Francesca Stavrakopoulou

So Baal, the name basically means master or lord.

And so we find various forms of Baal all over ancient Southwest Asia.

In the Levant, he's particularly associated with... He's a storm god, essentially.

But as a storm god, he's also a warrior deity.

So his weapons are... So it's all related to Zeus.

Yeah, very similar.

Zeus is basically a form of Baal.

Absolutely.

And later...

Greek writers would understand Phoenician forms of Baal as a form of Zeus.

So it's really, really similar.

But yeah, his weapons are thunderclouds and lightning and rainstorms, big heavy clouds.

He's known as the rider on the clouds.

He's the charioteer of the clouds, which is such a lovely image.

But that's exactly what Yahweh's called in many Hebrew Bible texts as well.

So as well as taking on aspects of ale, Yahweh's also taken on lots of aspects of Baal.

So he's combining the kind of top-tier, semi-retired father god profile of deity with the kind of warrior god, storm god, ferocious fighter, patron deity, defender of his chosen cities and peoples portfolio.

Yeah.

And all the gods are, all the deities are these sensory bodied deities.

They have human shaped bodies.