El
El West AsiaOn Mount Saphon dwelt El, the ‘first’ Canaanite god. The father of gods and men, he was remote, ‘old’, the ‘master of time’, the ‘benevolent and merciful lord’. It was under his suzerainty that Baal married Anat, defeated the sea god Yam as well as the deadly Mot, and was installed as the divine bestower of life-giving rain. El represented omnipotence at one remove, so that he was always portrayed as a seated figure, wearing bull's horns, the symbol of strength. In the Old Testament there is mention of the supreme deity as El and Yahweh. About Melchizedek, King of Jerusalem, we hear that ‘he brought forth bread and wine, and he was the priest of the most high God. ’This was El Elyon. It is now thought that the Old Testament is a compilation of at least three main versions of Hebrew religious history, the Yahwist one being the dominant tradition.
Two epic cycles associated with El concern Keret and Aqhat....
[The entire page is 399 words long]
Join eNotes
Over 3,500 study guides, question and answer forums, literature criticism, reference content, and much more!
Oxford University Press Titles
