History of Phoenicia by George Rawlinson

Author:George Rawlinson [Rawlinson, George]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Antiquity
Publisher: Longmans, Green, and Co.
Published: 1889-05-31T23:00:00+00:00

Coin of Cossura.

Several Greek writers speak of a Phœnician goddess corresponding to the Grecian Athene,[1047] and some of them say that she was named Onga or Onca.[1048] The Phœnician remains give us no such name; but as Philo Byblius has an ‘Athene’ among his Phœnician deities, whom he makes the daughter of Il, or Kronos, and the queen of Attica,[1049] it is perhaps best to allow Onca to retain her place in the Phœnician Pantheon. Philo says that Kronos by her advice shaped for himself out of iron a sword and a spear; we may therefore presume that she was a war-goddess (as was Pallas-Athene among the Greeks), whence she naturally presided over the gates of towns,[1050] which were built and fortified for warlike purposes.

The worship of a goddess, called Tanath or Tanith, by the later Phœnicians, is certain, since, besides the evidence furnished by the name Abd-Tanith, i.e. ‘Servant of Tanith,’[1051] the name Tanith itself is distinctly read on a number of votive tablets brought from Carthage, in a connection which clearly implies her recognition, not only as a goddess, but as a great goddess, the principal object of Carthaginian worship. The form of inscription on the tablets is, ordinarily, as follows:—[1052]

‘ To the great [goddess], Tanith, and

To our lord and master Baal-Hammon.

The offerer is à à à à à ,

Son of à à à à à , son of à à à à à .’

Tanith is invariable placed before Baal, as though superior to him, and can be no other than the celestial goddess (Dea cœlestis), whose temple in the Roman Carthage was so celebrated.[1053] The Greeks regarded her as equivalent to their Artemis;[1054] the Romans made her Diana, or Juno, or Venus.[1055] Practically she must at Carthage have taken the place of Ashtoreth. Apuleius describes her as having a lunar character, like Ashtoreth, and calls her ‘the parent of all things, the mistress of the elements, the initial offspring of the ages, the highest of the deities, the queen of the Manes, the first of the celestials, the single representative of all the gods and goddesses, the one divinity whom all the world worships in many shapes, with varied rites, and under a multitude of names.’[1056] He says that she was represented as riding upon a lion, and it is probably her form which appears upon some of the later coins of Carthage, as well as upon a certain number of gems.[1057] The origin of the name is uncertain. Gesenius would connect it at once with the Egyptian Neith (Nit), and with the Syrian Anaïtis or Tanaïtis;[1058] but the double identification is scarcely tenable, since Anaïtis was, in Egypt, not Neith, but Anta.[1059] The subject is very obscure, and requires further investigation.

Baaltis, or Beltis, was, according to Philo Byblius, the daughter of Uranus and the sister of Asthoreth or Astarté.[1060] Il made her one of his many wives, and put the city of Byblus, which he had founded, under her special protection.[1061] It is doubtful, however, whether

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