Canaanites

The Hittites

In his book A History of Religious Ideas volume 1, Mircea Eliade gives his account of the religions of the Hittites and the Canaanites. The Hittites were a group of people that existed in Anatolia (modern day Turkey) from the seventh millennium BC to the beginning of the AD period. Their divinities were believed to have great force and the pantheon was very large. The divinities were believed to live in the temples. The pantheon was believed to be a family with the leaders being the storm God and his wife. Black magic was forbidden in Anatolia, but white magic was allowed.¹

Two Myths

One of the Hittite myths is the myth of the god who disappears. This protagonist is Telepinus but other texts make the protagonist the storm god. Nobody knows why the god disappears but bad things happen once this occurs. Fires go out, grain stops growing, animals and men stop having relations. A bee is sent to find him and stings him to wake him up. Telepinus then becomes furious and sends calamities on the land. Finally, Telepinus is relieved of his anger and things resume to normal. The myth of Telepinus may have roots in vegetation practices. But the fact that the myth is often assigned to the storm god and others suggests that this refers to the mystery of creation.² Another myth is the myth of the battle between the storm god and the dragon. In the first version, the storm god is defeated by the dragon to help him, the goddess Inaras invites the dragon to dinner. She asks the help of a mortal who consented on condition that she sleep with him. The Dragon eats so much that he can’t move and the mortal binds him with a rope. The Storm God enters and kills the Dragon. The fight between a god and a dragon can be found in later mythico-ritual themes. For example, the fight between Zeus and the typhon. This myth was ritually recited during the new years festival.³

The Hurrito-Hittite Theogony

Of particular interest is the Hurrito-Hittite theogony– that is, the story of the creation of the gods. Alalu was king and anu was subservient to him. Nine years passed and kumarbi attacked anu. Anu flew into the sky and kumarbi threw him to the ground and bit off his loins. Part of anus virility entered anus body hids body and kumarbi became pregnant with three gods. Anu has children with teshub and they dethrone kumarbi. In order to take back what teshub had taken, kumarbi impregnates a rock with his semen. This creates ulikummi- a stone giant ullikummi threatens to destroy the gods and so the go to ea. The gods then seek an old knife from the storehouses and saw off the stone giants feet. Finally, teshub overthrows the kumarbi.⁴

After the first translations of the hurratian/Hittite text, analogies were drawn between it and Greek mythology. In Greek mythology, the first god elioun corresponds to alalu Uranus corresponds to anu and kronos corresponds to kumarbi. Until Ugaritic literature was found there was doubt concerning trhe genuineness of this tradition. But the succession of divine generations is documented in canaaniter mythology.⁵

The Canaanites

The Canaanites were a semitic speaking group of people from modern day Syria that appeared shortly before 3000 BC. They were urban and practiced agriculture, but absorbed the cultures of herders and seminomadic warriors, including the Amorites. Before 1929, most of the information regarding the Canaanites came from the Old Testament and fragments from ancient Greek authors.  However, the Old Testament contains polemics against paganism and the work of the Greek authors is too fragmentary. After 1929, a large number of texts have been discovered in the port city of Ugarit in Syria. These texts come from the twelfth and fourteenth centuries, but contain conceptions that are much earlier.⁶

Conflict Between El and Baal

The head of the Canaanite pantheon is El. He is a personal god among the West Semites. He is powerful, holy, merciful, and very wise. He has two wives: Asherah, and Anath. All of the gods come from El and Asherah except for Baal. However, despite these titles given to El, he is described in some other texts as indecisive, weak, and resigned. Baal steals his two wives and El is replaced by the more dynamic, younger Baal. Baal and his support attack El by surprise in his palace on Mount Sapan and tie him up and wound him- castrating him. El is forced to take refuge at the bottom of the world.⁷ El first summons Yam- the seven-headed dragon- for help- who blesses yam and declares him his successor. Yam and Baal engage in combat. Baal equips two magical cudgels which have the ability to propel themselves from the user’s hands like arrows. The first arrow hits Yam on the shoulder but Yam is alright; the second hits him on the forehead and Yam is killed.⁸

Anath decides to throws a banquet in Baals honor in order to celebrate his victory over the dragon. Soon after Anath begins a homicidal rampage and kills all of the banquet’s hosts. She then relishes in the blood of her victims. This episode is significant and parallels can be found in Egypt and India. This myth probably has its roots in agriculture. At this point, Baal realizes that he is a god without a palace and must build one in order to secure his place as the new head god. However, he realizes he needs El’s approval for this and sends Anath over to beg for his recommendation. El consents and Baal builds his palace using the blacksmith who gave him his magical cudgels. This building of the palace marks Baal’s advancement to the supreme rank.⁹

Baal is getting out of control, so El next summons Mot- “death.” Mot is of particular interest because he represents the only known near Eastern personification of death. Baal descends into the underworld. It is unclear whether Mot kills him or whether he succumbs to Mot’s terrifying presence. Interestingly, Baal the head of the new pantheon goes to the underworld and perishes like vegetation gods. This causes the structure of the universe to receive its present form. El is immediately saddened by his deed. El tells Asherah to name another God as Baal’s replacement. Meanwhile, Anath prepares to burry Baal’s corpse. Once again Yam returns to life and seven years later, Mot again enlivens, and even Baal returns.¹⁰

Analysis

Eliade believes that it is possible that Mot’s victory represents the cycle of seven dry years. This particular myth seems to represent the more or less periodical disappearance and reappearance of vegetable life governed by the gods. It is probable that the myth of the combat between yam and Baal was recited during a new year festival and the myth of the Baal-mot conflict at the harvest season. But no known texts mention these facts. This religious vision was not exclusively Canaanite.¹¹

Elements of the myth of the Canaanites can be found the Old Testament. Echoes of the Baal-Mot conflict can be seen in the Old Testament as well as analogues of certain rituals. The priests mentioned in the texts have the same name as in Hebrew. when the Israelites entered Canaan, they were met with a type of religion that was counter to Judaism. Baal represented a personality that did not share the same attributes as Yahweh. However, Canaanite religious elements were absorbed by the Israelites. Thus a conflict between Baal and Yahweh ensued with Yahweh seeming to resemble El despite its riddance of his dismembered form. Ultimately Yawhwinism prevailed.¹²    

Mircea Eliade