Hermod is depicted as the messenger of the gods in Norse mythology.
His name, Hermóðr, means “as courageous as an army” or “the one with the spirit of an army” in Old Norse.
Hermod embarks on a journey to Helheim to negotiate for Baldr’s return to Asgard.
Hermod (Hermóðr, in Old Norse) is the son of Odin and the brother of Baldr in Norse mythology. He is depicted as the messenger of the gods and plays a role in the myth of Baldr’s death, where he embarks on a journey to Helheim to negotiate for Baldr’s return to Asgard. Whether Hermod is divine or heroic is up for debate. In Snorri Sturluson’s Prose Edda, a 13th-century work based on even earlier sources, Hermod is portrayed as a god and his role in this text is that of a messenger. In the myth, he appears after Baldr is killed and offers to go to Helheim, the realm of the dead, to plead for his brother’s freedom from the realm’s guardian, Hel.
In the same way that Hermes is to Greek mythology and Mercury is to Roman mythology, Hermod is to Norse mythology.
Hermod is mentioned briefly in the Skaldic poem Hákonarmál and the Eddic poem Hyndluljóð, both written in the 10th and 11th centuries, but in these texts he is treated more like a legendary hero or king.
King Heremod of Denmark is mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon epic poem Beowulf, written around 700–1000 AD in Old English. In the poem, Heremod defeats monsters and dragons, and this king may be the same person as Hermod.
According to Snorri Sturluson, the god Hermod likely descended from a legendary hero like those mentioned in earlier sources. However, academics are still split on this issue.
What Does “Hermod” Mean?
The name Hermod is originally Hermóðr in Old Norse and Herimot in Old High German. Both of these are derived from the elements hari, meaning army, and mot, meaning spirit, courage, and soul. Thus, it means something like “as courageous as an army” or “the one with the spirit of an army.”
Several Norman place names around Europe bear the name of this Norse god or the Norse king Heremod:
For instance, Hermeville in the Seine-Maritime in France was known as Hermodi villa in the late 12th century, which means “countryside estate of Hermod.”
Another French commune is called Hermanville, which was Hermodivilla before 1115.
English place names like Harmondsworth (Hermodesworthe in the late 11th century, Middlesex) and Harmston (Hermodestuna in the late 11th century, Lincolnshire).
The Story of Hermod
In the Hákonarmál
In the 10th century, the Skaldic poem Hákonarmál was written as a tribute to the late Christian king of Norway, Haakon the Good. It describes Haakon’s arrival in Valhalla, where the gods greet him with open arms. Odin, in stanza 14 of the poem, assigns Hermod and Bragi the task of greeting the king (Bragi, Hoder, Tyr, and Heimdall are described as Odin’s sons).
There’s nothing in the poem to suggest the characters depicted here are anything more than heroic mortals. Later mythological texts give the god of poetry the name Bragi, who is almost certainly a deification of the celebrated skald Bragi Boddason from the 9th century. The Bragi in the poem is almost certainly the skald himself, and Hermod is almost certainly a legendary figure who died before his time.
In the Hyndluljóð
Hermod is mentioned briefly and only once in the Poetic Edda, in stanza 2 of the early 11th-century poem Hyndluljóð. Like the hero Sigmund in the Sigurðr cycle, Hermod is depicted in this poem as a figure from the Edda epic cycle.
“Let us pray to Herjafödr, To keep in good spirits; He who bestows and gives Gold to warriors; He gave to Hermod Helmet and byrnie, And to Sigmund A sword as a gift.”
Hermod and Sigmund are mentioned in the same breath in Beowulf.
In the Prose Edda
Loki disguises himself as giantess Thökk to be the only person not to cry for Baldr’s release.
Chapter 49 of Gylfaginning details the death of the god Baldr at the hands of Loki, the god of trickery. To achieve his goal, Loki disguises himself as a giantess called Thökk.
In this story, Helheim, the realm of the dead, is guarded by the goddess Hel, and Baldr’s mother Frigg offers her favor to anyone who will ride there and negotiate with Hel to release Baldr’s freedom. In response, “Hermod the Bold, son of Odin” volunteers and is bestowed with Odin’s steed Sleipnir for the journey.
