Moloch (deity)
Moloch, also known as Melech, is an ancient deity primarily associated with child sacrifice, worshipped in various cultures throughout the Middle East and North Africa. His origins are somewhat ambiguous, with connections made to the sun god Baal, particularly in Canaan (modern-day Syria, Lebanon, and Israel) as early as the fourteenth century BCE. The name "Moloch" itself is derived from a Hebrew term that blends "king" with a word denoting shame, as the Israelites sought to deride pagan practices. Moloch is often depicted as a bull-headed figure, with rituals involving the sacrifice of children performed by laying them on his outstretched hands, leading to their death in a fire below.
The worship of Moloch was part of fertility rites, believed to enhance agricultural productivity during times of crisis, such as drought or famine. His mythology is intertwined with that of other Semitic deities and has parallels in North African traditions, where he was associated with figures like Cronus in Greek mythology. In the Hebrew Bible, Moloch’s worship is depicted negatively, particularly in the narrative involving King Mannassah, who was condemned for these practices. Moloch's legacy extends into modern culture, where references to him appear in literature and film, symbolizing themes of greed, sacrifice, and destructive power.
Moloch (deity)
Symbols: Golden calf idol; man with the head of a bull; fire; scythe
Culture: Semitic
Wife: Ashtoreth
Moloch, also spelled Melech, is a deity associated with the sacrifice of children in the ancient cultures of the Middle East and North Africa. His exact origins remain unclear, with some historians linking Moloch to the sun god Baal, worshipped by the Phoenicians (agricultural peoples residing in Canaan) as far as back as the fourteenth century BCE. Canaan was located in the area that comprises modern-day Syria, Lebanon, and Israel. Moloch’s name developed from the Israelites’ practice of shaming the pagan gods. So Moloch comes from combining melek, the Hebrew word for king, with the vowels in bosheth, the Hebrew word for shame. In the same way, Moloch’s consort Astarte, goddess of fertility and war, became Ashtoreth.
Moloch is most often portrayed as a man with the head of a bull. His statue, or idol, is a brass figure with a bull’s head and a man’s large, pot-bellied stomach. The stomach was hollow; lit with fire, it served as an open furnace. Worshippers would sacrifice a child by laying it across the idol’s outstretched hands, and from this position, it would roll into the fire. Followers of Moloch believed these human sacrifices aided fertility, and protected their crops and livestock. These offerings became especially important during times of crisis, such as drought, famine, disease, or war.
In Mythology
Moloch appears in the mythology of Semitic peoples living in a region that stretched from Mesopotamia—modern Iraq, Syria, Turkey, and Iran—to the east coast of the Mediterranean Sea. Besides sharing a common mythology, these cultures spoke similar languages and worshipped similar deities. These Semitic traditions eventually gave rise to the major religions of Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. In Semitic mythology, Moloch appears in legends associated with the deities responsible with creation and fertility.
In one common myth, Moloch, also known as Baal, is the son of El, the high god of Canaan. During Baal’s endless battle with Mot, god of death, his wife intervenes, grinding Mot in a mill and strewing his remains over the fields. Baal is restored, but defeated again by a renewed Mot, who is destroyed again by Anat, and so on, in a cycle that is repeated each year. According to the myth, this explains the changing of the seasons.
Moloch also appears in the mythology of North Africa, where Phoenicians established a colony in Carthage, a city in modern Tunisia. Here, the story of Moloch, who was renamed Cronus, was folded into Greek mythology, where he became a Titan and the father of Zeus. Warned by a prophecy that his son would overthrow him, Cronus ate his children as soon as they were born. His wife hid away his youngest child on an island, where he grew to become Zeus.
In the Bible, Moloch appears in the story of King Mannassah, who ruled the Kingdom of Judah in the Hinnom Valley. Mannassah presided over ceremonies that honored Moloch by sacrificing children to the fires. According to the story, God delivered a message through Moses to the people of Israel that warned against worshipping Moloch. For those who disobeyed, the sentence was death. Those that did not worship Moloch but allowed the practice to continue were to be cut off from society. According to the Bible story, the Babylonians’ destruction of Jerusalem was God’s punishment for worshipping Moloch. Later in the Bible, the fiery image of Moloch ceremonies was used by Jesus to describe hell.
Origins and Cults
The ancient Semitic peoples who worshipped Moloch believed in a number of deities considered pagan by monotheistic religions. Moloch was a central figure in fertility rites that involved both human procreation and the ritual sacrifice of children. A specific cult of Moloch was based in Topheth, in the Hinnom Valley southwest of Jerusalem. Topheth, meaning "place of fire," also derives from toph, a root meaning "playing a percussive instrument like a tambourine or drum." Ceremonial rites for Moloch included drumming, which may have been used to drown out the screams of burning children. Worshippers also played flutes and chanted. Some scholars believe that practicing the ceremonial rites put worshippers in a trance, which might have helped parents distance themselves from their emotions so they could willingly offer up their children. Accounts describing these rites alternate the word children with the words offspring and seed, highlighting the purpose of the rituals: the belief that these sacrificial offerings would induce Moloch to grant fertility and abundance for people and their crops.
In Popular Culture
Writers of literature, television, and film have drawn upon Moloch’s reputation as an evil, fiery, and inhuman god to develop imagery, evoke themes, and create characters. In the poem "Howl" (1955), Allen Ginsberg uses Moloch as an extended metaphor for the shameless greed of American capitalism: "Moloch! Solitude! Filth! Ugliness! Ashcans and unobtainable dollars! Children screaming in the stairways! Boys sobbing in armies! Old men weeping in parks!"
In A Free Man’s Worship (1903), Bertrand Russell invokes Moloch to describe how religion often demands slavish devotion, obedience to authority, and sacrifice. In The Gathering Storm (1948), Winston Churchill refers to Moloch as he describes Hitler’s rise to power: "He had conjured up the fearful idol of an all-devouring Moloch of which he was the priest and incarnation."
Films that draw upon Moloch include Fritz Lang’s Metropolis (1933), in which a huge industrial factory is shown as Moloch’s temple. The 2009 film Watchmen includes an evil superhero named Moloch. Television series featuring Moloch include Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997–2003), in which the evil Moloch, pretending to be a student, menaces a main character, and the series Sleepy Hollow (2013–), in which Moloch is a recurring character who tries to lead the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse into unleashing hell on earth.
Bibliography
Arbel, Daphna, et al, eds. Not Sparing the Child: Human Sacrifice in the Ancient World and Beyond. London: Bloomsbury, 2015. Print.
Bergmann, Martin S. In the Shadow of Moloch. New York: Columbia UP, 1992. Print.
Day, John. A God of Human Sacrifice in the Old Testament. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1990. Print.
Day, John. Yahweh and the Gods and Goddesses of Canaan. London: Sheffield, 2002. Print.
Heider, George C. Cult of Molek: A Reassessment. Sheffield: JSOT, 1985. Print.
"Moloch." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica, 2015. Web. 14 July 2015.
"Moloch (Molech)." JewishEncyclopedia.com. Kopelman Foundation, n.d. Web. 22 June 2015.