Baal, meaning "lord" or "master," was a title used for various local deities, while Hadad was specifically revered as the god of rain, thunder, and storms, closely linked to agricultural fertility.

The temple was renowned for its oracular functions and served as a significant center of divination, with the cult of Heliopolitan Jupiter spreading throughout the Roman Empire.

This practice parallels other cultures where substitute titles were used for deities whose names were considered too holy as "Bel" was used for Marduk among the Babylonians and "Adonai" for Yahweh.

[4]After the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC, the Diadochi—his generals, family members, and companions—divided and ruled various parts of his empire; this era became known as the Hellenistic period, marked by the spread of Greek culture and influence across the territories they controlled.

[12] The name Heliopolis, shared with the famous Egyptian city, was used by the priests of the Egyptian Heliopolis to misattribute the origins of the cult of Baalbek to their own traditions,[13][14] as recounted by the Roman historian Macrobius (Saturnalia, early 5th century CE), who added to the myth by reporting that the cult statue of Jupiter Heliopolitanus in Baalbek originally came from Egypt.

[20][21] In the second century AD, the Romans built a monumental temple complex in Baalbek, dedicated to Iupiter Heliopolitanus (Heliopolitan Jupiter).

[b] and cultic installations of the Temple of Jupiter Heliopolitanus in Baalbek[c] still exhibited, even in Roman times, significant Semitic influences, as detailed by Hajjar.

[31] There is, however, no archaeological, epigraphic or iconographic evidence for any stable, familial or functionally effective triple grouping within the native Heliopolitan or Canaanite pantheons, and none for the clear equivalence of leading Roman and Heliopolitan deities either prior to the likely Roman occupation during Rome's civil wars, in Julius Caesar's time at the earliest, or its promotion as a colony some 100 years later.