Before reaching the golden bridge Gjallarbru, which spans the river Gjöll, Hermod rides through nine nights of pitch blackness. Modgud, the young girl who watches over the bridge, has seen that Hermod is not pale like the dead. He reveals that his mission in Helheim is to retrieve Baldr.
Hermod and Sleipnir before Hel in Helheim. H. A. Guerber, 1908.
The female guardian says that Baldr has crossed the bridge, and she tells Hermod the way to Helheim. He rides up to the entrance to Helheim and urges his horse to make the jump. When he enters the hall, he sees his older brother Baldr and Hel atop her throne.
After spending the night in the underworld, Hermod begs Hel, the goddess of death, to let Baldr go free. She agrees, but only on the condition that all creatures, living and dead, weep for him.
Baldr gives Hermod the ring Draupnir, the same ring that Odin had previously placed on Baldr’s funeral pyre. Frigg receives a linen cloth and other gifts from Baldr’s wife, Nanna, and Fulla, Frigg’s maid, receives a golden ring.
Hermod farewells to Baldr and his wife Nanna. Pitt, Ruth J., 1892.
After hearing Hermod’s account of his travels, the gods dispatched messengers worldwide to urge mourners to shed tears for Baldr. A giantess by the name of Thokk, however, refused to weep for Baldr; she was, in fact, the crafty god Loki. This meant that Baldr would spend eternity in the underworld.
When the gods learned the damage Loki caused to Aesir by preventing Baldr from being released from Helheim, they harshly punished him, setting in motion the events that led to Ragnarök.
Possible Origin of Hermod’s Myth
Snorri’s Prose Edda’s remarkably detailed account of Hermod’s expedition to Helheim has led many to speculate that the author relied on a long-lost mythological song recounting the whole adventure, along with the story of Baldr’s death.
The afterlife is frequently the destination of Norse mythological stories. Poems by Saxo Grammaticus and legendary sagas feature it frequently, and it can also be found in the Eddic poems Baldrs draumar and Helreið Brynhildar.
But since Snorri attributes divine status to Hermod, he is probably based on a real-life heroic figure in Nordic or Germanic history. In addition, Hermod is not included in Snorri’s list of the Aesir gods known as the Nafnaþulur.
References to Hermod Today
Hermod is a minor character in Norse mythology but he has been popularized through comic books.
“Hermod’s Ride to Hel” from the Swedish death metal band Amon Amarth’s 2006 album “With Oden on Our Side” is a melodic death metal retelling of the Hermod myth.
The Marvel Comics character Hermod (debuting in Thor #274 in 1978) was created in honor of this god. He is one of the young members of the Norse pantheon and he possesses the ability to move at hyperspeed.
Several video games feature Hermod. For example, the 2018 video game “God of War” makes frequent allusions to various mythological texts, including those that describe Hermod as the messenger of the gods.
Mehen, whose name means “he who is coiled,” is a god in ancient Egyptian mythology. He is the protective snake god who watches over Ra’s sun boat. During the nighttime voyage through the Duat (the Underworld), the sun god was shielded by Mehen’s coils. This was because both the sun and the wicked deity Apophis symbolized the unending fight between good and evil. Had Apophis succeeded in stopping Ra’s boat and flipping it over, the world would have ended and darkness would have returned.
Mehen wrapped himself around Ra to shield him from Apophis.
From the copy of the Book of Gates in the tomb of Ramses I (KV16).” class=”wp-image-42807″/>Ra traveling through the underworld in his solar barque while shielded by the snake Mehen. From the copy of the Book of Gates in the tomb of Ramses I (KV16).
Apophis managed to devour the sun at least once because the guardian of the solar boat, Mehen, actually failed in his duty. However, as shown in Ramesses IX’s tomb, Mehen caused Ra to emerge out of a hole in Apophis’ belly, enabling the sun god to finish his trip and be reborn again.
The Old Kingdom’s (2700–2200 BC) Pyramid Texts, Coffin Texts, and papyri all include references to the primeval deity Mehen, and it’s possible that his devotion extends back to at least the Predynastic Period.
