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Adad

Adad was the god of weather in the Babylonian and Assyrian cultures of Mesopotamia * in the ancient Near East. Other cultures in the region called the god Ishkur, Rimmon, Addu, Hadad, or Baal-Hadad.

The son of the sky god Anu, Adad was believed to control storms and rain. He was often portrayed as a warrior holding a forked lightning bolt or a club, and his animal was the bull, whose bellowing and roar were like the sound of thunder.

Like the weather itself, Adad had two sides—one beneficial and the other destructive. As the bringer of rain, Adad was hailed as the Lord of Abundance whose gift made the land fertile and nourished crops. People in many arid Mesopotamian lands worshiped him for this reason. As the bringer of drought or fearful storms, however, Adad could strike his enemies with famine, flood, darkness, and death.

See also ANU; BAAL; SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY.