Melqart

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Melkart
)
Melqart
God of strength and
Shapash, Yam
Equivalents
Greek equivalentHeracles
Roman equivalentHercules

Melqart (

Tammuz and Adonis
, he symbolized an annual cycle of death and rebirth.

Melqart was typically depicted as

Flower as a symbol of life, and a fenestrated axe
as a symbol of death.

As Tyrian trade, colonization and settlement expanded, Melqart became venerated in

Heracles and the Roman Hercules since at least the sixth century BCE, and eventually became interchangeable with his Greek counterpart.[4]

In Cyprus, Melqart was syncretized with Eshmun and Asclepius,[5][6] and also in Ibiza, as given by a dedication reciting: "to his lord, Eshmun-Melqart".[7] In Tyre, women, foreigners, and pork were not allowed in the sanctuary of Melqart's temple.[8]

Etymology

Bust from National Museum of Denmark

Melqart was written in the Phoenician abjad as MLQRT (Phoenician: 𐤌𐤋𐤒𐤓𐤕 Mīlqārt). Edward Lipinski theorizes that it was derived from MLK QRT (𐤌𐤋𐤊 𐤒𐤓𐤕 Mīlk-Qārt), which means "King of the City".[9] The name is sometimes transcribed as Melkart, Melkarth, or Melgart. In Akkadian, his name was written Milqartu.

To the Greeks and the Romans, who identified Melqart with Hercules, he was often distinguished as the Tyrian Hercules.

Cult

"Mozia ephebe" - Melqart (?)
Tyrian shekel (102 BC) showing Melkarth (left) and an eagle next to a club, a symbol of the god, and one foot on the prow of a galley

Melqart was possibly the

1 Kings
18.27, it is possible that there is a mocking reference to legendary Heraclean journeys made by the god and to the annual egersis ("awakening") of the god:

And it came to pass at noon that Elijah mocked them and said, "Cry out loud: for he is a god; either he is lost in thought, or he has wandered away, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is sleeping and must be awakened."

The Phoenician

dancing
of sailors in honor of the Tyrian Heracles: "Now they leap spiritedly into the air, now they bend their knees to the ground and revolve on them like persons possessed".

The historian Herodotus recorded (2.44):

In the wish to get the best information that I could on these matters, I made a voyage to Tyre in Phoenicia, hearing there was a temple of Heracles at that place, very highly venerated. I visited the temple, and found it richly adorned with a number of offerings, among which were two pillars, one of pure gold, the other of

Europa. Even this was five generations earlier than the time when Heracles, son of Amphitryon, was born in Hellas. These researches show plainly that there is an ancient god Heracles; and my own opinion is that those Hellenes act most wisely who build and maintain two temples of Heracles, in the one of which the Heracles worshipped is known by the name of Olympian
, and has sacrifice offered to him as an immortal, while in the other the honours paid are such as are due to a hero.

Josephus records (Antiquities of the Jews 8.5.3), following Menander of Ephesus the historian, concerning King Hiram I of Tyre (c. 965–935 BCE):

He also went and cut down materials of timber out of the mountain called

`Ashtart; and he was the first to celebrate the awakening (egersis) of Heracles in the month Peritius.[11]

The annual celebration of the revival of Melqart's "awakening" may identify Melqart as a

life-death-rebirth deity
.

Melqart played the central role in the Phoenician spring festival during which he died and was resurrected.[12]

The Roman Emperor

Lepcis Magna in Africa, an originally Phoenician city where worship of Melqart was widespread. He is known to have constructed in Rome a temple dedicated to "Liber and Hercules", and it is assumed that the Emperor, seeking to honour the god of his native city, identified Melqart with the Roman god Liber.[citation needed
]

Archaeological evidence

Stela with Melqart on his lion from Amrit in Syria, c. 550 BC

The first occurrence of the name is in the 9th-century BCE the "Ben-Hadad" inscription found in 1939 north of Aleppo in today's northern Syria; it had been erected by the son of the king of Aram "for his lord Melqart, which he vowed to him and he heard his voice".[13]

Archaeological evidence for Melqart's cult is found earliest in Tyre and seems to have spread westward with the Phoenician colonies established by Tyre as well as eventually overshadowing the worship of Eshmun in

Hellenistic period
.

In Tyre, the high priest of Melqart ranked second only to the king. Many names in Carthage reflected this importance of Melqart, for example, the names Hamilcar and Bomilcar; but Ba‘l "Lord" as a name-element in Carthaginian names such as Hasdrubal and Hannibal almost certainly does not refer to Melqart but instead refers to Ba`al Hammon, chief god of Carthage, a god identified by Greeks with Cronus and by Romans with Saturn, or is simply used as a title.

Melqart protected the

Punic areas of Sicily, such as Cefalù, which was known under Carthaginian rule as "Cape Melqart" (Punic: 𐤓‬𐤔 𐤌𐤋‬𐤒𐤓‬𐤕, RŠ MLQRT).[15]
Melqart's head, indistinguishable from a Heracles, appeared on its coins of the 4th century BCE.

The

ex voto offering, provided the key to understanding the Phoenician language, as the inscriptions on the cippi were written in both Phoenician and Greek.[16]

Temple sites

Cadiz

Temples to Melqart are found at at least three Phoenician/Punic sites in Spain: Cádiz, Ibiza in the

Pillars of Heracles
by many who had visited the place and had sacrificed to Heracles there. Strabo believes the account to be fraudulent, in part noting that the inscriptions on those pillars mentioned nothing about Heracles, speaking only of the expenses incurred by the Phoenicians in their making.

Another temple to Melqart was at Ebyssus (Ibiza), in one of four Phoenician sites on the island's south coast. In 2004 a highway crew in the Avinguda Espanya, (one of the main routes into Ibiza), uncovered a further Punic temple in the excavated roadbed. Texts found mention Melqart among other Punic gods Eshmun, Astarte and Baʻl.

Another Iberian temple to Melqart has been identified at

Cape Saint Vincent
) of the Iberian peninsula, the westernmost point of the known world, ground so sacred it was forbidden even to spend the night.

Another temple to Melqart was at Lixus, on the Atlantic coast of Morocco.

Hannibal and Melqart

New Carthage with his mind focused on the god and on the eve of departure to Italy he saw a strange vision which he believed was sent by Melqart.[17]

Carthaginian shekel depicting either Hannibal or Melqart

A youth of divine beauty appeared to Hannibal in the night. The youth told Hannibal he had been sent by the supreme deity, Jupiter, to guide the son of Hamilcar to Italy. “Follow me,” said the ghostly visitor, “and see that that thou look not behind thee.” Hannibal followed the instructions of the visitor. His curiosity, however, overcame him, and as he turned his head, Hannibal saw a serpent crashing through forest and thicket causing destruction everywhere. It moved as a black tempest with claps of thunder and flashes of lightning gathered behind the serpent. When Hannibal asked the meaning of the vision the being replied, “What thou beholdest is the desolation of Italy. Follow thy star and inquire no farther into the dark counsels of heaven.”[17]

Graeco-Roman traditions

It was suggested by some writers that the Phoenician Melicertes son of Ino found in Greek mythology was in origin a reflection of Melqart. Though no classical source explicitly connects the two, Ino is the daughter of Cadmus of Tyre. Lewis Farnell thought not, referring in 1916 to "the accidental resemblance in sound of Melikertes and Melqart, seeing that Melqart, the bearded god, had no affinity in form or myth with the child- or boy-deity, and was moreover always identified with Herakles: nor do we know anything about Melqart that would explain the figure of Ino that is aboriginally inseparable from Melikertes."[18]

Athenaeus (392d) summarizes a story by Eudoxus of Cnidus (c. 355 BCE) telling how Heracles the son of Zeus by Asteria (= ‘Ashtart ?) was killed by Typhon in Libya. Heracles' companion Iolaus brought a quail to the dead god (presumably a roasted quail) and its delicious scent roused Heracles back to life. This purports to explain why the Phoenicians sacrifice quails to Heracles. It seems that Melqart had a companion similar to the Hellenic Iolaus, who was himself a native of the Tyrian colony of Thebes. Sanchuniathon also makes Melqart under the name Malcarthos or Melcathros, the son of Hadad, who is normally identified with Zeus.

The

Sandon
.

In

Mithras, Delphic Apollo
, Gamos 'Marriage', and Paeon 'Healer'.

The Tyrian Heracles answers by appearing to Dionysus. There is red light in the fiery eyes of this shining god who clothed in a robe embroidered like the sky (presumably with various constellations). He has yellow, sparkling cheeks and a starry beard. The god reveals how he taught the primeval, earthborn inhabitants of Phoenicia how to build the first boat and instructed them to sail out to a pair of floating, rocky islands. On one of the islands there grew an olive tree with a serpent at its foot, an eagle at its summit, and which glowed in the middle with fire that burned but did not consume. Following the god's instructions, these primeval humans sacrificed the eagle to Poseidon, Zeus, and the other gods. Thereupon the islands rooted themselves to the bottom of the sea. On these islands the city of Tyre was founded.

A Phoenician coin depicting the legend of the dog biting the sea snail

Gregory of Nazianzus[19] and Cassiodorus[20] relate[clarification needed] how Tyrian Heracles and the nymph Tyrus were walking along the beach when Heracles' dog, who was accompanying them, devoured a murex snail and gained a beautiful purple color around its mouth. Tyrus told Heracles she would never accept him as her lover until he gave her a robe of that same colour. So Heracles gathered many murex shells, extracted the dye from them, and dyed the first garment of the colour later called Tyrian purple. The murex shell appears on the very earliest Tyrian coins and then reappears again on coins in Imperial Roman times.

From the sixth century BCE. onward in Cyprus, where there was strong Phoenician cultural influence on the western side of the island, Melqart was often depicted with Heracles' traditional symbols of a lion skin and club, although it is unclear how strongly this connection between the figures was throughout the rest of Phoenician culture.[21]

Attempts at a synthesis

Bronze statuette of a priest of Melqart, National Archaeological Museum Madrid

The paucity of evidence on Melqart has led to debate as to the nature of his cult and his place in the Phoenician pantheon.

sea god
who was later given solar attributes, or alternatively that he began as a solar god who later received the attributes of a sea god.

Historical person

Sancti Petri, Museum of Cádiz

Herodotus went on to say that the Temple of Melqart at Tyre had a tomb in its sanctuary, supporting the theory that – involved as he was in the founding mythology of Tyre, perhaps Melqart was based on a real historical person.[23] Other classical authors say that this supposed Tomb of Melqart was moved to southern Spain, possibly Cádiz.[1]

In late 2021, archeologists from

Sancti Petri, Cádiz.[24]

See also

References

Citations

  1. ^ a b c Cartwright, Mark. "Melqart". World History Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2023-08-03.
  2. ^ Hitti, Philip (1957). Lebanon in History. India: Macmillan and Co Ltd. p. 118. Corinth is associated in Greek legend with a god of Phoenician origin, Melikertes (Melkarth), later identified with Herakles. The contests of the Phoenician god with the twelve hostile beasts of the zodiac are the origin of the twelve labours of the Greek hero.
  3. ^ "Melqart | Phoenician deity". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2020-04-26.
  4. ^ "Melqart | Encyclopedia.com". www.encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2020-05-20.
  5. ^ Sauer 2018, p. 140.
  6. ^ Greenfield 1995, p. 433.
  7. ^ Ogden 2021, p. 470.
  8. .
  9. .
  10. .
  11. ^ William Whiston's translation incorrectly has "first set up the temple of Heracles in ..".
  12. JSTOR 4351841
    .
  13. ^ ANET 655, noted in James Maxwell Miller and John Haralson Hayes, A History of Ancient Israel and Judah (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press) 1986 p. 293f.
  14. ^ María Eugenia Aubet, The Phoenicians and the West: Politics, Colonies and Trade, 2nd ed., 2001.
  15. ^ Head & al. (1911), p. 877.
  16. ^ "Cippus from Malta". Louvre.com. 2009. Retrieved February 16, 2011.
  17. ^ a b Livy XXI, 21-23
  18. ^ Lewis R. Farnell, "Ino-Leukothea" The Journal of Hellenic Studies 36 (1916:36-44) p. 43; Edouard Will, Korinthiaka (1955) p. 169 note 3 cities the literature disclaiming the connection.
  19. ^ Gregory of Nazianzus, Oratio, 4.108 (See in the Greek source and in English translation)
  20. ^ Cassiodorus, Variae, 1.2.7 (See in the Latin source and in English translation)
  21. .
  22. ^ Archaeology and the Religion of Israel (Baltimore, 1953; pp. 81, 196)
  23. .
  24. ^ "Spain: Researchers Believe they Found Fabled Temple of Hercules Gaditanus". www.thearchaeologist.org. Retrieved 2023-08-03.

Bibliography

External links