| Shalim | |
|---|---|
God ofdusk | |
| Venerated in | Canaanite religion |
| Planet | Venus |
| Genealogy | |
| Parents | El (father)Asherah (mother) |
| Siblings | Shahar |
| Part of a series onAncient Semitic religion |
| Levantine mythology |
|---|
| Deities |
Shalim (Šalām,Shalem,Ugaritic:𐎌𐎍𐎎,romanized: ŠLM) is a god inCanaanite religion, mentioned in inscriptions found inUgarit (now Ras Shamra,Syria).[1][2]William F. Albright identified Shalim as the god of the dusk andShahar as the god of the dawn.[3] In theDictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible,Venus is represented by Shalim as the Evening Star and Shahar as the Morning Star.[1] His name derives from the triconsonantalSemitic rootŠ-L-M ("whole, safe, sound, peace").
AnUgaritic myth known asThe Gracious and Most Beautiful Gods describes Shalim and his brotherShahar as offspring ofEl through two women he meets at the seashore. They are both nursed by "The Lady", likelyAsherah, and have appetites as large as "(one) lip to the earth and (one) lip to the heaven." In other Ugaritic texts, the two are associated with the sun goddess.[1]
Another inscription is a sentence repeated three times in a para-mythological text, "Let me invoke the gracious gods, the voracious gods ofym."Ym in mostSemitic languages means "day," and Shalim and Shahar, twin deities of the dusk and dawn, were conceived of as its beginning and end.[4]
Shalim is also mentioned separately in the Ugaritic god lists and forms of his name also appear in personal names, perhaps as adivine name orepithet.[1]
Many scholars believe that the name of Shalim is preserved in the name of the cityJerusalem.[5][1][6][7][8] The god Shalim may have been associated with dusk and the evening star in the etymological senses of a "completion" of the day, "sunset" and "peace".[9]
Royal names with thes-l-m root, such as Solomon and Abshalom, suggest that Shalim was still worshipped in the 10th century BCE, and that the early house of David participated in this cult.