SUN-WORSHIP has prevailed amongst various races since tile most ancient thnes. The Baby lonian trinity was .Anu, Bel, and Ilea. Their goddess Ishtar supplanted Aim at Erech. Bel was lord of the visible world, and had his chief seat at Nipur. Sin, the moon-god of Ur, was eldest son of Bel. Their sun-god was Samas.
In the city of Heliopolis (Balbec) the Assyrians celebrated the worship of the sun with great cere mony. The imago had been brought from Helio polis in Egypt. The Pluenician Iltulad, in Syria, Palestine, and Meaopotainia, was the Run -god, representing the generative power of Oa 81111 ; 110 W218 joined with the Phamician Poseidon (Demarus), the water-god, and Astarte, with her cow-horna, the producing and nourishing earth.
The Egyptian sun deity was known ins !sfu, Osiris, and Ra.
the chief gcxl of Thebes, was Amun-lta, the sun, the king of the gods. Every king of Egypt wa.s styled Ze Ra, or son of the sun, and he was often sculptured as the third peraon of tho trinity in the place of Chonso. With the spread of the Theban power, the worship of Atnun-Ra spread. In Nubia and at Elephantine, to the south of Thebes, the chief god was Kiley'', the spirit, with a ram's head, who, in imitation of the worship in the capital, became Kneph-Ra. So Sebek, the crocodile, called also Seb, the father of the gods, became in due time Sebek-Ra. Chem, the god of generation, had his name from Cherni. Ile is in form a mummy, with his right arm raised, and a whip in his hand. He also was sometimes joined to the gods of Thebes, and formed a trinity in unity under tile 118111C of Ainun-Ra-Chem. At Heliopolis and the neigh bourhood, the name of the gotl of the sun was pronounced Athom, and he gave his name to the city of Thoum. At Mendes in the Delta, and at Hertnanthis near Thebes, the sun was called Mancha, and became Manda-Ra. Pasht, goddess of chastity, was worshipped chiefly at Bubastea, and has a cat's head. Athor was the goddess of love and beauty ; at Momemplik, near Sais, she was worshipped under the form of a cow ; at Sais was worshipped Neith, the queen of heaven, the mother of the gods. She wears sometimes the
crown of Lower Egypt. Thoth, the god of ietters, has the head of an ibis, and holds a pen in his hand. He was one of the gods of the moon, and lord of Hermopolis.
The myths of Gebal, of Tyre, of Sidon, and of the Canaanites generally, are all mixed up with each Other. But they all acknowledged Baal as the sun - god ; and Ashtaroth or AsLarte was known as Pene-Baal, the face of Baal, also Baths Baal.
The ancient Plicenicians and Egyptians used to paint the suit of the figure of a sitting on a lotus or nenofar, which lives in the water without any communication with the clay, resting on itself, equally distinct front matter, swimming in empty space.
Porphyry says the sun was also represented by a man in a ship resting on a crocodile, an amphibious reptile, emblem of air and water.
The sun was the great object of the worship of the Catiaanites, chiefly as creator and generator, the source of light and life. Baal, plural Baalini, was a title meaning lord, and the equivalent of Adonai, just as Melech, Moloch, and Malik means king. The Canaanitish gals hnAl this title prefixed, ,lierith, the covenant gotl of Shechem ; 13a.al Poor, the god of the mountains of Moab; Baal Zebub, the god of flies, etc. etc. (Numbers xxv. 3 ; 2 Kings i. 2 ; and Hosea ii. 1G). It was also given tts a man's name, and David's sou wns Baal Yada. The suit-god was also known as El, god, and Elyon, the most high god.
Amongst the Aceadians of Babylon. the people of Sipparali, and the Canaanites, children were sacri ficed to Baal, to king Anu, and king. Adar (Anam melech, and Adrammelech) ; but Hosea (ii. 16) declared Baali abolished as the god of the Israel ites. Duzu or Tammuz was the youthful sun-god of the Accadians of Chaldma; he was the bride groom of the goddess Istar. He had the title of Adonai. Adoni-Tammuz was the Greek Adonis, and many legends and other names were applied to him.