2]
Lajard's view, that all Babylonian and Assyrian deities were
androgynous, hardly needs discussion now.[743]

+409+. Of a more definite character are expressions in two Phoenician
inscriptions. In an inscription of Eshmunazzar II (probably early in the
fourth century B.C.) the great goddess of Sidon is called "Ashtart
_Shem_ Baal."[744] The word _shem_ means 'name,' and, if it be so
interpreted as to give the goddess the name of a male divinity, she may
be understood to have partly male form. But such change of name is
hardly probable, and this is not necessarily the natural force of the
phrase. In Hebrew to "call one's name on a person or thing" is to assert
ownership in it or close connection with it.[745] In the West Semitic
area some personal names signify simply 'name of such and such a deity,'
as, for example, Shemuel (Samuel), 'name of El,' Shemzebul, 'name of
(the god) Zebul,' denoting devotion or subordination to the deity in
question. "Shem Baal" as a title of Ashtart may then indicate her close
relation with the god, or, perhaps, if the expression be understood more
broadly, her equality with him in power (the name of a deity involves
his attributes)--he was the great god, but she, the expression would
say, is not less mighty than he; or, less probably, _baal_ may be taken
not as proper name but as title, the sense then being that the goddess
is the lord of the city.[746] Another proposal is to read "Ashtart
sham[=e] Baal," 'Ashtart of the heaven [sky] of Baal.'[747] There is a
Phoenician Baal-shamem, 'lord of the sky,' but nowhere else is the sky
described as the abode of a baal, and the transference of the local
city-goddess to that region would be strange; nor in the expression
'Baal-shamem' is Baal a proper name--it is merely a title.

+410+. Another phrase, occurring in many Carthaginian inscriptions,
makes mention of "Tanit face of Baal,"[748] an expression that may point
to a female body with male face. Its indefiniteness--it does not state
the nature of the face (it may point to a beard)--makes it difficult to
draw from it any conclusions as to the character of the deity
named.[749] But the probability is that it is identical in sense with
the one mentioned above. Tanit was the great goddess of Carthage; she is
called "Adon," 'lord,' and her equality with Baal is indicated by the
statement that she had his face, the word 'face' being here equivalent
to 'personality' and 'power.'[750]

+411+. At a