Avatars of Vishnu

by Dr Anthony E. Smart

 
Avatars were like messengers, aspects of the gods who descended to Earth. In the Hindu mythos, the Avatars of Vishnu are many: firstly, Matsya, which appeared as a fish, to the good king Satyavrate, he and his family, and seven sages and their families having escaped the terrible flood which swamped the world, drowning all its wickedness, mirroring the Great Flood of Christian myth. Like Noah, Satyavrate escaped the deluge in a great ark, filled with the beasts of the earth, and the birds of the sky.

Baal

by Alan G. Hefner

The antiquity of the worship of the god or gods of Baal extends back to the 14th century BCE among the ancient Semitic peoples, the descendants of Shem, the oldest son of Biblical Noah. Semitic is more of a linguistic classification than a racial one.