Yam, the Levantine ruler of the chaotic sea. Yam was born between the two most paramount deities, the supreme god El and the mother goddess Asherah. The children of these two gods, Yam’s brothers and sisters, made up the pantheon known as Elohim. El eventually organizes a race for the Elohim, allowing themselves to campaign against each other for the throne of the king of the gods. As Asherah’s chosen candidate, Yam gains a staggering amount of influence in the race, beating out the likes of other candidates Baal and Attar. Eventually, El declares that Yam is his preferred choice, declaring him the “beloved of El” and instructing the craftsman god Kothar-wa-Khasis to construct a palace for him. Yam’s growing arrogance began to spur enmity among the gods, as the jealous Attar voices his rebellious thoughts to the sun goddess Shapshu, who warns him that going against Yam will mean turning his back against El. During a gathering of the pantheon, Yam’s messengers are ordered by him to not bow to the assembly even to El, directly insulting the pantheon and placing himself above them. Now that Yam is at the apex of his power, El responds by calling Baal Yam’s captive. Baal who had resented Yam’s arrogance is lit aflame with fury at El’s declaration, attempting to attack Yam’s messengers in a fit of anger but is stopped by his wives Anat and Astarte. Eventually, in order to settle the two’s rivalry, they agree to a duel, whoever wins sits upon the throne of the king of the gods. The following battle is hard fought, however as Yam is still at the zenith of his strength, Baal falls to Yam’s “Sieve of Destruction” and the unending waves of sea monsters. With the threat of losing looming over Baal’s head, his friend, the craftsman god Kothar-wa-Khasis, quickly crafts two weapons for him. With the encouragement of his wives and the newfound power within his newly obtained weapons, Baal is able to defeat Yam. Now defeated, Baal ensares Yam, with El now declaring the reversal of his previous order now that Yam is Baal’s captive, ushering Baal onto the title of king of the gods. Though Yam may have lost against Baal in the campaign, he’s still apart of the pantheon and is jealous of Baal’s victory, continuing to be antagonistic against him, including publicly insulting him at an assembly of the Elohim. During the construction of Baal’s palace by Kothar-wa-Khasis, Baal voices his concern over the addition of a window in his palace, believing that Yam could enter through it and kidnap his daughters. Kothar-wa-Khasis is able to convince Baal to keep the window, and eventually Baal’s worries are proven to be misplaced.
In Egypt Yam menaced the pantheon by covering the earth in his waters. The sea god declared that he would only recede his waters if the gods made him their ruler. The gods unwilling to fully bend to his commands send the goddess Astarte instead. As instructed by the goddess Renenutet, Astarte reluctantly brings Yam gifts from the other gods as well as performing music in order to placate the god’s insatiable greed. Nevertheless, Astarte fails in her mission, with Yam rejecting their gifts and remaining obstinate in his demands. Frustrated, Astarte yells at Yam, only for Yam to taunt her, calling her clothes ragged and ugly. Despite Astarte’s failure, the Ennead continues to send Yam pacifying tributes, specifically Nut, Geb, and the chief god Ptah. Absorbed in his gluttony, Yam raises the waters even further, driving the gods into a panic. Seeing no other option, the gods send Astarte’s husband Set to do battle against Yam. Set ultimately defeats Yam and forces him to yield and lower the seas back to how they were. In the Tale of Two Brothers, the brother Bata marries a woman crafted by the gods. Bata warns her not to go outside, worried that she’d go near the sea. But when Bata leaves to go hunting, she leaves the house where Yam is able to steal some of her hair. Yam gifts her hair to the Pharaoh, who desires the divine wife for himself, and so travels to Bata’s home, taking his wife and killing Bata.
In the Bible, Yam is presented as an enemy of the Abrahamic God who enrages the primitive seas before being destroyed by God.
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Yam was typically seen as a minor god in Levantine worship, only having prominence in myths where he was typically seen as the aggressor. While he maybe didn’t have a dedicated cult, he was still revered as seen in the plentiful amount of theophoric names dedicated to the deity. Yam was known to have been praised when bathing in the sea, found when the king of Mari Yahdun-Lim reached the coast where he and his men bathed in its waters and made an offering to Yam. Other traditions held that Yam protected sailors.
