’Adon (Phoenician); ’Adonai (Hebrew); Adonis (Greek)
’Adon means "Lord," a title more than a name, as is common of so many Levantine deities. He is a Phoenician dying-reviving god of vegetation and fertility, son of Myrrha. His cult was centered at Gebal, called Byblos by the Greeks, now called Jebail, which was also the seat of the cult of `Ashtartu/Astarte, with whom he was often partnered. His worship was adopted by Greeks who called him Adonis, eventually spreading throughout the eastern Mediterranean world. His festival was celebrated at harvest time, which in the Near East could be in spring or in late summer. His death and resurrection was celebrated in the Levant in late spring, while the Jews make Gardens of Adonai in late summer just before the final Fall Harvest Festival. In the Greek myth, he was killed by a wild boar beneath a pine tree, his blood becoming the red and purple anemone. Because he was so mourned, he was brought back to life, shared by Persephone and Aphrodite, each for 4 months, but spending the rest wherever he chose. In the original story, his lover is `Ashtartu/ Astarte, assisted by the Sun goddess Shapash, guardian of the dead. His river, the Adon, now called Nahr Ibrahim, runs red with his blood in Spring. In the Levant, the Summer was the time when vegetation appeared dead in the withering heat, to be revived by Winter rains. The story of ’Adon shows similarities to that of Attis and Kybele.
Astronoë or Astronomë is a Phoenician goddess, also called in Latin Coelesti, Heavenly One, whose story is like Kybele's. She is associated at Tyre with the god Melqart; at Sidon with ’Eshmun. It is likely that during Hellenistic times after the Greeks had borrowed Ashtartu as Astarte, She was borrowed back by the Phoenicians, the name changing to Astronoë in the process.
Atar-ata (Phoen.); Atargatis, Derketo (Greek); Dea Syria (Latin, Syrian Goddess)
Atarata is a combined form of the names of the three major Canaanite-Phoenician goddesses, `Athtart (Atar), `Anat (Ata), and ’Athirat. Atargatis is the Greek form of her Phoenician name. She is often depicted as fish-tailed, a mermaid, associated with moisture. As vegetation goddess of generation and fertility, she protects her cities; as a moist sky goddess in cloud-like veil with eagles around her head; as a sea-goddess she is dolphin-crowned. She had a sacred pool with holy oracular fish at her temple at the city of Ashkelon. As the partner of Oannes, she is mother of legendary Queen Semiramis, whose sacred animal is the dove, which Semiramis became. During Roman times celebrated by ecstatically dancing eunuch priests of the Dea Syria, "Syrian Goddess," and equated with the Anatolian Kybele, whose son Attis was often equated with Adon (q.v.).
Ba`al Hammon, Ba`al Khamon
During the long period of trade and exchange between the Canaanite-Phoenicians with the Egyptians, Ba`al was associated with several Egyptian gods. One is Amon, the ram headed god of fertility, agriculture, air or breath of life, whose name means hidden, just as Ba`al is sometimes hidden among the clouds. There may be a relationship between Amon and Ba`al Hammon, as the Canaanites & Phoenician were highly syncretic. As Ba`al Hammon or Ba`al Khamon, he is the chief Carthaginian god of sky and vegetation, depicted as a bearded older man with curling ram's horns, perhaps a merging of ’El and Ba`al. As Ba`al Qarnaim or Ba`al Karnayin, Master of the Horns or the Two-Horned Ba`al, he is a ram-horned god of twilight and the setting sun, and consort of Tanith.
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