Editing El (deity) (section)

== Poseidon ==
{{Main|Poseidon}}
A bilingual inscription from [[Palmyra]]<ref>[[#CITEREFDonnerRöllig1962–1964|Donner & Röllig 1962–1964]], No. 11, p. 43. and No. 129.</ref> dated to the 1st century equates ''El-Creator-of-the-Earth'' with the [[Greek mythology|Greek]] god [[Poseidon]]. Going back to the 8th century&nbsp;BCE, the bilingual inscription<ref>[[#CITEREFDonnerRöllig1962–1964|Donner & Röllig 1962–1964]], No. 26.</ref> at [[Karatepe]] in the [[Taurus Mountains]] equates ''El-Creator-of-the-Earth'' to [[Hieroglyphic Luwian|Luwian hieroglyphs]] read as ''<sup>d</sup>a-a-ś'',<ref>{{cite journal |last=Jones |first=Scott C. |year=2009 |title=Rumors of Wisdom: Job 28 as Poetry |journal=[[BZAW]] |publisher=[[Walter de Gruyter]] |location=Berlin |volume=398 |page=84 |isbn=978-3-11-021477-2 |issn=0934-2575 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o2StC2pFxL4C&pg=PA84}}</ref> this being the [[Luwian]] form of the name of the [[Babylonia]]n water god [[Ea (Babylonian god)|Ea]], lord of the abyss of water under the earth. (This inscription lists El in second place in the local pantheon, following [[Baalshamin|Ba'al Shamîm]] and preceding the ''Eternal Sun''.)

Poseidon is known to have been worshipped in [[Beirut]], his image appearing on coins from that city. Poseidon of Beirut was also worshipped at [[Delos]] where there was an association of merchants, shipmasters, and warehousemen called the Poseidoniastae of Berytus founded in 110 or 109&nbsp;BCE. Three of the four chapels at its headquarters on the hill northwest of the Sacred Lake were dedicated to Poseidon, the [[Tyche]] of the city equated with [[Astarte]] (that is 'Ashtart), and to [[Eshmun]].

Also at Delos, that association of Tyrians, though mostly devoted to [[Heracles]]-[[Melqart]], elected a member to bear a crown every year when sacrifices to Poseidon took place. A banker named Philostratus donated two altars, one to Palaistine [[Aphrodite Urania]] ('Ashtart) and one to Poseidon "of [[Ascalon]]".

Though Sanchuniathon distinguishes Poseidon from his Elus/Cronus, this might be a splitting off of a particular aspect of El in a euhemeristic account. Identification of an aspect of El with Poseidon rather than with Cronus might have been felt to better fit with Hellenistic religious practice, if indeed this Phoenician Poseidon really is the El who dwells at the source of the two deeps in Ugaritic texts. More information is needed to be certain.