Anat & Baal Hadad. They're in love

for.. no reason. but does tumblr still flag nudity and sex stuff

Do you have some good recommendations on learning about the Canaanite deites?

Hi there!

This may not be a satisfying answer and, trust me, I'm right with you. Like all* pantheons there is no strict 'canon' but I'd say the things to understand the very basics would be The Baal Cycle and the Epic of Aqhat. Both are incomplete texts and the tablets are not in any known order so it's difficult to decipher them. Other than that, there's not really much. Each translation has its own issues (I'm personally not a fan of those that translate Anat's epithet of 'virgin' into 'adolescent' and anything else suggesting a goddess of sexual fertility would be a prepubescent child) and any other supplementary information I would use my own judgement to be judicial about. Also, due to regional and religious politics, you have to be quite judicial about what sources and opinions you put stock in. For instance, I personally wouldn't give a shit about what the Old Testament and Philo of Byblos have to say abt the Canaanites and their gods because any sources resulting from them have political incentive to slander and badmouth. Any other secondary or tertiary source or blog post has to be taken with quite the large grain of salt, as the Canaanites have a bad habit of being used for chauvinist or nationalist rhetoric. I myself am Palestinian and Muslim so I have my own biases, it's just good to stay aware of what baggage people are bringing into something like this.

Another good place to start would be the Egyptian city of Avaris/Awaris and the Hyksos Dynasty of the Second Intermediate Period. I just finished a loooong final essay about the xenophobia politic surrounding them HOWEVER it seems that "eastern" religion had been established in Egypt long before and continued long after the SEP. My favorite fun fact about this is that Ramesses ii named his first daughter Bint-Anat (Daughter of Anat) and depicted himself as married to Anat so theres bound to be a but about the pantheon immortalized there.

Best of luck and happy reading!

[OC/BTP] Amhlaoibh (Oww-liff) the OIllipheist who learned the magic to take a humanoid form. Said magic functions similarly to that of a Selkie, so he wears his own skin as a brat when he takes this humanoid form. He still enjoys the chance to nick a snack in his loch every once in a while.

Hi just wanted to say that I really like your blog and that I like the fact that your sticking up for Palestine.

(just to clarify I'm not Palestinian but I have many friends from there and lived there for 3months)

Bye please keep up the good work

hi!! thank you so much :) im palestinian and its a point of pride for me to speak up for my people <3 have a good one, and thank you again!!

What are your too 5 desserts/teas, whatever you like best. Or both if you want. Sending you good wishes

hi!!!! thank you <333

my favorite tea has to be alwazah (swan) brand black tea with fresh mint and boiled milk. its weird but i like the 'skin' that milk gets when its boiled and it gets sweet enough that you don't need much sugar. its a childhood favorite, and reminds me of Nazareth. other than that i really love matcha (the more grass like the better) and oolong tea + peach tea together. that last one my local boba place put me on to because they offer a seasonal oolong with peach drink that was soooo good i had to make it at home :)

doin this again :] hiiiiii

hi. AMA, tryin to get my mind off things :]

adding to this bc its on netflix again, JUSTICE LEAGUE/UNLIMITED!!!!!!!!! the shape language is unparalleled!!!!!!!!!! the iconic dorito superhero body types are a bit offputting at first but its done stylistically enough that ive learned to just not care lol. one of my favorites of all time. suuuper dynamic. also the women are GORJUS

you draw some of the coolest and most unique faces I've seen, are there any particular style inspirations for this, any particular artists or people?

thank you so much!!

unfortunately, I can't really pin down one or a handful of specific artists, groups, or styles that have influenced what my art is today -- when i was a KID, however, i did have many! looking back I can def see the influence, so I'll name them here!

Pandemonium by Chris Wooding, illustrated by Cassandra Diaz (MY FAV OF ALL TIME, so nostalgic) I have final print and lines-only proof copies, I LOVE the colors AND the lines on this work sooo much

2. cartoon saloon, but specifically the Secret of Kells. love love love the shape language and intricate details, especially in the faces.

3. The Prince of Egypt, specifically. The longer faces with aquiline noses are sooo good.

Otherwise I mostly stick to the same design principles in my character faces (deepset eyes, hooked/aquiline noses, prominent lower lip, prominent browbone) because theyre my own features! i know i keep saying this but i really put myself in all my art haha

sketch of Alex my friend Alex from Pelican Town. he deserves a funky half mullet :]

on second thought i will not be sharing my Baal Cycle outline this makes me too paranoid

hi i spend weeks to years designing, researching, and writing characters and multippe days drawing them and its plainly insulting to see my work ripped off or tagged as ocs or dnd because no. its not yours it came from ME. i spend a lot of time and effort on this stuff so id really appreciate it if you refrained 👍

hi i spend weeks to years designing, researching, and writing characters and multippe days drawing them and its plainly insulting to see my work ripped off or tagged as ocs or dnd because no. its not yours it came from ME. i spend a lot of time and effort on this stuff so id really appreciate it if you refrained 👍

the Baal Cycle is about life and death!!!!! love and grief!!! hatred and murder!!! death and rebirth!!! the endless cycle of wet and dry seasons! the wife is sexual fertility and the husband is the fertility of the earth! death comes for all! grief is love persisting!!!!! AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!

sorry the hyperfixation/special interest goes crazy. im very autistic about these things. im currently ripping through an 800 page research paper dissecting the Baal Cycle its BAD

ive looked and my uni's classical/med archaeo dept doesnt have anything on "near eastern"/eastern med culture and myth so i cant academically indulge. so that means i get to be obsessed about it with you all

sorry the hyperfixation/special interest goes crazy. im very autistic about these things. im currently ripping through an 800 page research paper dissecting the Baal Cycle its BAD

sorry the hyperfixation/special interest goes crazy. im very autistic about these things. im currently ripping through an 800 page research paper dissecting the Baal Cycle its BAD

If there's any further questions about Why I choose to take particular routes with artistic liberties, or why I interpret parts of the texts in such-and-such way, I'm totally stoked to go over what I've made public so far or post my story outline (WIP) if anyone's curious!!

