El (deity)

El
Father of the Gods
Gilded statuette of El from Tel Megiddo
Other names
AbodeMount Lel
SymbolBull
RegionLevant (particularly Canaan) and Anatolia
Genealogy
Consort
Children

(Ugarit religions)

Equivalents
SyrianDagon[1][2]
MesopotamianAnu, Enlil[3][4]
HurrianKumarbi[3][4]
RomanSaturn
Gebel al-Arak knife Possible depiction of El with two lions, B.C. 3450[5]
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Ancient Semitic religion
The Levant
Deities of the ancient Near East
Ancient Egyptian
Arabian
Eblaite
Elamite
Hurrian and Hittite
Levantine
(Canaanite and Ugaritic)
Mesopotamian
Religions of the ancient Near East
Part of the myth series on
Religions of the ancient Near East
Pre-Islamic Arabian deities
Arabian deities of other Semitic origins
This article contains Ugaritic text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Ugaritic alphabet.

El (/ɛl/ EL; also 'Il, Ugaritic: 𐎛𐎍 ʾīlu; Phoenician: 𐤀𐤋 ʾīl;[6] Hebrew: אֵל ʾēl; Syriac: ܐܺܝܠ ʾīyl; Arabic: إل ʾil or إله ʾilāh[clarification needed]; cognate to Akkadian: 𒀭, romanized: ilu) is a Northwest Semitic word meaning 'god' or 'deity', or referring (as a proper name) to any one of multiple major ancient Near Eastern deities. A rarer form, 'ila, represents the predicate form in the Old Akkadian and Amorite languages.[7] The word is derived from the Proto-Semitic *ʔil-.[8]

Specific deities known as 'El, 'Al or 'Il include the supreme god of the ancient Canaanite religion[9] and the supreme god of East Semitic speakers in Early Dynastic Period of Mesopotamia.[10] Among the Hittites, El was known as Elkunirsa (Hittite: 𒂖𒆪𒉌𒅕𒊭 Elkunīrša).

Although El gained different appearances and meanings in different languages over time, it continues to exist as -il or -el in compound proper noun phrases such as Ishmael, Israel, Samuel, Daniel, Raphael, Michael, and Gabriel.

  1. ^ Fontenrose 1957, p. 277–279.
  2. ^ Feliu 2007, p. 301.
  3. ^ a b Güterbock 1983, p. 325–326.
  4. ^ a b Archi 2004, p. 329.
  5. ^ du Mesnil du Buisson, Robert (1969). "Le décor asiatique du couteau de Gebel el-Arak" [The Asian decor of the Gebel el-Arak knife] (PDF). BIFAO (in French). Vol. 68. Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale. pp. 63–83. ISSN 0255-0962. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 February 2014. Retrieved 30 October 2014.
  6. ^ "Online Phoenician Dictionary". Archived from the original on 10 August 2014. Retrieved 11 May 2022.
  7. ^ Cross 1997, p. 14.
  8. ^ Kogan, Leonid (2015), Genealogical Classification of Semitic: The Lexical Isoglosses. Berlin, Germany: De Gruyter. p. 147.
  9. ^ Matthews 2004, p. 79.
  10. ^ Gelb 1961, p. 6.