Ba‘al Hammon (more properly Ba‘al Ḥammon or possibly Ba‘al Ḥamon) was the chief god of Carthage, generally identified by the Greeks with Cronus and by the Romans with Saturn. A map of the central Mediterranean Sea, showing the location of Carthage (near modern Tunis). ... Rhea tricking Cronus with a wrapped stone. ... Ancient Rome was a civilization that existed in Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East between 753 BC and its downfall in AD 476. ... Rhea tricking Cronus with a wrapped stone. ...

Ba‘al of course means 'lord', but the meaning of Hammon or Hamon is dubious. In the 19th century when Ernest Renan excavated the ruins of Hammon (Ḥammon), the modern Umm al-‘Awamid between Tyre and Acre, he found two Phoenician inscriptions dedicated to El-Hammon. Since El was normally identified with Cronus and Ba‘al Hammon was also identified with Cronus, it seemed possible they could be equated. More often a connection with Hebrew/Phoenician ḥammān 'brazier' has been proposed. Frank Moore Cross argued for a connection to Khamōn, the Ugaritic and Akkadian name for Mount Amanus, the great mountain separating Syria from Cilicia based on the occurrence of an Ugaritic description of El as the one of the Mountain Haman. Baal (בַּעַל / בָּעַל, Standard Hebrew Báʿal, Tiberian Hebrew Báʿal / Báʿal) is a northwest Semitic word signifying The Lord, master, owner (male), husband cognate with Akkadian BÄ“l of the same meanings. ... Ernest Renan (February 27, 1823 - October 12, 1892) was a French philosopher and writer. ... Tyre (Arabic الصور aṣ-Ṣūr native Phoenician Ṣur, ) is an ancient Phoenician city in Lebanon on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, about 23 miles, in a direct line, north of Acre, and 20 south of Sidon. ... An acre is a measure of land area in Imperial units or U.S. customary units. ... Ēl is a northwest Semitic word and name translated into English as either god or God or left untranslated as El, depending on the context. ... The Modern Hebrew language is a Semitic language of the Afro-Asiatic language family. ... Phoenician was a language originally spoken in the coastal region of what is now Lebanon. ... The Ugaritic language is known to us only in the form of writings found in the lost city of Ugarit since its discovery by French archaeologists in 1928. ... Akkadian language city of Akkad or Agad Akkadian Empire Sargon of Akkad This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... In ancient geography, Cilicia (Ki-LIK-ya) formed a district on the southeastern coast of Asia Minor (modern Turkey), north of Cyprus. ...

Classical sources relate how the Carthaginians burned their children as offerings to Ba‘al Hammon. See Moloch for a discussion of these traditions and conflicting thoughts on the matter. Such a devouring of children fits well with the Greek traditions of Cronus. Moloch or Molech or Molekh representing Hebrew מלך mlk is either the name of a god or the name of a particular kind of sacrifice associated historically with Phoenician and related cultures in north Africa and the Levant. ...

Scholars tend to see Ba‘al Hammon has more or less identical with the god El who was also generally identified with Cronus and Saturn. However Yigdal Ydin thought him to be a moon god. Edward Lipinski identifies him with the god Dagon in his Dictionnaire de la civilisation phenicienne et punique (1992: ISBN 2503500331). Inscriptions about Punic deities tend to be rather uninformative. Ēl is a northwest Semitic word and name translated into English as either god or God or left untranslated as El, depending on the context. ... // The ancient god Dagon Dagon was a major northwest Semitic god, the god of grain and agriculture according the few sources to speak of the matter, worshipped by the early Amorites, by the people of Ebla, by the people of Ugarit and a chief god (perhaps the chief god) of...

In Carthage and North Africa Ba‘al Hammon was especially associated with the ram and was worshipped also as Ba‘al Qarnaim 'Lord of Two Horns' in an open-air sancutary at Jebel Bu Kornein 'the two-horned hill' across the bay from Carthage.

Ba‘al Hammon's female cult partner was Tanit. He was probably not ever identified with Ba‘al Melqart though one finds this equation in older scholarship. Tanit is believed by some to be the name of a Carthaginian lunar goddess. ... Melqart (less accurately Melkart, Melkarth or Melgart (greek disposed of the letter Q (Qoppa) replacing it with additional use of K (Kappa) and G (Gamma)), Akkadian Milqartu, was the tutelary god of the Phoenician city of Tyre, as Eshmun protected Sidon. ...

See also

• Dhul-Qarnayn
• Narmer
• Alexander in the Qur'an

Dhul-Qarnayn (also Zulqarnain) is a pre-Islamic king mentioned in the Quran The name means one possessing two horns, as he was a ruler who controlled the East and West. His identity is controversial; many medieval Arabs and modern historians identified him with Alexander the Great, who is... Narmer was an Egyptian pharaoh who ruled in the 32nd century BC. The successor of Serket, he is considered by some to be the founder of the First dynasty. ... Alexander the Great is thought by most scholars to be the Zul-qarnain (meaning The Two-Horned Lord) mentioned in the Quran in Surat Al-Kahf (chapter 18;The Cave). Historical Background Alexander the Great was an immensely popular figure in the classical and post-classical cultures of the...

External link

• Scarce Punic images of Baal Hammon described.