BAAL, the same as BEL or BELUS, an idol of the Chaldeans and Phœnicians or Canaanites. The word Baal, in the Punic language as well as in the Hebrew, signifies "lord" or "master," and doubtless meant the supreme Deity, the Lord and Master of the universe. Some learned men think that the Baal of the Phœnicians was the Saturn of the Greeks; others are of opinion that Baal was the Phœnician or Tyrian Hercules, a god of great antiquity in Phœnicia.