The name Baal-berith is attested in the Hebrew Bible in the context of Shechem after the death of Gideon (Judges 8:33; Judges 9:4) and is treated in later encyclopedic sources as "an idol worshipped by the Shechemites." Theological and onomastic treatments read the name as a theonym or epithet combining Baʿal (a local "lord" or divine title) with berith (Hebrew for "covenant"), signaling a local divine guarantor or protector of agreements. Some reference works record the variant El Berith in reception, but the corpus presents that as an alternate form in later literature rather than a firmly attested separate origin narrative in the primary Biblical text.
No primary source descriptions of an anthropomorphic form, cult image, or iconography for Baal-berith are preserved in the supplied materials. Encyclopedic entries and Biblical references name the deity/title and refer to a temple at Shechem but do not specify physical attributes or cult statuary.
Ancient attestation (encyclopedic readings of Judges) frames Baal-berith as a local protector and guardian of engagements or covenants in the Shechem community. Modern occult and esoteric webpages (e.g., Joy of Satan, satankoananda.org, and similar sites) attribute additional thaumaturgical powers—such as prophecy, discernment of past and future, transmutation of metal into gold, and assistance in rising to honors—but these are later reinterpretations found in contemporary occult or subcultural sources and are not supported by the historical/Biblical references in the supplied corpus.
Weaknesses
- otherNo documented weaknesses in supplied sources
Wards
- otherNo documented wards or anti-Baal-berith rituals in supplied sources
Abadir
Abadir is a polysemous name attested in distinct cultural contexts: a legendary founding saint and clan ancestor in eastern Ethiopia (Sheikh Abadir Umar Al‑Rida / Aw Abadir), a term applied to cone‑shaped cult stones in Phoenician religious description, and a personal name of a martyr (Abadir/Apater) in the Coptic Synaxarium. The attestations are independent usages of the same name rather than a single supernatural being.
Abī-simtī
Abī-simtī (also rendered Abi-simti, Abisimti) is a named woman attested in third-millennium BCE Mesopotamian documentary and literary texts. She appears in administrative account records as a provider of animals and donor to temple cults and in Sumerian love-song literature as the named beloved/consort addressed by a royal speaker.
Acerbas
Acerbas (also recorded as Sychaeus, Sycharbas, Zacherbas) is a figure in classical Greco‑Roman accounts of Phoenician/Tyrian tradition: a wealthy priest of Melqart (the Tyrian Hercules) whose concealed riches and murder by King Pygmalion precipitate Elissa/Dido's flight from Tyre and the foundation of Carthage. He is presented as a human priestly figure of high social rank rather than as a supernatural being.
Adad
Adad (also Hadad, Haddad; Sumerian Iškur) is the storm- and rain-deity attested in ancient Mesopotamian and Canaanite religious contexts. Sources identify him as a principal weather god whose domain is storms and rainfall and whose name appears across multiple Near Eastern languages and sites, including Ebla (as Hadda, c. 2500 BCE).
Adamma
Adamma is an ancient north‑Syrian goddess attested in Eblaite palace records ca. 2400 BCE and later incorporated into Hurrian and Emar contexts. She functioned as a named cultic deity with an institutional priesthood, a month and festival bearing her name, and documented offerings from the royal palace.
Adonis
Adonis is a mythic mortal youth in ancient Greek tradition, beloved by goddesses (notably Aphrodite and Persephone) whose death and seasonal return are the focus of the women’s midsummer festival Adonia. The cultic practices—planting short-lived 'gardens of Adonis' on rooftops, ritual lamentation, and casting an effigy and withered plants into the sea—symbolically link him to vegetation cycles and Near Eastern dying-and-regenerating god traditions.
Adrammelech
Adrammelech is attested in ancient Semitic textual tradition as a local god of 'Sepharvaim.' The name is commonly glossed as "Magnificent king." In modern times the name has been reused in diverse fictional, musical, and online contexts, but those are creative reworkings rather than continuations of the brief ancient attestation.
Agasaya
Agasaya is presented in modern secondary sources as a little-attested Semitic war goddess who, according to some summaries, was later absorbed as the warrior aspect of the major Mesopotamian goddess Ishtar. The attestation in available materials is sparse and much inferences about her name, attributes, and later influence are explicitly marked speculative in those sources.
Agenor of Argos
Agenor is a mythic royal figure in Greek heroic‑age genealogies who functions as a dynastic ancestor and narrative node. In different traditions he appears as an Argive king in the house of Phoroneus or as a son of Poseidon associated with Phoenicia and Libya; an Agenor also appears as a warrior in Homeric epic.
Aglibol
Aglibol is the moon god of ancient Palmyra, attested in inscriptions and reliefs from the late Hellenistic through Roman Imperial periods. He appears in civic cult contexts, often paired with the solar deity Malakbel and included in Palmyrene triads and public sanctuary imagery such as the Sacred Garden.
Allatum (Allani / Allatu)
Allani (Hurrian) or Allatu/Allatum (Akkadian/Mesopotamian) is a Near Eastern underworld goddess associated with rulership of the land of the dead and with determination of fate. She appears across Hurrian, Mesopotamian and Hittite/Anatolian contexts and is closely linked with other chthonic deities such as Išḫara and Ereshkigal.
Al‑Qaum
Al‑Qaum (Arabic: القوم) is a major Nabataean deity associated with war, the night, and the protection of caravans and clans. Attested in numerous inscriptions and later compared by commentators to Greek/Roman war gods, he functioned as a protector of travelers and as a guardian of souls during nocturnal journeys.
Community Record
- [1]Baal-berith. Wikipedia: Baal-Berithwiki
- [2]Baal-berith - International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, entry 'ba`al berith = "Baal of the Covenant"'academic
- [3]Baal-berith - Biblical Cyclopedia. Biblical Cyclopedia, entry 'Baal-Berith' (notes later interpretative uses)other
- [4]Baal-berith: meaning and etymology (Abarim Publications). Abarim Publications, onomastic discussion of Baʿal Berith / El Berithother
- [5]Wikidata: Baal-berith. Wikidata item Q1757445, notes 'God(s) worshipped in ancient Canaan'wiki
- [6]Archive: Ánti Baal-Berith; or The binding of the Covenant.... 17th-century polemical tract referenced in reception/history notes (Archive.org)literary
- [7]Archive: A serious expostulation with that party in Scotland... (1682). 17th-century pamphlet citing Baal-Berith in polemical context (Archive.org)literary
- [8]Baal-Berith - Joy of Satan. Contemporary occult webpage attributing magical powers to 'Baal-Berith' (modern reception)folk
- [9]Baal-Berith - Satankoananda.org. Contemporary occult webpage attributing magical powers to 'Baal-Berith' (modern reception)folk
- [10]Baal-berith - Canadian Assault / modern cultural references. Example of modern cultural reuse of the name (music/subculture reference)other