Hi! I came across your beautiful art of Canaanite gods, and I wondered if you are making art solely based on the mythology or if you have some story/universe of your own. I hope this question makes sense. Have a nice day.

Hi!!

Most of my art on the Baal Cycle is based directly on the texts that we have access to. HOWEVER! The texts we have access to such as the Baal Cycle and the Epic of Aqhat are fragmentary with large parts missing and unfortunately do not go into much detail in the intact parts. To make it more frustrating there is an academic discourse on different translations of the Ugaritic texts (example: Anat has an epithet that translates to 'virgin', but different translations equate 'virgin' to either 'unmarried' or 'prepubescent/young girl') and depending on which translation you heed you can come away with different ideas (irt previous example: Anat is either an unmarried adult woman connected with sexual fertility or a prepubescent child associated with sexual fertility, which can get real gross (you can guess which translation/iteration i prefer)).

So, long way for me to say: ... kind of both!

It's all very HEAVILY based on the texts, BUT I do have to make up quite a lot as I go, especially physical attributes of various characters, the locations of their palaces/thrones (I made up Mot's palace being a salt pillar in the Dead Sea because it makes thematic sense), relationships between characters (It's debated who exactly Baal's wife is, if he has one wife, if the wife is Astarte or Anat, who Anat's mother is, how many wives El has), etc. etc. etc.

The bones and overarching narrative are taken directly from the mythology, but because of whatever myriad of circumstances the oral traditions and written mythologies haven't survived enough to create a framework for me to actually stick to without skipping over VERY important things, like: How did Baal die? Which is incredibly central. Also, irt the Baal Cycle and the tablets that its written on, we Don't Know which tablets go in which order so I kinda gotta play it by ear with which events go before which.

Sorry for the long explanation! I try my best to note which aspects of the Canaanite myth stuff I do is entirely my own creative liberty or conjecture, mostly because 1. I don't want to misrepresent the texts, and 2. I highly encourage people to read translations of the texts themselves, if they are able (unfortunately it's written in very stilted language, so I completely get why it'd be eye roll inducing for many).

PS: I have a personal vendetta against Illimilku of Ugarit, who was the scribe that wrote down the only written iterations of the Baal Cycle and Epic of Aqhat, that we know of. Why didn't he make more??? I need to know how the EoA ends!!! Here's a shitty meme I made about my frustration.

Hi! I came across your beautiful art of Canaanite gods, and I wondered if you are making art solely based on the mythology or if you have some story/universe of your own. I hope this question makes sense. Have a nice day.

Hi!!

Most of my art on the Baal Cycle is based directly on the texts that we have access to. HOWEVER! The texts we have access to such as the Baal Cycle and the Epic of Aqhat are fragmentary with large parts missing and unfortunately do not go into much detail in the intact parts. To make it more frustrating there is an academic discourse on different translations of the Ugaritic texts (example: Anat has an epithet that translates to 'virgin', but different translations equate 'virgin' to either 'unmarried' or 'prepubescent/young girl') and depending on which translation you heed you can come away with different ideas (irt previous example: Anat is either an unmarried adult woman connected with sexual fertility or a prepubescent child associated with sexual fertility, which can get real gross (you can guess which translation/iteration i prefer)).

So, long way for me to say: ... kind of both!

It's all very HEAVILY based on the texts, BUT I do have to make up quite a lot as I go, especially physical attributes of various characters, the locations of their palaces/thrones (I made up Mot's palace being a salt pillar in the Dead Sea because it makes thematic sense), relationships between characters (It's debated who exactly Baal's wife is, if he has one wife, if the wife is Astarte or Anat, who Anat's mother is, how many wives El has), etc. etc. etc.

The bones and overarching narrative are taken directly from the mythology, but because of whatever myriad of circumstances the oral traditions and written mythologies haven't survived enough to create a framework for me to actually stick to without skipping over VERY important things, like: How did Baal die? Which is incredibly central. Also, irt the Baal Cycle and the tablets that its written on, we Don't Know which tablets go in which order so I kinda gotta play it by ear with which events go before which.

Sorry for the long explanation! I try my best to note which aspects of the Canaanite myth stuff I do is entirely my own creative liberty or conjecture, mostly because 1. I don't want to misrepresent the texts, and 2. I highly encourage people to read translations of the texts themselves, if they are able (unfortunately it's written in very stilted language, so I completely get why it'd be eye roll inducing for many).

PS: I have a personal vendetta against Illimilku of Ugarit, who was the scribe that wrote down the only written iterations of the Baal Cycle and Epic of Aqhat, that we know of. Why didn't he make more??? I need to know how the EoA ends!!! Here's a shitty meme I made about my frustration.

Anat's journey of vengeance to confront Mot.

Really tried to nail the "it's so hot it feels like all of my skin is going to peel off in one go" feeling of the Dead Sea basin. Please click on the image for best quality!

PLEASE NOTE: it's not really known where Mot's 'throne' is, and various translations allude to it being vaguely at the 'edge' of the underworld. I thought it over and realized that the lowest place on earth is quite literally right there and made the creative decision to make Mot's throne/palace a salt pillar at the Dead Sea. this is a purely creative decision and not really anything supported by literary evidence (as most of my stuff on Canaanite myth is).