In the New Kingdom (1550–1352 BC), a law was established that enabled the dead to take part in Ra’s nighttime voyage, but only if they were buried very deeply in the earth; this gave rise to the concept of hypogea (“underground”).
The whole Egyptian creation myth began around 3100–2686 BC.
The snake deity Mehen is prominently featured in scenes from the literary work Amduat. There is also a funerary text called the Book of Gates found in the pharaoh tombs in the Valley of the Kings. There are twelve scenes in Amduat that correspond to the twelve hours of the night, and the Book of Gates text describes the journey of the sun god and the pharaoh across the sky at night.
In the Valley of Kings, this iconography is found inside the tombs of the following pharaohs:
RamessesI: In his tomb, the solar boat of Ra with a ram’s head, called Auf-Ra, is depicted in the “third hour” of the Book of Gates. Both are protected by the god Mehen and the minor deities Sia and Heka.
Horemheb: In this tomb, the Book of Gates is partially missing, yet you can see the snake Mehen multiple times.
Seti I: His tomb has one of the most richly adorned types of Books. There are many depictions of the Book of Gates in which Mehen and other deities stop Apophis from blocking Ra’s journey.
Ramesses VI: It is filled with depictions of Mehen painted with impeccable craftsmanship. The full versions of the Books of Gates, Heavens, and Caverns may be found here.
Thutmose III: The Twelve Hours of the Night of the Amduat are represented here with Ra’s boat protected by Mehen.
Since the sun’s nighttime voyage became the most common magical-religious motif in burial depictions, Mehen was often shown in them.
Ra’s voyage had to be closely guarded by Mehen due to widespread Egyptian anxiety over the possible end of the world. The Egyptians also believed that they would be reincarnated by following the sun’s path, thereby vanquishing death.
While the pharaoh, accompanied by Ra and the guardian deities, marched triumphantly towards his own rebirth and that of his predecessors, others in Egypt were still dying.
The goddess was featured in a 3000 BC ancient Egyptian board game called Mehen. (Anagoria, cc by 3.0)
Also originating in the Old Kingdom (2700–2200 BC), the board game called Mehen is said to have had a sacred significance beyond that of a simple pleasure due to its intimate association with the snake deity. It is speculated that this board game was a ceremony that took place between the deity Mehen and the dead, with the winner being spared from a poisonous bite.
How It Was Played
In a game of Mehen, to establish who would go first, dice were thrown, and the highest-rolling player would get the first turn. By rolling the dice, players advanced from the snake’s tail to its head. If they made it to the head, they became a lion or lioness and had to make their way back to the tail. After the transformation, each point of the dice was counted as a double. The winner of Mehen was the first one to reach the tail.
The goddess Mafdet also took part in the game. Her mission was to keep the pharaoh safe as the pharaoh tried to rescue Ra. Six lions and six sets of marbles were used in this game.
Greek mythology describes Borysthenes as a river god (of the present Dnipro River). He was a significant figure in the ancient Greek polis beside the Dnipro (Dnieper) River. The coinage of Olbia featured the likeness of Borysthenes. He was shown as a bearded guy, and a bow in a case and an axe were often seen on the other side of the coin.
On the island of Berezan, a colony called Berezanskaya (Borysthenes) was also given its name after the river goddess.
Two coins from Pontic Olbia, dating from the third to the first century BC, show the river deity Borysthenes’ bearded head.
Since he was the Scythian god of the river Berezan, his grandson was another deity called Targitai, the progenitor of the Scythians. Thus, Targitai was linked with Borysthenes via a syncretization that was unique to the ancient Greeks and, to some degree, that age in general. According to the Greek view, Targitai was the son of a river naiad, Borysthenes’s daughter. A naiad was a female spirit presiding over water bodies.
Thoas’ father is also Borysthenes. Thoas was a king of the Taurians, a barbaric tribe in Crimea, in Greek mythology.
It was debated for a while which river Borysthenes was associated with (in addition to the Dnipro, other major rivers, most notably the Dniester, were taken into consideration). Contemporary knowledge clearly links the Dnipro with Borysthenes.
The first proof of this was that Herodotus referred to the Borysthenes as the second greatest of the “Scythian rivers” (the Istr-Danube being the largest river) in his “History.” Simultaneously, he refers to it as the second most valuable and prolific water resource globally, after the African Nile, and the most beneficial in this region.
