--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Joao S. Lopes" <josimo70@...>
wrote:
> The trinity Zeus-Poseidon-Hades seem to me an > influence of
Ugaritic/Phenician three gods > Bel-Yam-Mot.
*If* the name Poseidon/Potei-da is assumed to literally mean "land-
lord" as per Kretschmer-Kerényi-Schachermeyr's interpretation, the
compound is the wrong way round for Greek (since Potei-da literally
means "lord-land"); consequently, one might even regard Potei-da as
an over-literal translations of the similar Semitic god name Ba`al
Ars = "lord [of the] land" found at Ugarit and elsewhere. Belief in
Poseidon may have been brought to Greece fom the Middle East. The
ancient West Semitic god Ba'al Ars was also known as Ba'al Zebul, an
epithet translated by some as "lord of the [depth of the] earth".
Thus, not far removed from Mycenaean (Linear B) Potei-da "lord of
the earth (?)". The Ugaritic god Ba'al Ars presided, in particular,
over subterranean (chthonian) waters. The Phoenician coasts near
Ugarit were known to the ancients for a particularity: sweet-water
springs emerge there from the sea-bed in proximity to seashores.
Hence the hypothesis that Ba'al Ars, god of underground waters, was
associated, like the Greek Poseidon, with the sea as well.
Kindest regards,
Francesco Brighenti