Demographics. The Phoenicians were an offshoot of the Canaanites, a group of ancient Semitic-speaking peoples that emerged at least in the second millennium BC.
Eshmun Temple, dedicated to the Phoenician God of healing. Built in the 7th century BC, it is located in the north of Sidon near the Awali river.
Phoenicia, ancient region corresponding to modern Lebanon, with adjoining parts of modern Syria and Israel. Its inhabitants, the Phoenicians, were notable merchants, traders, and colonizers of the Mediterranean in the 1st millennium bce.
The Etruscans emerged as a local power in the 8th century BC, spreading their trade to Corsica, Sardinia and Iberia and creating a powerful navy to guard their interests. The Phoenicians and Etruscans became trading partners and rivals, exchanging goods with and engaging in opportunistic raids against each other.
religion and cultureThe Phoenician religion was polytheistic, and their gods required sacrifices to forestall disaster, especially Baal, the God of Storms, and his consort Tanit.
Tyre and Sidon were cities against which the prophets of the Old Testament had pronounced God's judgment. Sodom was infamous as the city which, according to the Book of Genesis, God had spectacularly destroyed for its wickedness in the time of Abraham.
The worship of Baal was popular in Egypt from the later New Kingdom in about 1400 bce to its end (1075 bce). Through the influence of the Aramaeans, who borrowed the Babylonian pronunciation Bel, the god ultimately became known as the Greek Belos, identified with Zeus.
Atargatis, wearing a mural crown, is the ancestor the royal house, the founder of social and religious life, the goddess of generation and fertility (hence the prevalence of phallic emblems), and the inventor of useful appliances. Not unnaturally she is identified with the Greek Aphrodite.
Set, also known as Seth and Suetekh, was the Egyptian god of war, chaos and storms, brother of Osiris, Isis, and Horus the Elder, uncle to Horus the Younger, and brother-husband to Nephthys.
Asherah is identified as the queen consort of the Sumerian god Anu, and Ugaritic ʾEl, the oldest deities of their respective pantheons, as well as Yahweh, the god of Israel and Judah. This role gave her a similarly high rank in the Ugaritic pantheon.
Moloch (also Molech, Molek,) is a name or term that appears several times in the Hebrew Bible, primarily in the book of Leviticus. The Bible strongly condemns practices associated with Moloch, which appear to have included child sacrifice. Traditionally, Moloch has been understood as referring to a Canaanite god.
Asherah as a tree symbol was even said to have been "chopped down and burned outside the Temple in acts of certain rulers who were trying to 'purify' the cult, and focus on the worship of a single male god, Yahweh," he added.
Inanna is the ancient Sumerian goddess of love, sensuality, fertility, procreation, and also of war. She later became identified by the Akkadians and Assyrians as the goddess Ishtar, and further with the Hittite Sauska, the Phoenician Astarte and the Greek Aphrodite, among many others.
An Asherah pole is a sacred tree or pole that stood near Canaanite religious locations to honor the Ugaritic mother goddess Asherah, consort of El. The traditional interpretation of the Biblical text is that the Israelites imported pagan elements such as the Asherah poles from the surrounding Canaanites.
Isis is an ancient Egyptian goddess of the moon, fertility, healing and magic. She is known as the essence of femininity and is exalted in her role as mother and wife. The regal name Isis also means “woman of the throne,” and thousands of women and girls in Egypt and around the world claim this name as their own.
Baal Hammon, properly Baʿal ?ammon or English: “Lord Hammon” ?amon (Phoenician: ?????? ?????? baʿl ?amūn; Punic: bʻl ?mn), was the chief god of Ancient Carthage. He was a weather god considered responsible for the fertility of vegetation and esteemed as King of the Gods.
The Phoenicians' leading city was Tyre, which established a number of trading posts around the Mediterranean. Ultimately Phoenicians established 300 colonies in Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria, Iberia, and to a much lesser extent, on the arid coast of Libya.
One of the rituals of the Phoenician religion was to sacrifice humans, especially children, according to ancient sources. The victims were killed by fire, although it is not clear precisely how.
According to tradition, Carthage was founded by the Phoenicians of Tyre in 814 bce; its Phoenician name means “new town.” Carthage Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
In 146 BC, after the third and final Punic War, the Romans destroyed
Carthage and established a new city in its place a century later.
Ancient Carthage.
| Carthage ???????????????? Qart-?adašt |
|---|
| Religion | Punic religion |
| Demonym(s) | Carthaginian |
| Government | Monarchy until c. 480 BC, republic led by Shophets thereafter |
Children – both male and female, and mostly a few weeks old – were sacrificed by the Carthaginians at locations known as tophets. The practice was also carried out by their neighbours at other Phoenician colonies in Sicily, Sardinia and Malta.
The 'owl' is Moloch, a satanic entity that demands child sacrifice."
Roman Republic, (509–27 bce), the ancient state centred on the city of Rome that began in 509 bce, when the Romans replaced their monarchy with elected magistrates, and lasted until 27 bce, when the Roman Empire was established. A brief treatment of the Roman Republic follows.