Who Exactly Was Borysthenes?
The Scythians revered the river Borysthenes (Βορυσθένης), which is now likely the Dnipro, as a deity. Although his function as the father of the primordial Earth-and-Water Mother shows that he was more than just a river deity, he was also the father of the Earth-and-Water goddess Api.
The ancient Scythian form from which the name Borysthenes was believed to be derived was Baurastana, which translates to “yellow place.”
But the name Baurustana also means “place of beavers.” This name was associated with the beaver skins that the Iranian water goddess Anahita wore. Her epithet, ap (“water” in Avestan), was associated with the name of the earth-and-water goddess Api, who was the daughter of the deity Borysthenes. Their namesake was “water.”
On Pontic Olbia coins, the deity Borysthenes was shown with the characteristics of a typical Greek river god, complete with horns atop his head and a beard.
History of Borysthenes as a Geographic Place
Typically, one looks for the word’s origins in the Iranian languages, which included the Scythian and most likely the Cimmerian languages. According to one theory, the name comes from the Iranian “wide, broad, wide place.” Another theory on the Indo-Aryan hypothesis explaining the origin of the Maeotians and Taurians suggests that the Indo-Aryan “high place” might be where this term originated.
In the third-name origin theory, the term “northern strait” is derived from ancient Greek (Ionian or possibly older) and, the Hellespont (modern Dardanelles) is called Borysthenes by Hesychius and Stephanus of Byzantium.
The name might then have been changed to refer to the river, which the Greeks first mistook for a strait due to its breadth. Advocates of this hypothesis point to Bosporus Cimmerian as an example, which became the “namesake” of Bosporus, which was later referred to as Thracian to prevent confusion.
Apollo has Borysthenis as His Muse
Poet Eumelus of Corinth made reference to “Borysthenis”. She was identified by the classical interpretation as one of Borysthenes’ nymphs, or naiads.
It seems that accounts of Apollo’s journeys to the northern limits of the Ecumene (inhabited land) coincide with the emergence of this muse in Greek mythology. These in turn occur concurrently with the earliest Greek expeditions to the northern Black Sea coast.
Carthaginian theology revolved around the god Baal Hammon (also spelled Ba’al Hammon, Baal Hamon, Ba’al Khamon, and Baal-Hammon). Phoenicians spelled his name 𐤁𐤏𐤋 𐤇𐤌𐤍 in Punic and it is believed to mean “lord of a multitude.” However, the name Baal Hammon has also been translated by academics to mean “Lord of the Brazier” or “Lord of the Altar of Incense.” This is in line with the Brazen Bull torture device of the Ancient Greeks which was designed to raise a fragrant cloud of incense.
Who Was Baal Hammon?
Moloch, a Canaanite deity, also demanded child sacrifice. He was a bull-headed deity who was not solely practiced among the Phoenicians or their Carthaginian cousins.
Moloch, who also demanded child sacrifice, was similar in features to Baal Hammon. He was a Canaanite deity with a bull-headed idol. But it was not solely practiced among the Phoenicians or their Carthaginian cousins.
Often referred to as the “African Saturn,” Baal Hammon presided over the heavens, storms, dew, flora, and fertile ground. He ruled the gods and was the Carthaginian goddess Tanit’s masculine partner, or consort. His characterization as the “African Saturn” by the Romans suggests that Hammon was seen as a fertility deity in his Romanized version.
The term “Lord of the Two Horns” refers to the common depiction of Baal Hammon as a bearded elderly man with ram’s horns (Ba’al Qarnaim). He was often shown as a strong, elderly figure with a beard, dressed in long robes, and seated on a throne adorned with cherubs.
A pinecone or ears of corn topped the hilt of his staff, and a solar disk, sometimes adorned with wings, was often shown next to his head, similar to Egyptian bas-reliefs. The pinecone symbolized immortality and male fertility.
According to Greek and Roman accounts, the Carthaginians performed child sacrifices by setting them on fire in honor of the god Baal Hammon.
