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Encyclopedia of Religion entry forBGod B. is a designation used by anthropologists for a deity depicted in the MSS. of the Mayan Indians of Central America. He is represented as having a long truncated nose, and is described by Stempell as " the elephant-headed god B standing upon the head of a serpent " (Maya Codex Troano; see G. Elliot Smith, Dr., p. 84). " Many authorities consider god B to represent Kukuikan, the Feathered Serpent, whose Aztec equivalent is Quetzalcoatl. Others identify him with Itzamna, the Serpent God of the East, or with Chac, the Rain God of the four quarters and the equivalent of Tlaloc of the Mexicans" (Herbert J. Spinden, Maya Art, p. 62). Prof. Elliot Smith identifies him with Chac, and con-tends that Chac (=Tlaloc) is simply an American form of the Indian rain-god Indra. " One and the same fundamental idea, such as the attributes of the serpent as a water-god, ,reached America in an infinite variety of guises, Egyptian, Babylonian, Indian, Indonesian, Chinese and Japanese, and from this amazing jumble of confusion the local priesthood of Central America built up a system of beliefs which is distinctively American, though most of the ingredients and the principles of synthetic composition were borrowed from the Old World." BAAL. A Semitic word meaning " owner, proprietor, or possessor," it is used as the title of gods regarded as the owners or inhabitants of places or districts. Thus there was a Baal of Tyre, a Baal of Sidon, a Baal of the Lebanon, a Baal of Mt. Hermon, etc. In the Old Testament, the local deities are spoken of collectively as the Baalim or the Baals. As gods of fertility (Hosea ii. 5, 12), agricultural festivals were a feature of their worship (Hosea ii. 8, 13). One of the Baals who assumed a leading position in later times was called Baal-shamem, " the owner of the heavens." When the Israelites settled among the Canaanites they seem to have worshipped the Canaanite Baalim side by side with their own god Jehovah. Later on, however, they regarded Jehovah himself as the Baal of the land, though the rites of the old Baal cult survived even among the Israelites. The prophets of the eighth century denounced this idolatrous worship. See Encycl. Bibl. citations: Encyc. of Rel., Canney
article created 2006-04-12 , last updated 2006-04-12 |
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