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Ba‘alat Gebal, 'Lady of Byblos
Byblos

Byblos is the Greek language name of the Phoenician city Gebal . It is a Mediterranean city in the Mount Lebanon Governorate of present-day Lebanon under the current Arabic language name of Jbeil and was also referred to as Gibelet during the Crusades....
', was the goddess of the city of Byblos, sometimes known to the Greeks as Baaltis.

She was generally identified with the pan-Semitic goddess ‘Ashtar
Astarte

Astarte is the name of a goddess as known from Northwestern Semitic languages regions, cognate in name, origin and functions with the goddess Ishtar in Mesopotamian texts....
 and so equated with the Greek goddess Aphrodite
Aphrodite

Aphrodite is the classical Greek mythology goddess of love, sex, and beauty. According to Greek oral poet Hesiod, she was born when Uranus was castrated by his son Cronus....
. However Sanchuniathon
Sanchuniathon

Sanchuniathon is the purported Phoenician author of three lost works originally in the Phoenician language, surviving only in partial paraphrase and summary of a Greek language translation by Philo of Byblos, according to the Christian bishop Eusebius of Caesarea....
 equates her with the Greek goddess Dione
Dione (mythology)

Dione in Greek mythology is a vague goddess presence who has her most concrete form in Book V of Homer's Iliad as the mother of Aphrodite who lived among the mortals was known for her kindness....
 and presents her as a sister of ‘Ashtart (Aphrodite) and Rhea
Rhea (mythology)

This page is about the Greek mythological figure. For the bird, see Rhea .Rhea was the Titan daughter of Ouranos , the sky, and Gaia , the earth, in Classical Greece mythology....
 (who is probably Asherah
Asherah

Asherah , in Semitic mythology, is a Semitic mother goddess, who appears in a number of ancient sources including Akkadian language writings by the name of Ashratum/Ashratu and in Hittites as Asherdu or Ashertu or Aserdu or Asertu....
), all three being wives of El
El (god)

is the Northwest Semitic languages word for "deity" , cognate to Arabic and Akkadian .In the Canaanite religion, or Levantine religion as a whole, El or Il was the supreme god, the father of humankind and all creatures and the husband of the Goddess Asherah as attested in the tablets of Ugarit....
. He says she bore daughters to El and that it was El who gave the city of Byblos to Baaltis who is also called Dione.

Ba‘alat 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 Ba‘al Gebal in Byblos was built around 2700 BC.






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Ba‘alat Gebal, 'Lady of Byblos
Byblos

Byblos is the Greek language name of the Phoenician city Gebal . It is a Mediterranean city in the Mount Lebanon Governorate of present-day Lebanon under the current Arabic language name of Jbeil and was also referred to as Gibelet during the Crusades....
', was the goddess of the city of Byblos, sometimes known to the Greeks as Baaltis.

She was generally identified with the pan-Semitic goddess ‘Ashtar
Astarte

Astarte is the name of a goddess as known from Northwestern Semitic languages regions, cognate in name, origin and functions with the goddess Ishtar in Mesopotamian texts....
 and so equated with the Greek goddess Aphrodite
Aphrodite

Aphrodite is the classical Greek mythology goddess of love, sex, and beauty. According to Greek oral poet Hesiod, she was born when Uranus was castrated by his son Cronus....
. However Sanchuniathon
Sanchuniathon

Sanchuniathon is the purported Phoenician author of three lost works originally in the Phoenician language, surviving only in partial paraphrase and summary of a Greek language translation by Philo of Byblos, according to the Christian bishop Eusebius of Caesarea....
 equates her with the Greek goddess Dione
Dione (mythology)

Dione in Greek mythology is a vague goddess presence who has her most concrete form in Book V of Homer's Iliad as the mother of Aphrodite who lived among the mortals was known for her kindness....
 and presents her as a sister of ‘Ashtart (Aphrodite) and Rhea
Rhea (mythology)

This page is about the Greek mythological figure. For the bird, see Rhea .Rhea was the Titan daughter of Ouranos , the sky, and Gaia , the earth, in Classical Greece mythology....
 (who is probably Asherah
Asherah

Asherah , in Semitic mythology, is a Semitic mother goddess, who appears in a number of ancient sources including Akkadian language writings by the name of Ashratum/Ashratu and in Hittites as Asherdu or Ashertu or Aserdu or Asertu....
), all three being wives of El
El (god)

is the Northwest Semitic languages word for "deity" , cognate to Arabic and Akkadian .In the Canaanite religion, or Levantine religion as a whole, El or Il was the supreme god, the father of humankind and all creatures and the husband of the Goddess Asherah as attested in the tablets of Ugarit....
. He says she bore daughters to El and that it was El who gave the city of Byblos to Baaltis who is also called Dione.

Ba‘alat 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 Ba‘al Gebal in Byblos was built around 2700 BC. Dedications from Egyptians begin appearing from the 2nd to 6th dynasties. Two of them equate Ba‘alat Gebal with the Egyptian goddess Hathor
Hathor

In Egyptian mythology, Hathor was originally a personification of the Milky Way, which was seen as the milk that flowed from the udders of a heavenly cow....
.

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