Ilib

Ilib is 'the god of the father', and he is first in the Ugaritic god-list — ahead of El, which surprises people until they notice that the list is not a ranking. He is the ancestral god, and the same word is used as a common noun for an ancestor's spirit, which makes him the point where a family's dead and the state pantheon meet. Every household had an ilib; the list has the Ilib.

Domains

• ancestors

Sources

• Reference treatment of Ilib, his primordial character and the ancestral sense of his name.