to him being the God of Israel. Regardless of how Yahweh came to Israel, eventually his followers became the dominant people of Canaan. After cultural diffusion led to Yahweh absorbing El(ion), the Israelites began absorbing other gods and goddesses into their supreme deity, whether it be their characteristics, deeds, or even familial relationships (For a while God absorbed El's consort Asherah as his own. He also absorbed Hadad's story about killing a giant sea snake, which is where the Leviathan came from. There's plenty of others). Eventually, the worshipers of Yahweh destroyed the rest of the native Semitic religions and [[WrittenByTheWinners wrote everything from their point of view]], and the rest is history. As seen by Leviathan, some fragments of the older polytheistic religion remained in parts of [[Literature/TheBible Hebrew Bible]], which sometimes seem strange when outside their original context. Another example of this are mysterious references to "{{Nephilim}}" (sometimes translated as "Giants"), which in Canaanite mythology referred to heroic demigods of the sort that are common in many polytheistic faiths but quite impossible in the monotheistic Abrahamic religions.

Modern Hebrew paganism is still practiced in the form of "Jewitchery", although needless to say Jewish pagans are rare and heavily frowned upon by other Jews. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canaanite_religion Here's a list of the most well known deities]], although more information can be obtained in Wiki/TheOtherWiki.

%%* KnifeNut: Anat again.

* ItIsPronouncedTropay: The name of the Hebrew God is not written with vowels in the Hebrew texts, hence YHWH. Over time the pronunciation was lost since the name was deemed off-limits to speak. The form "Yahweh" is considered to be the most probable by scholars, based in part on the name being recorded in other contemporary languages. The form "Jehovah" is thus considered to be derived from pronouncing the four letters (hence "Tetragrammaton") with the vowels from "Adonai" (Lord), which was supposed to be substituted for it in practice, plus filtering through Latin and English, etc. Also, "W" is pronounced as "V" in modern Hebrew, but ancient Hebrew does not have a "V" sound as modern English speakers know it.

Few people in the Western world realize that Judaism, and by extension Christianity, Islam and the Baha'i faith, are essentially WrittenByTheWinners versions of older Semitic religions present in the Levant. The gods of the pre-monotheistic Canaanites, Phoenicians, Hebrews, Arabs and other Semitic groups were dominant in what is now exclusively Muslim, Jewish and Christian territory, and the Phoenicians got them spread around the Mediterranean and North Africa. The Assyrians, Akkadians, and Babylonians, on the other hand, adopted [[Myth/MesopotamianMythology Sumerian mythology]] in a similar fashion to the Roman appropriation of Greek mythology that occurred centuries later. Despite their geographical proximity to Greek and Egyptian deities, these old gods of the Levant are barely remembered by modern people, largely due to the historical efforts of the Israelites/Jews to eliminate competition to their religions. Nowadays, only the gods that were literally demonized (in that they became demons in Jewish and Christian theology), such as Moloch, have any presence in the popular imaginarium.

* NotSoDifferent: The Bible recounts a few different occasions where the Israelites provoke God's wrath by shaping golden calves for worship. There is some evidence the other Hebrew tribes had just as much disdain for those idols by records of a negative figure known as Atik, "the quarrelsome calf of El", who was slain by Anat.

Where or when the Jewish god, Yahweh, came from is almost totally unknown. He wasn't attested to before being the Israelites' god, and nothing similar to his character has been seen in the Middle East; even his name isn't totally understood. In fact, the earliest surviving mentions of Yahweh are in reference to him being the God of Israel. Regardless of how Yahweh came to Israel, eventually his followers became the dominant people of Canaan. After cultural diffusion led to Yahweh absorbing El(ion), the Israelites began absorbing other gods and goddesses into their supreme deity, whether it be their characteristics, deeds, or even familial relationships (For a while God absorbed El's consort Asherah as his own. He also absorbed Hadad's story about killing a giant sea snake, which is where the Leviathan came from. There's plenty of others). Eventually, the worshipers of Yahweh destroyed the rest of the native Semitic religions and [[WrittenByTheWinners wrote everything from their point of view]], and the rest is history. As seen by Leviathan, some fragments of the older polytheistic religion remained in parts of [[Literature/TheBible Hebrew Bible]], which sometimes seem strange when outside their original context. Another example of this are mysterious references to "Nephilim" (sometimes translated as "Giants"), which in Canaanite mythology referred to heroic demigods of the sort that are common in many polytheistic faiths but quite impossible in the monotheistic Abrahamic religions.

