Baal (Baʿlu Haddu) vs Yam (Yammu)

The storm-god of Ugarit, 'Rider of the Clouds', whose rain makes the land fertile; he defeats Yamm the Sea, builds his palace on Mount Zaphon, is swallowed by Mot (Death), and returns to life.

Baal is a title, "lord", and at Ugarit it belongs above all to the storm-god whose personal name was Haddu (Hadad). He is "Mightiest Baal" (aliyn bʿl) and "Rider of the Clouds" (rkb ʿrpt), and his voice is the thunder. Ugaritic texts call him the son of Dagan, a grain-god worshipped along the middle Euphrates, even though he lives among El's family; the tension between those two statements has never been fully explained. His home is Mount Zaphon (Ṣapānu), the mountain north of Ugarit now called Jebel Aqra, and one of the two great temples on Ugarit's acropolis is generally identified as his.

The Sea as a god, 'Prince Sea, Judge River', El's favourite, who demands that Baal be handed over as his captive and is struck down by Baal's clubs.

Yam, whose name simply means "sea", is always paired in poetic parallelism with "River": he is "Prince Sea" and "Judge River". He is "beloved of El", and in the fragmentary first tablet of the Baal Cycle El proclaims his name and gives him a house built by Kothar-wa-Khasis (KTU 1.1-1.2). His power over the waters is also a claim to kingship among the gods.