Some ancient writers claimed that he was worshiped through the practice of child sacrifice as part of the molk ritual. According to the historian Diodorus, the giant bronze statue of Kronos (Baal Hammon) in Carthage was said to have long arms reaching the ground, and sacrifices were placed in its hands and lowered into a fiery pit.
Other Phoenician and Carthaginian colonies in the western Mediterranean also honored Baal-Hammon, and his followers’ devotion to the god persisted throughout Roman-era North Africa.
Origin of Baal Hammon
“There was a bronze image of Kronos in their city (Baal Hammon, ed.), stretching his hands with his palms up and obliquely to the ground, so that each of the children placed in this very place rolled down and fell into special gaping pits filled with fire,” the Greek historian Diodorus Siculus describes the monstrous statue in Carthage.
Baal Hammon was a god with Syro-Phoenician roots who was probably worshiped as early as Ugarit (c. 6000–c. 1185 BC) and whose name is documented in inscriptions from Palmyra dating back to at least the 1st century BC. In Palmyra, he was associated with Baal, the supreme deity of the oasis.
It is believed that the worship of Baal at Tyre was the ancestor of the religion of Baal Hammon in the Phoenician colony of Carthage. There is a fundamental difference between the two since the Baal of Tyre was not revered as a supreme god.
Multiple recent studies have linked the Northwest Semitic deities El and Dagon to Baal Hammon. Baal Hammon’s prominence in Carthage makes him comparable to El, the most important deity in the Canaanite religion.
Two Phoenician inscriptions honoring El-Hammon were found in the remains of Hammon, today known as Umm al-Amad, between Tyre and Acre by Ernest Renan in the 19th century. It’s probable that El and Baal Hammon were interchanged, as El was often associated with Kronos, a Greek god.
The Belgian orientalist Edward Lipinski saw parallels between him and the ancient Canaanite deity Dagon, who was similarly associated with fertility.
It was after the Punic defeat at Himera in 480 BC that ties between Tyre and Carthage were reportedly broken. The cult of Baal-Hammon was brought by immigrants from Tyre in the 7th–6th centuries BC, and images of the god started to appear first in the 6th century BC. By the 5th century BC, Baal Hammon had risen to prominence among the Carthaginian gods.
Human Sacrifices to Baal Hammon
Sanctuary of Tophet of Carthage. Image: Wikimedia.
The Greeks and Romans believed that the Carthaginians burned their children as offerings to Baal Hammon. They performed this rite, known as molk, at temples called tophets (shrines), where they made offerings to Baal Hammon and other deities like Tanit in exchange for blessings or in fulfillment of promises.
Greek writers portrayed the custom as “bizarre” rather than horrifying, highlighting how commonplace it was.
The historian of Alexander the Great, Cleitarchus, writes in the 3rd century BC on this topic: “Out of reverence for Kronos, the Phoenicians, particularly the Carthaginians, promise one of their children, burning it as a sacrifice to the divinity if they are eager to obtain success.“
The historian Diodorus from the 1st century BC claims that a massive bronze statue of Kronos (Baal Hammon) existed in ancient Carthage. The arms of the statue extended far from its torso, palms facing up, and were thought to be attached to the body by a lifting mechanism. The sacrifice was put in his hands, and the idol dropped it into a pit of flame.
Plutarch states that after defeating the Carthaginians in the Battle of Himera (480 BC), the tyrant Gelon particularly stipulated in the peace treaty that the Carthaginians would no longer be allowed to sacrifice children to Baal Hammon. The Greeks were appalled by this practice.
In 310 BC, when the Greek tyrant Agathocles of Syracuse (361-289 BC) marched on Carthage, one of the biggest human sacrifices in history took place. The Carthaginians said that they had failed because they had abandoned their traditional religious practices and had, for a long time, sacrificed the offspring of strangers who had been purchased and covertly raised rather than their own.
While the hoplites of the tyrant approached the Punic city, more than 500 children were sacrificed as the army neared the gates. 200 children from aristocratic families were sacrificed, and another 300 children were committed to the sacrifice in will, all in an effort to quench the god’s anger.
Anthropologists found that 85 percent of children sacrificed to Baal Hammon were less than six months old. The first evidence of human sacrifice was discovered in the middle layer, dating back to the first quarter of the 7th century BC, where urns were being filled with the ashes of burned infants.
