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Carthaginian Religion

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Emperor Barbarossa View Drop Down
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  Quote Emperor Barbarossa Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: Carthaginian Religion
    Posted: 02-Aug-2005 at 19:41
I was playing Rome Total War and I was wondering about the Carthaginian religion. I know about the whole deal with Dido and Aenas. Was there religion any copy of the Roman-Greco religion?

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Maju View Drop Down
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  Quote Maju Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02-Aug-2005 at 20:11
I don't think so. Maybe they had adopted some Greek influences or sychretized some beliefs but Phoenicians had a whole pantheon of their own, being Baal the most popular god and El the supreme deity (also mentioned in the Old Testament as one of the "names" of the Judaist god - though Yaveh seems to have been first a secondary divinity and not the same one). It seems that Melkart, god of the seas, was the most popular in Carthage and Gadir.

Anyhow a simple search in the Encyclopedia Mythica gave me all these divinities (I deleted a few not actually related):
1. Adon
A Phoenician dying and rising god associated with crops and the seasonal agricultural cycle. Popular during the Hellenistic period, the cult of Adon rose to prominence circa 200 BCE and persisted into Christian times, circa 400 CE. Major cult centers...
2. Anat
The name Anat occurs in several forms in Ugaritic, Hebrew, Akkadian, and Egyptian. In the Ugarit V Deity List it is spelled da-na-tu to be pronounced 'Anatu'. Otherwise in Phoen
3. Horon
The Phoenician god of the Underworld.
4. Aleyin
A Phoenician god of springs and vegetation.
5. Baal-Malage
A Phoenician (west Semitic) local tutelary god.
6. Kothar
The Phoenician god of arts and crafts and the builder of the palace of Baal.
7. Aion
The Phoenician god of time and passing of life.
8. Yamm
The Phoenician god of the sea. Yamm was the original head god of the pantheon but was driven from the role by Baal.
9. Al Ait
The Phoenician god of fire. His worshippers were called Alethai.
10. Abadir
'Mighty Father', a Phoenician name for the highest deity.
11. Baal-Qarnain
The Phoenician mountain-god, named 'lord of the two horns' after the two mountains with the same name in the Gulf of Tunis.
12. Mikal
A Phoenician god who was revered on Cyprus. He may have been a god of plague and pestilence.
13. Siga
The name of a goddess of probably Phoenician origin. She can be compared with Minerva.
14. Baal-Addir
The Phoenician god of fertility and the underworld. He is the patron deity of the city-state Byblos (near Beirut) and from there his cult spread all the way to Carthage. The Roman troops stationed in North Africa called him Jupiter Valens.
15. Baal-Samem
The chief Phoenician god, the 'lord of the sky' and master of the stars, rain and thunder. His cult was spread over Carthage, Cyprus, Syria and northern Mesopotamia. He is depicted holding a sun with seven rays in his hand and he has a (half) moon on...
16. Baal-Hammon
The chief deity of Phoenician Carthage and a fertility god. His cult spread to Malta, Sardinia and Sicily, and sacrificing children played an important role in this cult. His names means something like 'lord of the incense-altars'. The Greek equated ...
17. Melqart
The chief god of the Phoenician city of Tyre, but also venerated in Carthage and Gadir (Cdiz Spain). Melqart, also called the Tyrian Baal, is connected with the sea and sea-faring and on coins he is portrayed riding on a sea-horse. Under the name
18. Astarte
The Phoenician goddess of fertility and reproduction and the principal deity of the port city of Sidon. As Astarte she was worshipped as far west as Carthage, Sicily, Sardinia and Cyprus. She was also the sister and co-consort of Baal, sharing t...
19. Dagon
Dagon was the principal deity of the Philistines, whose ancestors migrated to Palestinian shores from Crete. He was the god of fertility and crops. Dagon also figured prominently in the Philistine concepts of death and the afterlife. In addition to his ..


21. Misor
        The Semitic (Phoenician) god who discovered salt.
22. Shadrapha
A Phoenician god of healing.
23. Taautos
The Phoenician precursor of the Egyptian god Thoth.
24. Saps
The Ugaritic, and later also Phoenician, sun-goddess who is called 'light of the gods'. She is similar to the Akkadian sun-god Samas.
25. Gad
A Semitic (Canaanite, Phoenician, etc.) deity who personifies good fate and fortune. This female deity protects people and places. The name means literally 'good fortune'. Gad is also a certain Nabataean god.
26. Asertu
A west-Semitic goddess who is identical to the Phoenician-Ugaritic goddess Atirat. Among the Hittites she is Aserdus, the consort of Elkunirsa.
27. Ugar
The ancient Syrian and Phoenician god of agriculture. He is also the messenger of the god Baal, together with the god Gapn. The city of Ugarit is named after him.
28. Sadrapa
The Phoenician god of healing who was worshipped in ancient Carthage. The Syrians also worshipped him, mainly in Palmyra. Sadrapa is the protective deity of small insects and snakes. His Greek name is Satrapes.
29. Rephaim
Ancient Syrian and Phoenician chthonic beings, associated with fertility and the underworld.
30. Eljon
An ancient Syrian/Phoenician sky deity. He belongs to the first generation of gods and fathered the sky god Epigeus with his wife Beruth, the mother goddess. Eljon's name is derived from alaj ('rising'). He is also known as Elioun and Eliun.

