Hadad
Mesopotamian Mythology

Hadad, the Old Testament Rimmon, West Semitic god of storms, thunder, and rain, the consort of the goddess Atargatis. His attributes were identical with those of Adad of the Assyro-Babylonian pantheon. He was the chief baal ("lord") of the West Semites (including both sedentary and nomadic Aramaeans) in north Syria, along the Phoenician coast, and along the Euphrates River. As Baal-Hadad he was represented as a bearded deity, often holding a club and thunderbolt and wearing a horned headdress. The bull was the symbolic animal of Hadad, as of the Hittite deity Teshub, who was identical with him.

Baal-Hadad, Hadda or even Haddu (Hebrew: בעל הדד; Ugaritic Haddu), is the god of fertility, rain, thunder and lightning in ancient Canaanite and Mesopotamian religions. His father is either El or Dagan. El was the king of the gods at one point of Ugaritic text, but later Hadad became king. Baal-Hadad was seen as a bearded deity that wore a horned headdress and carried a club and thunderbolts, emphasizing his reign over thunder, lightning and rain.

Etymology of Baal
The Canaanite deity Hadad typically carried the title Baal, which is a Semitic common noun meaning "The Lord," or "The owner." So associated was Hadad with this title that he was often times simply referred to as Baal.

Baal Cycle
The Baal Cycle is an cycle of stories about the god Baal. The text identifies Baal as the god Hadad. The stories are written in Ugaritic, a Northwest Semitic language, and written in a cuneiform consonantal alphabet. It was discovered on a series of clay tablets found in the 1920s in the Tell of Ugarit (modern Ras Shamra), situated on the Mediterranean coast of northern Syria, a few kilometers north of the modern city of Latakia and far ahead of the current coastline. The stories include The Myth of Baʿal Aliyan and The Death of Baʿal.

The Baal Cycle series of stories are summarized thus:

Yam wants to rule over the other gods and be the most powerful of all
Baal Hadad opposes Yamm and slays him
Baal Hadad, with the help of Anath and Athirat, persuades El to allow him a palace
Baal Hadad commissions Kothar-wa-Khasis to build him a palace.
King of the gods and ruler of the world seeks to subjugate Mot
Mot kills Baal Hadad
Anath brutally kills Mot, grinds him up and scatters his ashes
Baal Hadad returns to Mount Saphon
Mot, having recovered from being ground up and scattered, challenges Baal HadadBaal Hadad refuses; Mot submits
Baal Hadad rules again

Baal and his Many Associations
Baal-Hadad is a Canaanite deity from the land of Canaan, in the modern-day Levant, which includes modern-day Israel and Palestine, as well as parts of Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and Egypt. This part of the world map has had a tumultuous history, and has been taken over by several empires throughout it's history.

Due to these many interactions there has been a lot of inter-mixing between cultures, which has lead to widespread religious syncretism- the fusion of diverse religious beliefs and practices.

Merging Dieties: Enlil and Marduk
In the Akkadian language (of which Assyrian and Babylonian are variants of) the term for "The Lord" was "Bel." During the time of the Sumerian Empire (4000-2004 BCE), the title Bel was typically used to refer to the deity Enlil, who was the god of the skies and head of the Sumerian pantheon.

After 2004 BCE, the Babylonians began to control the region. The Babylonians also had a head deity of thunderstorms named Marduk, who was also referred to as "Bel." As the Babylonian influence grew both Enlil and Marduk were worshiped until Enlil was absorbed into Marduk during the reign of Hammurabi of Babylon (1792-1750 BCE). Through interaction with Semitic peoples, over time Bel-Marduk (Lord Marduk) and Baal-Hadad (Lord Hadad) became associated with one another.