The name Yam was actually used as the normal word for sea in Ugaritic, mirroring how Yam was likely seen more as the ocean deified rather than a god who controlled it. While Yam was seen primarily as a sea god, he was also known to be a god of water in general, including fresh water. This is seen in Yam’s other name Nahar, which means “river”. Nahar is used in Yam’s most common title of “Ruler Nahar” and “Judge Nahar”, Yam was also occasionally referred to as “prince”. Yam’s name changed by region as well, such as in Emar where he was called Yami or in Ebla where he was called Wamu or Wamu-um, his name was also rendered as Yammu as well. The word Ym appears in Asherah’s title of Rabat Athirat Ym, commonly translated as “Lady Asherah of the Sea”. While it is possible that this title refers to Yam, as they are associated with each other, most scholars believe that it more likely relates to the body of water rather than the god. Recent scholarship has begun to move away from the sea interpretation of Ym in her title, now positing that it could mean “day” instead. In the Baal cycle, before Yam was announced as El’s preferred candidate, Yam was called Yw, only given the name of Yam after. While Yam was most likely his older name, many have used his name of Yw to connect him to the Israelite god Yhwh, claiming that Yam was equated with the deity who’d eventually become the Abrahamic God. Modern scholarship has rejected this theory however, instead suggesting that it came from the cognation of Yam and Ieuo, an obscure god worshipped in Phoenicia who would later also be connected with the Abrahamic God.
In the post Hellenized Phoenician mythology Yam plays a significantly lesser role than he does in his native Canaanite myths. While Yam wasn’t directly mentioned it’s believed that he was referred to as Pontos, strangely categorized as a mortal, he was contradictorily considered to be Baal’s grandson and peer. Pontos was said to be the father of Poseidon and Sidon in Phoenicia, with some stating that this Poseidon was also considered to be Yam but that theory is divisive. El’s Phoenician father, Sky, attempted to fight Pontos but failed in his attempt. Some have suggested that Yam was considered the same as the Sumerian god Lugala’abba, with both using the title of Abba in those areas. In Canaanite myths, it’s commonly claimed that Anat once defeated Yam, contracting Baal’s victory over him in the Baal cycle. Two theories exist in the academic space, either these claims represent an older tradition where she was the one to defeat Yam that leaked through, or that they’re actually events of the Baal cycle now lost due to missing parts of the manuscript. In these claims, Anat also mentions several sea monsters she has also slain, these monster such as Tunnanu (later called Tanin) and Lotan are heavily associated with Yam, being called his servants. Some have postulated that these monsters were forms taken by Yam or were separate manifestations of him, while others say that they were separate entities. Both Tunnanu and Lotan likely descend from the older serpent Têmtum, who’s seen battling Hadad (Baal’s original name) in Syrian seals. In Akkadian Cuneiform, Yam was referred to with the words Tiamtu or Tamtu, these words eventually developed into the name Tiamat, the primordial sea goddess of Akkadian mythology. This could point to the possibility that Yam or some other form of his helped to influence the development of Tiamat from her source in the Sumerian Nammu. The biblical primordial waters of Tehom are also connected to this etymology, with some making a connection with Tehom directly to Yam. Another biblical character connect to Yam is the sea serpent Leviathan. Their name likely stemming from Lotan, Leviathan stems from a reinterpretation of Yam’s earlier role as the embodiment of a defiant ocean against god. God’s combat against the sea is one of the multiple remnants of the greater Semitic mythos, in which God takes over the role that Baal once held. But as time passed, the story was reworked into a monotheistic framework, producing Yam’s replacement in Leviathan. Yam’s battle against Baal is one of two examples of the Chaoskampf motif in Canaanite mythology, in which a battle between typically a god of storms combats a god of chaos and disorder to bring back peace and fertility to the world, with the other being Baal’s combat against Mot in the same myth. Yam shares this role with the many other Chaoskampf gods, such as the Gaelic Balor, the Akkadian Tiamat and Abzu, the Vedic Vritra, the Egyptian Apep and the Slavic Veles among many others.
