ANAMELECH (Hebr. 'Anamnelech), — Deity (with Adramelech, v.) of the inhabitants of Sefarvaim transplanted by Sargon to Samaria, who offered children to it as burnt offerings (IV Reg. 17:31). It is probably the well-known Syro-Canaanite goddess 'Anat, prominent in Ras-Samrah (v.), MOLOCH (v.) or Melek. Others discern in it a Babylonian deity: either the goddess Ananitu of Sippar (Sefarvaim?) or the sky-god Anu (Anumalik).
BIBL.: E. Pannier, s. V. in DB, I, col. 336 ff. — On 'Anat; A. Vincent, La religion des Judéo-Aramènes d'Eliphantine, Paris 1937, pp. 624–51; H. L. Ginsberg, Ba'al und 'Anat, in Orientalia, 7 (1938), pp. 1–11; J. Aistleitner, Die Anat-Texte aus Ras-Schamra, in Zeitschr. für altst. Wiss., 16 (1939), pp. 193–211. Francesco Spadafora