Melqart
Melqart (also Melkarth or Melicarthus) was the tutelary god of
the Phoenician city-state of Tyre and a major deity in the
Phoenician and Punic pantheons. Often titled the "Lord of Tyre"
(Ba‘al Ṣūr), he was also known as the Son of Baal or El (the Ruler
of the Universe), King of the Underworld, and Protector of the
Universe.[1] He symbolized the annual cycle of vegetation and was
associated with the Phoenician maternal goddess Astarte.
Melqart was typically depicted as a bearded figure, dressed only in
a rounded hat and loincloth. Reflecting his dual role as both
protector of the world and ruler of the underworld, he was often
shown holding an Egyptian ankh or lotus flower as a symbol of life
and a fenestrated axe as a symbol of death.
As Tyrian trade and settlement expanded, Melqart became
venerated in Phoenician and Punic cultures across the
Mediterranean, especially its colonies of Carthage and Cadiz.[2]
During the high point of Phoenician civilization between 1000 and
500 BCE, Melqart was associated with other pantheons and often
venerated accordingly. Most notably, he was identified with the
Greek Herakles (Hercules) since at least the sixth century BCE,
and eventually became interchangeable with his Greek counterpart.
[3]
Contents
Etymology
Cult The "Melqart stele" (9th century
BCE)
Archaeological evidence
Temple sites
Hannibal and Melqart
Graeco-Roman traditions
Attempts at a synthesis
See also
References
Citations
Bibliography
External links
Etymology
Melqart was written in the Phoenician abjad as mlqrt (Phoenician:
𐤕𐤓𐤒𐤋𐤌 Malqārt). Edward Lipinski theorizes that it was derived
from mlk qrt (𐤕𐤓𐤒 𐤊𐤋𐤌 Mīlk-Qārtī), which means "King of the
City".[4] 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 is likely to have been the particular Ba‘al found in the
Tanakh (the Jewish Bible, specifically in 1 Kings 16.31–10.26) Bust from National Museum of
whose worship was prominently introduced to Israel by King Ahab Denmark
and largely eradicated by King Jehu. In 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 Hellenistic novelist, Heliodorus of Emesa, in his Aethiopica,
refers to the 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): "Mozia ephebe" - Melqart (?)
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
smaragdos, shining with great brilliance at night. In a Tyrian shekel (102 BC) showing
conversation which I held with the priests, I inquired Melkarth (left) and an eagle next to a
how long their temple had been built, and found by club, a symbol of the god, and one
their answer that they, too, differed from the Hellenes. foot on the prow of a galley
They said that the temple was built at the same time
that the city was founded, and that the foundation of
the city took place 2,300 years ago. In Tyre I remarked
another temple where the same god was worshipped
as the Thasian Heracles. So I went on to Thasos,
where I found a temple of Heracles which had been
built by the Phoenicians who colonised that island
when they sailed in search 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 8.5.3), following Menander 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 Lebanon, for the
roof of temples; and when he had pulled down the ancient temples, he both built the temple of
Heracles and that of `Ashtart; and he was the first to celebrate the awakening (egersis) of
Heracles in the month Peritius.[5]
The annual celebration of the revival of Melqart's "awakening" may identify Melqart as a life-death-rebirth
deity.
The Roman Emperor Septimius Severus was a native of 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.
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 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".[6]
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 Sidon. The name of Melqart was invoked in oaths sanctioning contracts, according to Dr.
Aubet,[7] thus it was customary to build a temple to Melqart, as protector of Tyrian traders, in each new
Phoenician colony: at Cádiz, the temple to Melqart is as early as the earliest vestiges of Phoenician
occupation. (The Greeks followed a parallel practice in respect to Heracles.) Carthage even sent a yearly
tribute of 10% of the public treasury to the god in Tyre up until the 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: 𐤔𐤓
𐤕𐤓𐤒𐤋𐤌, rš mlqrt).[8] Melqart's head, indistinguishable from a
Heracles, appeared on its coins of the 4th century BCE.
