Phoenician Creation Legends

   There are four main versions of the creation legend of the Phoenicians:

   a) That of Sanchuniathon (eleventh century BC) as reported by Philo Byblos (AD 42–117): In the beginning there were Aër and Chaos, from whom proceeded Wind and Desire (Potos), who produced Mot in the shape of an egg. In this were formed creatures which remained motionless and dormant until the egg opened, when from it were projected the sun, the moon, and the stars. Later under the influence of Light, the waters were separated from the sky.

   The creation of man was not less complicated. From Kolpia (the wind) and his wife Baau issued Aion (life) and Protogonos (first-born). Their children were Genos (race) and Genea, who were the first to worship the sun. Their descendants were Light, Fire, and Flame, who discovered the use of fire. From Fire issued the giants, of whom Hyposouranios was the first to build towns, while Ousoos was the inventor of garments made from skins.

   The first gods were Elioun and Berouth, whose children were Ouranos (the sky) and Gea (the earth). From this pair sprang El, Dagon, Atlas, Zeus Demaros (father of Melkart), Ashtart, Baitulos, etc. El later revolted against Ouranos with the aid of his brothers and sisters, a story which recalls the classical revolt of the Titans against Uranus with the aid of Gea.

   b) That of Damascius (AD 480). Before all, there existed Chronos (time), Potos (desire), and Omicle (mother of all). From the union of the two latter came Aër and Aura, who in their turn produced Otos (reason).

   c) That of Mochus, reported by Athenaeus (second century AD). The first principles were Ether and Aër, who engendered Oulomos, who himself produced, first Chousoros, and then the egg, which when broken up gave rise to Ouranos and Gea.

   d) That of the Ugarit texts, discovered shortly before the Second World War. Although these cannot properly be described as Creation Legends, the portions dealing with cosmological origins not being available, nevertheless they form a parallel to the Sanchuniathon story, having been written about the same time, and having the advantage of not being distorted to meet the demands of Hellenistic abstract thought: El, the supreme god, lived in the Sad-El (Field of God) with Asheratian (the Asher of the Sea), who seems to have been the same as Elat and may in actual fact have been the mother goddess who preceded El.

   In perpetual conflict with El is Baal (the lord), maintaining the principle of Dualism which is found throughout this area. The offensive in his conflict is not taken by Baal the younger and more vigorous god, but by El, who sets against his opponent various fabulous creatures including the Aquqim, or Okelim, which have huge horns and resemble Baal in appearance. Baal, who is attended by Ben Dagon, is sometimes victorious and sometimes defeated, in which latter case he is sacrificed.

   A similar, possibly later, conflict takes place between Mot, the son of the gods (i.e. of El), and Aleion (Aleion Baal), the son of Baal. At some stage in these combats Mot kills Aleion, and the world of nature suffers. Anthat, the sister of Aleion, goes to Mot and demands the restoration of her brother to life, but failing to secure this she carries out the sentence of death passed by the gods and cuts him in half with a sickle.

   Other portions of the story show Baal taking the place of his dead son and eventually killing Mot, while in yet another the eventual victory is given to Aleion. There are other conflicts between Mot and Leviathan, who is the giant sea beast of the Bible.

   These combats, which seem to have been an annual event and to have involved the death of one of the parties, may have replaced the sacrifice of the agricultural god by armed combat between the representatives of two religious groups, in which the loser was the victim of the sacrifice.

   The story presents certain points of similarity with those that came later and doubtless it will be possible, in time, to disentangle all the threads. A possible point of contact is the similarity between Aleion and Tammuz.