31. Baal-Gebal
The supreme goddess of the Phoenician city Byblos around 3000 BCE. Her name means 'lady of Gebal', which the city was called in those days. The ruin of the temple once dedicated to her can still be found in the village of Djebail (some 30 km. north-e...
 
32. Eshmun
'The holy prince'. The god of the Phoenician city of Sidon, and a god of health and healing. He was known in Tyre, Cyprus, and Carthage, but not in Ugarit. In the 5th century CE, Damascius identified him with the Greek god Asclepius. Possibly a versi...
 
33. Resef
The Ugaritic and Phoenician god of lightning and pestilence. His name means 'fire' or 'plague' and he spreads plagues and death. The Egyptians saw in him a god of war. He is portrayed with a shield, a club and a bolt of lightning. His symbolic animal...
 
34. Ashtoreth
Also Astarte or Ashtar. The supreme female divinity of the Phoenician nations, the goddess of love and fruitfulness. She symbolized the female principle, as Baal symbolized maleness. The Babylonian and Assyrian counterpart of Ashtoreth was Ishtar.
 
35. Clio
The Muse of historical and heroic poetry. With Pierus, the king of Macedonia, she is the mother of Hyacinth. She was credited for introducing the Phoenician alphabet into Greece. Her attribute is usually a parchment scroll or a set of tablets. ...

38. Baal
The antiquity of the worship of the god or gods of Baal extends back to the 14th century BCE among the ancient Semitic peoples, the descendants of Shem, the oldest son of Biblical Noah. Semitic is more of a linguistic classification than a racial one...
 
40. Beruth
Earth mother goddess of the Phoenicians. Today's Beirut is her city
 
41. Arsay
'She of the earth', 'daughter of ample flows'. Baal's daughter.
 
42. Atik
The 'calf of El', an enemy of Baal. Slain by Anat.
 
43. Arsh
The 'darling of the gods', a monstrous attendant of Yam, slain by Anat. Arsh lives in the sea.
 
44. Elsh
He is the steward (carpenter?) of El and of Baal's house. His wife is the stewardess of the goddesses.
 
45. Asherat
A fertility goddess and goddess of the sea of ancient Syria and Palestine. The consort of Il. Probably another variation of the goddess Ashtart.
 
46. Mot
The god of death and sterility, and the arch enemy of Baal. He fought Baal each year and slew his brother only to see Baal rise from the dead to rejuvenate the lands for cultivation.
 
47. Tarhun
The weather god of Hatti or the Hittites. The brought fertility each season by bringing rain to the dry Anatolian uplands and through this he was seen to bring authority to the king.
 
48. Baalat
Baalat is queen of the gods. She is associated with books, libraries, and writers. She was worshipped primarily in the city of Byblos (which is the original source of papyrus) and Byblos is what the Greeks called papyrus and, eventually, books.
 
49. Athirat
also Asherah, Ashtartian - 'the Lady of the Sea', Elat - 'the goddess'). El's loving consort and is protective of her seventy children who may also be known as the gracious gods, to whom she is both mother and nursemaid. Her sons, unlike Baal initial...
 
50. El
Leader of the gods. The first Canaanite god, El dwelt on Mount Saphon, and it was under his aegis that Baal married Anat, defeated the sea god Yam and the death lord Mot, and was installed as the divine bestower of life-giving rain. Represented as ...





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  Quote Emperor Barbarossa Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02-Aug-2005 at 20:17
Wow, that is a heck of a lot of gods there. I only knew of Baal and Milqart. 

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  Quote Maju Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03-Aug-2005 at 08:47
Maybe not all them were still venerated by the Carthaginians but at least they should have a cultural reference. After all they were 100% Phoenicians. 

The Phoenician culture/religion is strangely rather unknown (myself I had no idea about most of those divinities either, just El, Baal (the different Baals?), Astarte, Anat, Melkart...). In a topic in "Historical Amusement", somebody asked "what if Carthage had defeated Rome?" and, apart of some other side-effects, I thought that one of the most interesting effects would have been that on religious history - after all Phoenician and Hebrew mythologies were intimately in contact and even share some stuff (El) and the major religions of late Roman and post-Roman times are derived from Judaism. In other aspects history could have been quite simmilar but in this, much could be very different.