This coincides with the arrival in Carthage of a sizable population of people from the city of Tyre. In certain cases, lambs were substituted for children during the ritual. When asked how often human sacrifices were performed, Roman senator and poet Silius Italicus (c. 26–101 AD) said once a year.
More than 25 times in the Old Testament and in other Middle Eastern sources, we learn of child sacrifice in the Iron Age Levant. They provide substantial evidence for the colonial setting of a practice for which the existence of shrines in the West argues that it was much more ritualized.
Spread of the Cult of Baal Hammon in Other Cultures
A stele of Saturn in Carthage with the features of Baal Hammon. Tunis, Musée du Bardo. (Image: Jona Lendering, cc by sa 4.0, cropped)
According to the ancient Greeks, Baal Hammon was really the Titan Kronos. The Romans connected him to their god, Saturn. A major Roman religious event, Saturnalia, may have been impacted by cultural interaction with Carthage during the Second Punic War (218–201 BC).
Major changes to Saturnalia were made in 217 BC, when the Romans suffered one of their worst losses at the hands of Carthage in the Battle of Lake Trasimene. They had observed the festival in accordance with Roman practice up to that point. An attempt to please Baal Hammon motivated the establishment of new rituals during this period, including the Saturnalia.
His depiction in Hesiod’s “Theogony” is very similar to that of the Hurrite-Hittite deity Kumarbi, whom the Semites associated with the fertility deity Dagon. The Greeks, in the meantime, named him Kronos. In turn, the same deity was revered in Hellenistic times as Kronos and in Syria and Lebanon as Baal Hammon.
Saturn was also the fertility god in Italic mythology and Baal Hammon was addressed as senex (“old man”), frugifer (“fruitful”), deus frugum (“god of grains”), and genitor (“parent”) in Roman inscriptions.
Denarii (silver coin) of Clodius Albinus (150–197) features Baal Hammon’s image.
Denarii (silver coin) of Clodius Albinus (150–197) bore Baal Hammon’s image. He was an insurgent for imperial authority in 193–197 who hailed from Hadrumetum in Africa Province. Baal–Hammon–depicted coins were struck in this area during the reign of Augustus.
Baal Hammon on a throne statuette from Hadrumetum, Africa.
Other Phoenician and Carthaginian colonies in the western Mediterranean also worshiped Baal Hammon. According to the Greek historian Strabo (63 BC—24 AD), there was a temple dedicated to Baal Hammon in Cádiz (Spain). It’s likely that this temple actually existed in Málaga (Spain) since coins minted there feature the temple’s picture above the inscription that reads šmš (“shamash”).
According to Augustine of Hippo (354–430), local pagans during the time he lived opposed their Saturn to Jesus, and the worship of Baal Hammon remained one of the most prominent in Roman-era North Africa.
Etymology of Baal Hammon
Terms like “lord” and “ruler” in Punic were expressed with the Punic word lb’l (Baal). Baal is an epithet of many Canaanite and Phoenician deities; however, this cannot be taken as proof of any kind of connection between all Baal gods.
“Crowd” or “multitude” is one possible meaning of the Hebrew/Phoenician word ḥmn (hammon). Ilya Shifman identifies him as a sun god which stems from the name’s etymological similarity to the word for “brazier” in Hebrew/Phoenician, ḥammān. This name might also be connected to the Egyptian deity Amun.
Hammon was also thought of as a moon deity, but only in Israeli archeologist Yigael Yadin’s eyes.
According to Frank Moore Cross, the Ugaritic and Akkadian people used the name Khamōn to refer to El, the deity of Mount Amanus in Syria and Cilicia (Turkey) who lived on the mountain. This is based on a description by the Ugarit people.
Many different meanings can be derived from the name. One of the first translations of the name was offered in 1883 by Joseph Halévy and it was Amanus or Amana. The first known use of this deity’s entire name was found on the eastern slope of the ridge at Zincirli Höyük, Turkey in 1902, in an inscription that dates back to about 825 BC.
