Similar phallic designations are given, as we now see, to many Sumerian, Greek, and Semitic gods, tribal ancestors and heroes.
Hercules, that great” club—bearer”, was named after the grossness of his sex organ, as was the Hebrew tribal ancestor Issachar.
Perhaps the best known of the old Canaanite fertility gods, Baal, derives his name from a Sumerian verb AL, “bore”, which, combined
with a preformative element BA, gave words for “drill” and “penis” and gave Latin and us our word “phallus”. In Semitic, ba'al,Baal, is not only the divine name but has also the general meaning of “lord, husband”. Hosea, the Old Testament prophet, makes a play on the general and cultic uses of the word when he has Yahweh say to Israel, “in that day you will call me ‘my man’ and you will no more call me ‘my baal’; I shall banish the name of baals from your mouth . . .“ (Hos 2:16 [Heb. 18]).