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  Quote Maju Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03-Aug-2005 at 09:45
Ok, I've been reading some of the articles and I think this is the most important core of Phoenician religion:

1. Ancient Cannanites (to whom Phoenicians are directly related) worshipped El and Athirath (Elat: godess) as head of their pantheon. So did Phoenicians but these gods were in second plane, with Yamm first and Baal later replacing them in might. El is thought to be simmilar to Yaveh (Yehu) but I've read somewhere that Yaveh could have been first a secondary god that displaced El and Baal among Hebrews. Notice that the Bible often speaks of "elohim" (the gods) meaning their origins could well be politheistic. El is represented as an aged man seated on a throne with bull horns on his head.

2. Yamm, god of the Sea, seems to have been the leader of gods under El but was slayed by Baal, who took his place.

3. Baal (meaning "Lord") is central in Phoenician cosmogony and most of the other Baals seem to be diferent aspects of a unique deity. He defied Mot (death) and died but Anath (one of his two sisters-consorts, the other was Astarte) annihilated Mot and eventually Baal resucited. He embodies primarily the cycle of nature (death and rebirth). He seems to be the same as Adon (Greek Adonai) and known to Greeks as Cronos and to Hebrews as Beelzebub. The original concepts of the Devil in Judeo-Christian mythology seem associated to this Phoenician divinity.

4. Astarte is the godess of fertility and reproduction, one of the sisters-consorts of Baal. Often represened with eagle claws instead of feet.

5. Anath is the godess of fertility, sexual love, hunting and war. She is also sister-consort of Baal and killed Mot (death). She's represented nude with exaggerated sexual organs and cow horns and often with weapons and a lion (her sacred animal).

6. Melqart - "city king" of Tyre, is a seafaring and trader god. He's associated to Mot (?).

7. Dagon: another son of El, was important to Canaanites and Philisteans.

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  Quote Paul Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03-Aug-2005 at 11:18
Not to forget they were big on human sacrifice, especially children.
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  Quote Emperor Barbarossa Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03-Aug-2005 at 12:10
I never expected to find this much out about the Carthaginians. Thanks Maju.

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  Quote vagabond Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 06-Aug-2005 at 08:04

Originally posted by Paul

Not to forget they were big on human sacrifice, especially children.
When I was first reading about Carthaginian history many scholars believed that this was simply Roman propaganda carried on by Flaubert.  Not so - apparently.  Diggings in Carthage and at other Phoenician sites found the charred remains of thousands of children who were, as documented by their associated stelae, "given" to Tanit and Ba'al Hammon.  Archaeologists and historians have argued this through the 20th century and into this one.

There are several Tophet (s) (don't know the plural) or burial places around Carthage - the Tophet of Salammbo is unique in that it contains the cremated remains of only children and animals.  Having seen the Tophet in Carthage - I believe that child sacrifice was a part of the regular religious practices of the Phoenicians.

http://www.barca.fsnet.co.uk/punic-stelae.htm
http://www.barca.fsnet.co.uk/carthage-tophet.htm 
some good pages here

http://lexicorient.com/tunisia/carthage02.htm

http://phoenicia.org/childsacrifice.html 
arguments both pro and con

http://www.stanford.edu/dept/archaeology/journal/newdraft/ga rnand/paper.html

 



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  Quote Raider Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08-Aug-2005 at 08:27

 

I have read the articles linked above, and I have seen some of the ruins from the tophet.

In my opinion the carthaginians are not sacreficed their children. AT least they did not do it regulary. The sources are not enough convincing for me. By the way there are sources that the romans did human sacrefices too.

 

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  Quote Maju Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28-Aug-2005 at 14:15
On the polemic of child sacrifice see these two opposed articles (on the same page): http://phoenicia.org/childsacrifice.html

By the way, I just noticed this topic is in the wrong subforum (where are the mods when you need them?! )

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  Quote vagabond Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29-Aug-2005 at 18:07

I am glad that you liked the articles at phoenicia.org - Thanks.  I thought it was good stuff - concise and informative, and try to find links on both sides of a reasonable question.

I just noticed this topic is in the wrong subforum (where are the mods when you need them?! )


What?  Have they moved Tunisia?  Again?!  I thought it was still in Africa.      

 

Actually I had considered moving the topic to ancient history and then to Greco Roman - then decided to leave it here as it is a loose fit for any of the above.  Do you want it in Ancient or GrecoRoman?

(To the other question We were either wasting time looking at inappropriate websites or busy discussing Trolls and out of control nationalists - your choice)

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  Quote Constantine XI Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 31-Aug-2005 at 23:05
Just as an aside from the main topic of religion I thought I should point out the legend about Anaeas and Dido is chronologically impossible. Anaeas would have been fleeing to Italy 400 years before Dido was meant to be sitting on her throne in Carthage.
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  Quote vagabond Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 01-Sep-2005 at 02:49

He had a slow boat?

The wind was bad?  The gods were - after all - angry with him.

Perhaps she liked older men?

Virgil can't have been wrong! 

And he would never have written the whole thing as political propaganda!

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