>...[S]telae were sometimes viewed not simply as a symbol of a god but as a god’s residence, and hence that the Northwest Semitic stelae were viewed in a way that recalls the Mesopotamian *tsalmu* after it had undergone transformation from object to living incarnation in the *mis pi* ritual. The first of these terms, βαίτυλοι [*baitylos*] or בית אל (often referred to in English as “betyl”), means “house of god” – that is, a place where divinity resides. The sense that this object may have functioned in a way similar to the Babylonian *tsalmu* is strengthened by a comment of Philo of Byblos, a first-century c.e. Hellenistic writer who transmitted Phoenician culture to a Greek-speaking audience. He informs us that the god Ouranos invented the betyls, which were “animated tones” Just as the *tsalmu* could smell and hear, the betyl was endowed with , with ψυχή [*psyché*] breath or life...(Sommer, *Bodies*, pg. 28)