RAMMAN, riinymfin. A deity of the Babylo nian pantheon, and also a Syrian god, probably to be identified with the Babylonian Adad and the Syrian Hadad. Ramman, whose name, from a Babylonian root, means 'the roarer,' is the storm-deity. The name occurs rarely (with cer tainty) in Babylonian, but is found several times in the Old Testament tinder the corrupt form R im mon, for Ram mon. According to 11. Kings v. IS, he was the chief deity of Damascus; the name also appears in the proper name Tab rimon (I. Kings xv. 15), and probably in several Palestinian place-names. This word was Once generally read in a number of famous Assyrian names e.g. Ramman-nirari III. ( tl.S00 n.c.), but since 1899 such a name is read Adad-nirari. We have then the equation of Ramman with Adad, the former being an old Babylonian deity, while the latter may have entered Mesopotamia from Syria. As the storm-god, Adad-P,amnan is the deity presiding over the rainy season and floods, is the genius of the battle-onslaught, and is even a god of oracles. He carries the thunder
bolts and the battle-axe, and is symbolized by the bull. In the Syrian sphere Adad appears under various names. Iladad, Addu, Daddu, the name being preserved in the biblical names Hadad and Ben-badad. Iladad is likewise a storm-god, and was the chief in the Syrian pantheon, his eult extending from Aleppo and SitTirli to the south of Damascus. In Zechariah xii. lI occurs the obscure expression Hadad rimmon, used of either a deity or a place named after a deity; whatever the term means, it is in line with the identification of Unclad and Rim mon. Consult: Jastrow, Thligioa of Babylonia and J ssyria ( Bost on. 1S981 ; Zimmerli and Winckler in Schrader, lit f ten und das rite Testament (Berlin, 1902 : Baethgen, Beitrlige zur semitischen RQligionsgcsehichte (ib.,18SS)