Knowledge on Canaanite mythology is scarce, but we do have an idea about its cosmology. The world was created by '''Elion''' (El for god, ion for upper, uppermost together) and his wife '''Beruth''' (which means the city); from them were born all the gods of the Levant ('''Elohim'''; in modern Hebrew it means [[ThereCanOnlyBeOne God]] but used to mean 'Godly beings' and can be seen as the prototype for the Abrahamic angels). The mountains Targhizizi and Tharumagi held the firmament up above the earth-circling ocean, Heaven being the god Shamayim, and the dead went to Sheol (the Underworld; the concept survives in modern Jewish and Christian beliefs, although many equate it to Hell, despite the Bible/Torah confirming it to be far away from the modern fiery Jahannam torture cellar). Many influences from [[Myth/ClassicalMythology classical religion]] ensued. Several concepts in Semitic mythology are shared with both ancient Greek religion and [[Myth/EgyptianMythology Egyptian tradition]]; indeed, many deities are analogous to classical ones, while others were literally exported from Egypt.[[note]]Some fragmentary texts indicate that ''every'' god or goddess worshiped by ''any'' tribe the ancient Canaanites were aware of were considered to be among the Elohim, simply with Elion and Beruth as their parents or grandparents.[[/note]]

Few people in the Western world realize that Judaism, and by extension Christianity, Islam and the Baha'i faith, are essentially WrittenByTheWinners versions of older Semitic religions present in the Levant. The gods of the pre-monotheistic Canaanites, Phoenicians, Hebrews, Arabs and other Semitic groups were dominant in what is now exclusively Muslim, Jewish and Christian territory, and the Phoenicians got them spread around the Mediterranean and North Africa. The Assyrians, Akkadians, and Babylonians, on the other hand, adopted [[Myth/MesopotamianMythology Sumerian mythology]] in a similar fashion to the Roman appropriation of Greek mythology that occurred centuries later. Despite their geographical proximity to Greek and Egyptian deities, these old gods of the Levant are barely remembered by modern people, largely due to the historical efforts of the Israelites/Jews to eliminate competition to their religions. Nowadays, only the gods that were literally demonized (in that they became demons in Judeo-Christian theology), such as Moloch, have any presence in the popular imaginarium.

Knowledge on Canaanite mythology is scarce, but we do have an idea about its cosmology. The world was created by '''Elion''' (El for god, ion for upper, uppermost together) and his wife '''Beruth''' (which means the city); from them were born all the gods of the Levant ('''Elohim'''; in modern Hebrew it means [[ThereCanOnlyBeOne God]] but used to mean 'Godly beings' and can be seen as the prototype for the Abrahamic angels). The mountains Targhizizi and Tharumagi held the firmament up above the earth-circling ocean, Heaven being the god Shamayim, and the dead went to Sheol (the Underworld; the concept survives in modern Judeo-Christian beliefs, although many equate it to Hell, despite the Bible/Torah confirming it to be far away from the modern fiery Jahanam torture cellar). Many influences from [[Myth/ClassicalMythology classical religion]] ensued. Several concepts in Semitic mythology are shared with both ancient Greek religion and [[Myth/EgyptianMythology Egyptian tradition]]; indeed, many deities are analogous to classical ones, while others were literally exported from Egypt.[[note]]Some fragmentary texts indicate that ''every'' god or goddess worshiped by ''any'' tribe the ancient Canaanites were aware of were considered to be among the Elohim, simply with Elion and Beruth as their parents or grandparents.[[/note]]

Where or when the Judeo-Christian god, Yahweh, came from is almost totally unknown. He wasn't attested to before being the Israelites' god, and nothing similar to his character has been seen in the Middle East; even his name isn't totally understood. In fact, the earliest surviving mentions of Yahweh are in reference to him being the God of Israel. Regardless of how Yahweh came to Israel, eventually his followers became the dominant people of Canaan. After cultural diffusion lead to Yahweh absorbing El(ion), the Israelites began absorbing other gods and goddesses into their supreme deity, whether it be their characteristics, deeds, or even familial relationships (For a while God absorbed El's consort Asherah as his own. He also absorbed Hadad's story about killing a giant sea snake, which is where the Leviathan came from. There's plenty of others). Eventually, the worshipers of Yahweh destroyed the rest of the native Semitic religions and [[WrittenByTheWinners wrote everything from their point of view]], and the rest is history. As seen by Leviathan, some fragments of the older polytheistic religion remained in parts of [[Literature/TheBible Hebrew Bible]], which sometimes seem strange when outside their original context. Another example of this are mysterious references to "Nephilim" (sometimes translated as "Giants"), which in Canaanite mythology referred to heroic demigods of the sort that are common in many polytheistic faiths but quite impossible in the monotheistic Judeo-Christian religions.

