Baal
the chief male divinity among the Phoenicians, as Ashtoreth was the leading female one. The Carthaginians, who sprang from the Phoenicians, carsettlements, as is proved, among other evidence, by the names of some of their world-renowned heroes: thus_Hannibal, written in Punic inscriptions, Hannibaal, signifies the grace of Baal; and Hasdrubal, or Asdrubal, Azrubaal="Help of Baal." The worship of Baal early existed among the Canaanites and the Moabites, whence it spread to the Israelites, becoming at last for a time completely dominant among the 10 tribes, and to a certain extent even among the two, in consequence of the ill-advised marriage of Ahab with Jezebel, daughter of Ethbaal (the name means "with Baal"), King of Sidon. A number of places in Palestine and the neighboring countries commence with Baal, such as Baal-gad, Baal-meon, etc. This divinity seems to have symbolized the sun, and less frequently the planet Jupiter. He was worshipped under different forms, or in different relations: thus there were Baalberith the Covenant Baal, or lord; Baal-zebub the fly-lord; Baal Peor= the Baal of Mt. Peor, or Baal of the opening, the Moabitish national divinity.
There was an affinity between Baal and Moloch. The Beltein or Beltane fires, lit in early summer in Scotland and Ireland, seem to be a survival of Baal's worship.
BAALBEK (ancient Heliopolis, city of the sun), a place in Syria, in a fertile valley at the foot of Antilibanus, 40 miles from Damascus, famous for its magnificent ruins. Of these, the chief is the temple of the Sun, built either by Antoninus Pius or by Septimius Severus. Some of the blocks used in its construction are 60 feet long by 12 thick; and its 54 columns, of which 6 are still standing, were 72 feet high and 22 in circumference. Near it is a temple of Jupiter, of smaller size, though still larger than the Parthenon at Athens, BAAL-ZEBUB BABER