Baʽalat Gebal


Baalat Gebal, 'Lady of Byblos', was the goddess of the city of Byblos, Phoenicia in ancient times. She was sometimes known to the Greeks as Baaltis or Atargatis.
Baalat Gebal was generally identified with the pan-Semitic goddess Ashtart and, like Ashtart, equated with the Greek goddess Aphrodite. However, Sanchuniathon presents Baalat Gebal as a sister of Ashtart and Asherah, and calls Baalat Gebal by the name Dione, meaning that he identified her either with Asherah or with the mother of Greek Aphrodite, the Titan goddess Dione. According to Sanchuniathon, Baaltis/Dione, like Asherah and Ashtart, was a sister and wife of 'El. He states that she bore daughters to El and that it was El who gave the city of Byblos to her.
Baalat Gebal was distinguished in iconography from Ashtart or other aspects of Ashtart or similar goddesses by two, tall, upright feathers in her headdress.
The temple of Baalat Gebal in Byblos was built around 2700 BC. Dedications from Egyptians begin appearing from the second to the 6th Egyptian dynasties. Two of these inscriptions equate Baalat Gebal with the Egyptian goddess Hathor. Frank Moore Cross writes that at Sinai Baalat seems to have referred to Hathor and possibly to Qudšu, who is Asherah.