Melqart
Melqart | |
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God of strength and Shapash, Yam | |
Equivalents | |
Greek equivalent | Heracles |
Roman equivalent | Hercules |
Deities of the ancient Near East |
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Religions of the ancient Near East |
Melqart (
Melqart was typically depicted as
As Tyrian trade, colonization and settlement expanded, Melqart became venerated in
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
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
Melqart was possibly the
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
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
Melqart played the central role in the Phoenician spring festival during which he died and was resurrected.[12]
The Roman Emperor
Archaeological evidence
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
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
The
Temple sites
Temples to Melqart are found at at least three Phoenician/Punic sites in Spain: Cádiz, Ibiza in the
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
Another temple to Melqart was at Lixus, on the Atlantic coast of Morocco.
Hannibal and 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
In
, 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.
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
The paucity of evidence on Melqart has led to debate as to the nature of his cult and his place in the Phoenician pantheon.
Historical person
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
See also
- For information on the title Ba‘al, which was applied to many gods who would not normally be identified with Melqart, see Ba‘al.
- For views about whether and how Melqart connects with biblical references to Moloch, see Moloch.
- For views about whether and how Melqart connects with the names of God in Islam, see Malek
References
Citations
- ^ a b c Cartwright, Mark. "Melqart". World History Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2023-08-03.
- ^ 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.
- ^ "Melqart | Phoenician deity". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2020-04-26.
- ^ "Melqart | Encyclopedia.com". www.encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2020-05-20.
- ^ Sauer 2018, p. 140.
- ^ Greenfield 1995, p. 433.
- ^ Ogden 2021, p. 470.
- ISBN 978-1-4000-3114-6.
- ISBN 978-90-429-0815-4.
- ISBN 0521359848.
- ^ William Whiston's translation incorrectly has "first set up the temple of Heracles in ..".
- JSTOR 4351841.
- ^ 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.
- ^ María Eugenia Aubet, The Phoenicians and the West: Politics, Colonies and Trade, 2nd ed., 2001.
- ^ Head & al. (1911), p. 877.
- ^ "Cippus from Malta". Louvre.com. 2009. Retrieved February 16, 2011.
- ^ a b Livy XXI, 21-23
- ^ 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.
- ^ Gregory of Nazianzus, Oratio, 4.108 (See in the Greek source and in English translation)
- ^ Cassiodorus, Variae, 1.2.7 (See in the Latin source and in English translation)
- ISBN 978-0520226135.
- ^ Archaeology and the Religion of Israel (Baltimore, 1953; pp. 81, 196)
- ISBN 978-1-4000-3114-6.
- ^ "Spain: Researchers Believe they Found Fabled Temple of Hercules Gaditanus". www.thearchaeologist.org. Retrieved 2023-08-03.
Bibliography
- Bonnet, Corinne, Melqart: Cultes et mythes de l'Héraclès tyrien en Méditerranée (Leuven and Namur) 1988. The standard summary of the evidences.
- Greenfield, Jonas Carl (1995), Solving Riddles and Untying Knots: Biblical, Epigraphic, and Semitic Studies in Honor of Jonas C. Greenfield, Eisenbrauns, ISBN 978-0-931464-93-5.
- Head, Barclay; et al. (1911), "Zeugitana", Historia Numorum (2nd ed.), Oxford: Clarendon Press, pp. 877–882.
- Ogden, Daniel (2021), The Oxford Handbook of Heracles, Oxford University Press, ISBN 9780190650988.
- Sauer, A. (2018), The Archaeology of Jordan and Beyond: Essays in Memory of James A. Sauer, Brill, ISBN 9789004369801.
External links
- Melqart - World History Encyclopedia
- Temple of Melqart
- Melqart stele
- Roger Wright, review of María Eugenia Aubet, The Phoenicians and the West: Politics, Colonies and Trade, 2nd ed., 2001: a circumstantial review that gives a good sketch of Aubet's book, in which Melqart figures strongly; Aubet concentrates on Tyre and its colonies and ends, ca 550 BCE, with the rise of Carthage.
- L'iconographie de Melqart (article in PDF eng.)