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Template:Fertile Crescent myth (Levantine)Template:Middle Eastern deities Baal Hammon, properly Baʿal Ḥamon (Phoenician and Template:Langx),<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> meaning "Lord Hammon", was the chief god of ancient Carthage. He was a weather god considered responsible for the fertility of vegetation and esteemed as king of the gods. He was depicted as a bearded older man with curling ram's horns.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Baʿal Ḥammon's female cult partner was Tanit.<ref>Serge Lancel. Carthage: A History. p. 195.</ref>
EtymologyEdit
He is identified as one of the Phoenician deities covered under the name of Baal.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> However, the meaning of his second name is unclear. Frank Moore Cross argued for a connection to Hamōn, the Ugaritic name for Mount Amanus, a peak in the Nur Mountains that separate Syria from Cilicia.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In the 19th century, when Ernest Renan excavated the ruins of Ḥammon, now Umm al-Amad, between Tyre and Acre, he found two Phoenician inscriptions dedicated to El-Ḥammon.<ref name=Walbank/>
Others have proposed Ḥammon as a syncretic association with Amun, the god of ancient Libya,<ref>S. G. F. Brandon, Dictionary of Comparative Religion, 1970, Littlehampton, 978-0297000440</ref> In Siwa Oasis, a solitary oracle of Amun remained near the Libyan Desert,<ref>Pausanias, Description of Greece x.13 § 3</ref> while a last current has called instead for a connection with the Northwest Semitic word ḥammān "brazier", suggesting the sense "Lord of the Brazier".<ref name=Walbank/>
Cult and attributesEdit
The worship of Baʿal Hammon flourished in the Phoenician colony of Carthage. His supremacy among the Carthaginian gods is believed to date to the fifth century BC after relations between Carthage and Tyre were broken off at the time of the Battle of Himera (480 BC).<ref>Moscati, Sabatino (2001). The Phoenicians. Tauris, p. 132. Template:ISBN</ref> Baal Hammon was known as the Chief of the pantheon of Carthage and the deity that made vegetation grow; as with most deities of Carthage, he was seemingly propitiated with child sacrifice, likely in times of strife or crisis, or only by elites, perhaps for the good of the whole community. This practice was recorded by Greeks and Romans, but dismissed as propaganda by modern scholars, until archeologists unearthed urns containing the cremated remains of infants in places of ritual sacrifice. Some scholars believe this confirms the accounts of child sacrifice, while others insist these are the remains of children who died young. <ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>{{ safesubst:#invoke:Unsubst||date=__DATE__ |$B= Template:Fix }}
He has been identified with a solar deity,<ref name=Walbank>Walbank, Frank William (1979). A Historical Commentary on Polybius, Volume 2, Clarendon Press, p. 47</ref> although Yigael Yadin thought him to be a moon god.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Edward Lipiński identifies him with the god Dagon.<ref>Edward Lipiński, Dictionnaire de la civilisation phenicienne et punique (1992: Template:ISBN).</ref> In Carthage and North Africa, Baʿal Hammon was especially associated with the ram and was also worshiped as the horned deity Baʿal Qarnaim "Lord of the Two Horns" in an open-air sanctuary at Jebel Boukornine ("the two-horned hill") across the bay from Carthage, in Tunisia.<ref>Roberto Peter Bongiovanni (2014). "The Interchange of Plain Velar and Aspirate in Kronos/Chronos: A Case for Etymological Equivalence". Master's thesis at City University of New York.</ref>
The interpretatio graeca identified him with the Titan Cronus. In ancient Rome, he was identified with Saturn, and the cultural exchange between Rome and Carthage as a result of the Second Punic War may have influenced the development of the festival of Saturnalia.<ref>Robert E.A. Palmer, Rome and Carthage at Peace (Franz Steiner, 1997), pp. 63–64.</ref>
Template:Clarify. Attributes of his Romanized form as an African Saturn indicate that Hammon (Amunus in Philo's work) was a fertility god.<ref>Serge Lancel (1995). Carthage: A History, p197.</ref>
LegacyEdit
There is a survival in modern times in onomastics with some first names in use particularly in Tunisia grafted onto the name of the god. Algerian, Tunisian and many other spoken forms of Arabic refer to "{{#invoke:Lang|lang}} farming" to refer to non-irrigated agriculture.<ref>Ottavo contributo alla storia degli studi classici e del mondo antico Arnaldo Momigliano - 1987 p240.</ref> Such usage is attested in Hebrew, a Canaanite language sister to Phoenician, already in the 2nd century CE Mishnah.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
A street in modern Carthage, located near the Punic Ports, bears the name of Baal Hammon.<ref>/place/Rue+Baal+Hammon,+Tunisie/@36.8480006,10.3239041,753m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x12e2b4cac8227357:0x5d79c4f871806c6!8m2!3d36.8479963.26d19028, Rue Baal Hammon Archaeological Site of Carthage, Tunisia, at google.com/maps</ref>
The city of Carmona (Andalusia, Spain) is believed to derive its name from Kar-Hammon, "city of Hammon."<ref>Garvey, G., Ellingham, M. (2003:326). The Rough Guide to Andalucia. United Kingdom: Rough Guides.</ref>
See alsoEdit
- Baal-zephon, the storm god of Jebel Aqra
- Beelzebub
- Punic religion
ReferencesEdit
External linksEdit
- On-line parallel Bible: Song of Solomon 8:11