* SpellMyNameWithAnS: Because the Northwest Semitic languages were pretty much the same everywhere just with different alphabets per each soceity, many names of Biblical figures show up among the records of non-Israelite peoples, though not always without little variation. Some, like Elion and Elyon, are probably different interpretations of the same thing, others like "Danel the judge" and "Daniel the adviser" are probably coincidental and unrelated beyond etymology.
* SpotlightStealingSquad: Of all the old Semitic deities, only [[{{God}} YHWH]] has survived to the modern day as the sole deity of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Then again, we know he wasn't a Canaanite deity before being adopted by the Israelites, so he probably stole the show in more ways than that.

Few people in the western world realize that Judaism, and by extension Christianity, Islam and the Baha'i faith, are essentially WrittenByTheWinners versions of older Semitic religions present in the Levant. The gods of the pre-monotheistic Canaanites, Phoenicians, Hebrews, Arabs and other Semitic groups were dominant in what is now exclusively Muslim, Jewish and Christian territory, and the Phoenicians got them spread around the Mediterranean and North Africa. The Assyrians, Akkadians, and Babylonians, on the other hand, adopted [[Myth/MesopotamianMythology Sumerian mythology]] in a similar fashion to the Roman appropriation of Greek mythology that occurred centuries later. Despite their geographical proximity to Greek and Egyptian deities, these old gods of the Levant are barely remembered by modern people, largely due to the historical efforts of the Israelites/Jews to eliminate competition to their religions. Nowadays, only the gods that were literally demonized (in that they became demons in Judeo-Christian theology), such as Moloch, have any presence in the popular imaginarium.

* DivineRanks / OurGodsAreDifferent: El(ion) was essentially what modern people see God as, whereas the Elohim were essentially the morally flawed pagan gods. Elyon is a name in the Bible, most famously in ''Numbers'' and ''Psalms''(usually rendered as "Most High") but it is almost always used interchangeably with Elohim (rejecting the divine ranks). Sometimes Elohim refers to men or angels instead, though it refers to God enough times, perhaps as a holdover from the Hebrew's polytheistic past. When Ezekiel relays "...and I YHWH will be your God." the Hebrew reads "...and I YHWH will be your Elohim."

* HealerGod: Shadrafa was a benevolent deity whose name translates to "Spirit of Healing". He was the patron deity of the ancient city Leptis Magna, near modern day Tripoli in the country of Libya. He was worshiped in other ancient semitic cultures such as Palmyra. He is depicted as young, beautiful (like Adonis) with helpful serpents, scorpions, and lions.

* AKindOfOne: El is both a generic word for god and the name of a singular father god. Scholars have not really reached a definite conclusion on whether the singular El and Elion were two different figures or if singular El was an aspect of Elion (El tends to be more humanized than Elion and the two seem to be separated in some listings).

* KnifeNut: Anat again.

* HijackedByJesus: Long before Jesus himself was born, the Israelites created two figures out of one by both demonizing Baal-Zephon as the false god Beelzebub or Beelzebul ''and'' accepting Zephon as an angel minus the Baal. (Baal means lord and Zephon means out looking, they believed Zephon was a good guy looking out for them but not something to worship; in contrast Beelzebub means lord of the flies. Alternately, Beelzebul more accurately reflects the original name of the god, Baal-Zebul meaning lord of the high or lofty place, and the Israelites deliberately changed it to Beelzebub. Anat becomes Ishtar's mother Antu [[Myth/MesopotamianMythology in later Akkadian texts]] ([[ContinuitySnarl Ishtar's earlier equation with her mother Athirat is the least of the problems with this]]) and the angel Anathiel in the Zohar. Much later, by the New Testament era, Beelzebub was understood as another name for the prince of demons himself, {{Satan}}. In the succeeding centuries, Moloch (also Molech) was also literally demonized, this time by the Christians, understood to a demon in hell instead of just a false god like Beelzebub had been.

Knowledge on Canaanite mythology is scarce, but we do have an idea about its cosmology. The world was created by '''Elion''' (El for god, ion for upper, uppermost together) and his wife '''Beruth''' (which means the city); from them were born all the gods of the Levant ('''Elohim'''; in modern Hebrew it means [[ThereCanOnlyBeOne God]] but used to mean 'Godly beings' and can be seen as the prototype for the Abrahamic angels). The mountains Targhizizi and Tharumagi held the firmament up above the earth-circling ocean, Heaven being the god Shamayim, and the dead went to Sheol (the Underworld; the concept survives in modern Judeo-Christian beliefs, although many equate it to Hell, despite the Bible/Torah confirming it to be far away from the modern fiery Jahanam torture cellar). Many influences from [[Myth/ClassicalMythology classical religion]] ensued. Several concepts in Semitic mythology are shared with both ancient Greek religion and [[Myth/EgyptianMythology Egyptian tradition]]; indeed, many deities are analogous to classical ones, while others were literally exported from Egypt.

