Editing El (deity) (section)

== Sanchuniathon ==
[[Philo of Byblos]] (c. 64–141&nbsp;AD) was a Greek writer whose account ''[[Sanchuniathon]]'' survives in quotation by [[Eusebius]] and may contain the major surviving traces of Phoenician mythology. El (rendered {{tlit|grc|Elus}} or called by his standard [[Greek mythology|Greek]] counterpart [[Cronus]]) is not the [[creator god]] or first god. El is rather the son of Sky ([[Uranus (mythology)|Uranus]]) and Earth ([[Gaia|Ge]]).<ref name=Miller /> Sky and Earth are themselves children of [['Elyon|'Elyôn]] 'Most High'.{{sfn|van der Toorn|Becking|van der Horst|1999|p=294}}<ref>{{cite book |last1=Botterweck |first1=G. Johannes |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TyJBBDlqdfwC&pg=PA132 |title=Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament |last2=Ringgren |first2=Helmer |last3=Fabry |first3=Heinz-Josef |publisher=William B. Eerdmans Publishing |year=1974 |isbn=978-0-8028-2335-9 |page=132}}</ref> El is brother to the God [[Bethel (god)|Bethel]], to [[Dagon]] and to an unknown god, equated with the Greek [[Atlas (mythology)|Atlas]] and to the goddesses [[Aphrodite]]/[['Ashtart]], [[Rhea (mythology)|Rhea]] (presumably [[Asherah]]), and [[Dione (Titaness)|Dione]] (equated with [[Ba'alat Gebal]]). El is the father of [[Persephone]] and of [[Athena]] (presumably the goddess '[[Anat]]).<ref name=Miller />

Sky and Earth have separated from one another in hostility, but Sky insists on continuing to force himself on Earth and attempts to destroy the children born of such unions. At last, with the advice of his daughter Athena and the god [[Hermes Trismegistus]] (perhaps [[Thoth]]), El successfully attacks his father Sky with a sickle and spear of iron. He and his military allies the ''Eloim'' gain Sky's kingdom.<ref name=Miller />

In a later passage it is explained that El castrated Sky. One of Sky's concubines (who was given to El's brother Dagon) was already pregnant by Sky. The son who is born of the union, called Demarûs or Zeus, but once called Adodus, is obviously Hadad, the Ba'al of the Ugaritic texts who now becomes an ally of his grandfather Sky and begins to make war on El.

El has three wives, his sisters or half-sisters Aphrodite/Astarte ('Ashtart), Rhea (presumably Asherah), and Dione (identified by Sanchuniathon with Ba'alat Gebal the tutelary goddess of [[Byblos]], a city which Sanchuniathon says that El founded).

El is depicted primarily as a warrior; in Ugaritic sources Baal has the warrior role and El is peaceful, and it may be that the ''Sanchuniathon'' depicts an earlier tradition that was more preserved in the southern regions of Canaan.<ref name=Miller>{{cite journal |last1=Miller |first1=Patrick D. |title=El the Warrior |journal=The Harvard Theological Review |date=1967 |volume=60 |issue=4 |pages=411–431 |doi=10.1017/S0017816000003886 |jstor=1509250 |s2cid=162038758}}</ref><ref name=Green2003>{{cite book |last1=Green |first1=Alberto Ravinell Whitney |title=The Storm-god in the Ancient Near East |date=2003 |publisher=Eisenbrauns |isbn=978-1-57506-069-9}}</ref>{{rp|255}}

[[Eusebius]], through whom the ''Sanchuniathon'' is preserved, is not interested in setting the work forth completely or in order. But we are told that El slew his own son Sadidus (a name that some commentators think might be a corruption of ''Shaddai'', one of the epithets of the Biblical El) and that El also beheaded one of his daughters. Later, perhaps referring to this same death of Sadidus we are told:

{{blockquote|text=But on the occurrence of a pestilence and mortality Cronus offers his only begotten son as a whole burnt-offering to his father Sky and circumcises himself, compelling his allies also to do the same.}}

A fuller account of the sacrifice appears later:
{{blockquote|text=It was a custom of the ancients in great crises of danger for the rulers of a city or nation, in order to avert the common ruin, to give up the most beloved of their children for sacrifice as a ransom to the avenging daemons; and those who were thus given up were sacrificed with mystic rites. Cronus then, whom the Phoenicians call Elus, who was king of the country and subsequently, after his decease, was deified as the star [[Saturn]], had by a nymph of the country named Anobret an only begotten son, whom they on this account called Iedud, the only begotten being still so called among the Phoenicians; and when very great dangers from war had beset the country, he arrayed his son in royal apparel, and prepared an altar, and sacrificed him.}}

The account also relates that Thoth:
{{blockquote|text=also devised for Cronus as insignia of royalty four eyes in front and behind ... but two of them quietly closed, and upon his shoulders four wings, two as spread for flying, and two as folded. And the symbol meant that Cronus could see when asleep, and sleep while waking: and similarly in the case of the wings, that he flew while at rest, and was at rest when flying. But to each of the other gods he gave two wings upon the shoulders, as meaning that they accompanied Cronus in his flight. And to Cronus himself again he gave two wings upon his head, one representing the all-ruling mind, and one sensation.}}

This is the form under which El/Cronus appears on coins from Byblos from the reign of [[Antiochus IV Epiphanes]] (175–164&nbsp;BCE) four spread wings and two folded wings, leaning on a staff. Such images continued to appear on coins until after the time of [[Augustus]].