GODDESSES

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Ba (1)
Goddess of drought. Chinese. She is identified
in some texts as the daughter of the god HUANG
TI.
Ba (2)
Ram god. Egyptian (Lower). A fertility
deity from early in Egyptian religion invoked
particularly at Mendes. In a later cult, the
name ba comes to represent the spirituality of a
deity, often represented in an animal, e.g. the
bull, or the mortal manifestation of a god as
pharaoh.
Ba Xian
Collective name for gods. Taoist (Chinese). A
group of eight divine beings, once mortal,
who achieved immortality through their
exemplary lifestyles. There are many such
groups in Chinese religious belief. The Ba
Xian are probably the most widely revered.
Many people carry amulets and other charms
in the form of the symbols of these deities.
The eight gods are Cao Guo-jiu; HAN XIANG-
ZI; HE XIAN-GU; LAN CAI-HE; LI TIE-GUAI; LU
DONG-BIN; ZHANG GUO-LAO; and ZHONG-LI
QUAN.
BAAL (lord)
ORIGIN Western Semitic (Canaanite) [northern
Israel, Lebanon and later Egyptian]. Vegetation
deity and national god.
KNOWN PERIOD OF WORSHIP circa 2000 BC or
earlier to 200 BC.
SYNONYMS Aliyn Baal; HADAD.
CENTER(S) OF CULT Ugarit [Ras Šamra and
Jebel el Aqra]; Ašdod during Philistine period.
Otherwise generally down the corn-bearing
coastal plain of the eastern Mediterranean,
including Baal-Hazor, Baal-Sidon and Baal-
Tyre [Lebanon]. Memphis [Egypt].
ART REFERENCES a stele from Ras Šamra has a
seated god with bull horns which is thought to
be either Baal or IL; a model calf recently discovered
there may also symbolize Baal.
LITERARY SOURCES Ugaritic creation texts from
Ras Šamra, particularly the legends of Baal and
ANAT and Baal and MOT; Vetus Testamentum.
Baal may have originated in pre-agricultural times
as god of storms and rain. He is the son of DAGAN
and in turn is the father of seven storm gods, the
Baalim of the Vetus Testamentum, and seven midwife
goddesses, the SASURATUM. He is considered
to have been worshiped from at least the nineteenth
century BC. Later he became a vegetation
god concerned with fertility of the land. Baal is
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