Where or when the Judeo-Christian god, Yahweh, came from is almost totally unknown. He wasn't attested to before being the Israelites' god, and nothing similar to his character has been seen in the Middle East; even his name isn't totally understood. In fact, the earliest surviving mentions of Yahweh are in reference to him being the God of Israel. Regardless of how Yahweh came to Israel, eventually his followers became the dominant people of Canaan. After cultural diffusion lead to Yahweh absorbing El(ion), the Israelites began absorbing other gods and goddesses into their supreme deity, whether it be their characteristics, deeds, or even familial relationships (For a while God absorbed El's consort Asherah as his own. He also absorbed Hadad's story about killing a giant sea snake, which is where the Leviathan came from. There's plenty of others). Eventually, the worshipers of Yahweh destroyed the rest of the native Semitic religions and [[WrittenByTheWinners wrote everything from their point of view]], and the rest is history.

* ResurrectiveImmortality: The gods could die through enough violence against them but could be restored back to life. The amount of effort needed to resurrect them seemed to be proportional to the nature of the death, Anat had to cut Baal-Hadad free from Mot, who had eaten him. Mot comes back to life seven years after Anat goes through a prolonged effort to make sure there is nothing left of him too. Baal-Hadad and Yam also killed one another at various points only for each of them to be brought back to life by Elion. They could apparently grant this kind of immortality to mortals too, as many offered it to Aqhat in exchange for his bow but he refused.

* LoveGoddess: Qadeshtu, it is debated among scholars whether or not her worship amounted to "sacred prostitution"; along with Astarte whose worship definitely included it.

* GodOfEvil: The pantheon has technically two: Mot (death), Yam (the sea), although only the first was seen as the absolute evil, since he wasn't worshiped.

Few people in the western world realize that Judaism, and by extension Christianity, Islam and the Baha'i faith, are essentially WrittenByTheWinners versions of older Semitic religions present in the Levant. The gods of the pre-monotheistic Canaanites, Phoenicians, Hebrews, Arabs and other Semitic groups were dominant in what is now is exclusively Muslim, Jewish and Christian territory, and the Phoenicians got them spread around the Mediterranean and North Africa. The Assyrians, Akkadians, and Babylonians, on the other hand, adopted [[Myth/MesopotamianMythology Sumerian mythology]] in a similar fashion to the Roman appropriation of Greek mythology that occurred centuries later. Despite their geographical proximity to Greek and Egyptian deities, these old gods of the Levant are barely remembered by modern people, largely due to the historical efforts of the Israelites/Jews to eliminate competition to their religions. Nowadays, only the gods that were literally demonized (in that they became demons in Judeo-Christian theology), such as Moloch, have any presence in the popular imaginarium.

Where or when the Judeo-Christian god, Yahweh, came from is almost totally unknown. He wasn't attested to before being the Israelites' god, and nothing similar to his character has been seen in the Middle East, even his name isn't totally understood. In fact, the earliest surviving mentions of Yahweh are in reference to him being the God of Israel. Regardless of how Yahweh came to Israel, eventually his followers became the dominant people of Canaan. After cultural diffusion lead to Yahweh absorbing El(ion), the Israelites began absorbing other gods and goddesses into their supreme deity, whether it be their characteristics, deeds, or even familial relationships (For a while God absorbed El's consort Asherah as his own. He also absorbed Hadad's story about killing a giant sea snake, which is where the Leviathan came from. There's plenty of others) Eventually, the worshipers of Yahweh destroyed the rest of the native Semitic religions and [[WrittenByTheWinners wrote everything from their point of view]], and the rest is history.

* BloodKnight: Anat, who prattles off a long list of famous individuals she killed, maimed or otherwise humbled. She even picks a fight with El when he tells her she is about to act in folly and as a result he lets do as she wishes and suffer from her own mistakes.
* CanonImmigrant: Astarte is considered homogenous with the Mesopotamian goddess Inanna[=/=]Ishtar, and is identified with the Egyptian goddess Isis and the Greek goddess Aphrodite.

* DivineRanks / OurGodsAreDifferent: El(ion) was essentially what modern people see God as, whereas the Elohim were essentially the morally flawed pagan gods. Elyon is a name in the Bible, most famously in ''Numbers'' and ''Psalms''(usually rendered as "Most High") but it is almost always used interchangeably with Elohim (rejecting the divine ranks). Sometimes Elohim refers to men or angels instead though it refers to God enough times, perhaps as a holdover from the Hebrew's polytheistic past. When Ezekiel relays "...and I YHWH will be your God." the Hebrew reads "...and I YHWH will be your Elohim."