Edward Lipinski argued that the name should be transcribed as “Baal-Hamon” since the doubling of the name occurred when worshipers in North Africa began to associate this god with Zeus (Jupiter) Ammon.
Images and Features of Baal Hammon
Zeus Ammon resembles the two-horned image of Baal Hammon, a.k.a., Baal Qarnaim.
Immigrants from Tyre introduced the religion of Baal-Hammon to Carthage in the 7th and 6th centuries BC. Images of the deity appear in the traditional Persian style, depicting a strong, bearded elder in long garments, seated on a throne, and generally adorned with cherubs. Altars or bethels bearing his name date back to the 6th century BC.
Baal Hammon was associated with the ram. He was worshiped as Baal Qarnaim (“Lord of the Two Horns”) at Carthage and the rest of North Africa in an open-air sanctuary on Jebel Boukornine (“Mount of the Two Horns”). The sanctuary was located in front of Carthage Bay, and the same mountain resides in Tunisia today.
Baal Hammon was formerly mistakenly linked to Baal Melqart, a tutelary god from Tyre who has nothing to do with Hammon.
Around the middle of the 5th century BC, Tanit became revered alongside Baal-Hammon, creating a heavenly partnership with him. Archaeologists have discovered so many Tanit emblems in inscriptions, mosaics, ceramics, and stelae, leading them to believe that she became the most venerated divinity in Carthage beginning at this time.
This change in belief pushed Baal Hammon and Melqart into secondary positions. Despite this secondary role for Baal Hammon, Tanit’s primary appellation was still “Tanit, Face of Baal” (Tnt pn B’l in Punic). This is similar to Jesus being revered more often than God.
Later, in the 4th century BC, this feature of Tanit was documented in other Phoenician colonies (Malta, Motya, and Sardinia) as well. The pinecone has long been seen as a sign of immortality and male fertility, both of which point to Baal Hammon’s status as a fertility god and a sun deity.
The god’s throne, shown on a gem from the 7th or 6th century BC, rests on a boat that floats on the waters of the deep ocean, as shown by the plants’ downward-pointing stems. This portrays Baal Hammon as the ruler of the heavens, the earth, and the underworld.
Toponymy of His Name
Song of Songs 8:11 mentions Baal-Hamon, variously spelled Baal-Hammon and Baal Khamon, as the location of Solomon’s very successful vineyard.
Each caretaker was responsible for the vineyard and owed the king one thousand silver shekels. Baal-gad and Hammon, both referenced in relation to the tribe of Asher in Joshua 19:28, are thought to be in the same place.
Some people link him with Bellamon (Belamon) and place him in the Central Palestine town of Dothan. It is unknown whether or not these places have any connection to the divinity of Baal Hammon.
According to some academics, the name “Baal-Hammon” in the Bible is not meant to be seen as a location; rather, it is a metaphor for Solomon’s control over a large population, and its name is a play on the Hebrew phrase for “Lord of a multitude” (lbʻl ḥmn).
Modern Studies
Some researchers now think that during the molk sacrifice, the children might be killed first before the ritual instead of being burned alive.
Research that appeared in the 2010 issue of the archeology journal Antiquity further supports human sacrifice at tophets. However, the topic of Carthaginian ritual sacrifice was the subject of another essay published in the same magazine in 2012.
According to this later study, the teeth discovered at the archaeological sites would diminish at different rates depending on their mineralization. Consequently, this changed the assumed age of the remains, and it was concluded that the remains actually belonged to stillborn infants.
Therefore, the findings disproved the concept of human sacrifice in the tophets. However, two studies published in 2013 challenged this interpretation and justified the technique used from a historical and archaeological viewpoint.
Epigraphy of the tophet – José Ángel ZAMORA and Maria Giulia Amadasi – Academia.edu
The Iconography of the Canaanite Gods Reshef and Baʻal – Late Bronze and Iron Age I Periods (C 1500-1000 BCE) – By Izak Cornelius – 1994 – Google Books
Ancient Coins of the Graeco-Roman World – The Nickle Numismatic Papers – By Waldemar Heckel, Richard Sullivan – 2010 – Google Books
(PDF) Romanizing Baal: the art of Saturn worship in North Africa – By Andrew Wilson – Academia.edu
