For practice in dealing with aliens, the Survivors, standing on the topheth near the betyl, meet and bear gifts to the Phoenician gods:
Melqart who smote "...the Sea, primordial Chaos..." (p. 547)
Ashtoreth
Baal-Adon, the Resurrected
Adat, Baal's lover, mourner and avenger
Chushor of the waves
Dagon of the plowlands
Aliaan of the springs and underground waters
Resheph of the storm -
- and see sea monsters and the home of El.
Readers of this section simultaneously notice both the most primitive paganism and several elements incorporated into the Bible:
a sacrificed lamb that is also, in their collective imagination, a child;
the sea as the primordial chaos;
the Resurrected;
the names of "false gods" or demons;
El as a divine name.
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