the same as Bel or Belus, an idol of the Chaldeans and Phoenicians 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 Phoenicians was the Saturn of the Greeks; others are of opinion that Baal was the Phoenician or Tyrian Hercules, a god of great antiquity in Phenicia.