The Cippi of Melqart, found on Malta and dedicated to the god as
an ex voto offering, provided the key to understanding the
Phoenician language, as the inscriptions on the cippi were written
in both Phoenician and Greek.[9]
Temple sites
Temples to Melqart are found at least three Phoenician/Punic sites
in Spain: Cádiz, Ibiza in the Balearic Islands and Cartagena. Near
Gades/Gádeira (modern Cádiz) was the westernmost temple of
Tyrian Heracles, near the eastern shore of the island (Strabo 3.5.2– Stela with Melqart on his lion from
3). Strabo notes (3.5.5–6) that the two bronze pillars within the Amrit in Syria, c. 550 BC
temple, each 8 cubits high, were widely proclaimed to be the true
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 Carthago
Nova (Cartagena). The Tyrian god's protection extended to the
sacred promontory (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. Votive statues from the Temple of
Melqart in Cadiz
Hannibal and Melqart
Hannibal was a faithful worshiper of Melqart: the Roman historian Livy records the story that just before
setting off on his march to Italy he made a pilgrimage to Gades, the most ancient seat of Phoenician
worship in the west. Hannibal strengthened himself spiritually by prayer and sacrifice at the Altar of
Melqart. He returned to 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.[10]
A youth of divine beauty appeared to Hannibal in the night. The youth told Hannibal he had been sent by
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.”[10]
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."[11]
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 Pseudo-Clementine Recognitions (10.24) speaks of the tombs of various gods, including "that of
Heracles at Tyre, where he was burnt with fire." The Hellenic Heracles also died on a pyre, but the event
was located on Mount Oeta in Trachis. A similar tradition is recorded by Dio Chrysostom (Or. 33.47 (http
s://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Dio_Chrysostom/Discourses/33*.html#47)) who
mentions the beautiful pyre which the Tarsians used to build for their Heracles, referring here to the Cilician
god Sandon.
In Nonnus' Dionysiaca (40.366–580) the Tyrian Heracles is very much a Sun-god. However, there is a
tendency in the later Hellenistic and Roman periods for almost all gods to develop solar attributes, and for
almost all eastern gods to be identified with the Sun. Nonnus gives the title Astrochiton 'Starclad' to Tyrian
Heracles and has his Dionysus recite a hymn to this Heracles, saluting him as "the son of Time, he who
causes the threefold image of the Moon, the all-shining Eye of the heavens". Rain is ascribed to the shaking
from his head of the waters of his bath in the eastern Ocean. His Sun-disk is praised as the cause of growth
in plants. Then, in a climactic burst of syncretism, Dionysus identifies the Tyrian Heracles with Belus on
the Euphrates, Ammon in Libya, Apis by the Nile, Arabian Cronus, Assyrian Zeus, Serapis, Zeus of
Egypt, Cronus, Phaethon, 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.
Gregory of Nazianzus (Oratio 4.108) and Cassiodorus (Variae 1.2) relate 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, Melquat 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.[12]
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. William F. Albright suggested he was a god of the underworld partly because the god
Malku, who may be Melqart, is sometimes equated with the Mesopotamian god Nergal, a god of the
underworld, whose name also means 'King of the City'.[13] Others take this to be coincidental, since what
is known about Melqart from other sources does not suggest an underworld god, and the city in question
could conceivably be Tyre. It has been suggested that Melqart began as a 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.
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
1. "Melqart" (https://www2.uned.es/geo-1-historia-antigua-universal/RELIGION-FENICIA/melq
art.htm). www2.uned.es. Retrieved 2020-05-20.
2. "Melqart | Phoenician deity" (https://www.britannica.com/topic/Melqart). Encyclopedia
Britannica. Retrieved 2020-04-26.
3. "Melqart | Encyclopedia.com" (https://www.encyclopedia.com/environment/encyclopedias-al
manacs-transcripts-and-maps/melqart). www.encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2020-05-20.
4. Lipiński, Edward (2002). Semitic Languages: Outline of a Comparative Grammar. Orientalia
Lovaniensia analecta. Vol. 80. Belgium: Peeters Leeuven (published 2001). p. 235.
ISBN 978-90-429-0815-4.
5. William Whiston's translation incorrectly has "first set up the temple of Heracles in ..".
6. 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.
7. María Eugenia Aubet, The Phoenicians and the West: Politics, Colonies and Trade, 2nd ed.,
2001.
8. Head & al. (1911), p. 877.
9. "Cippus from Malta" (http://www.louvre.fr/llv/oeuvres/detail_notice.jsp?CONTENT%3C%3Ec
nt_id=10134198673225322&CURRENT_LLV_NOTICE%3C%3Ecnt_id=10134198673225
322&FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=9852723696500787&bmLocale=en). Louvre.com. 2009.
Retrieved February 16, 2011.
10. Livy XXI, 21-23
11. 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.
12. Markoe, Glenn (2000). Phoenicians. Los Angeles, California: University of California Press.
p. 124. ISBN 978-0520226135.
13. Archaeology and the Religion of Israel (Baltimore, 1953; pp. 81, 196)
Bibliography
Bonnet, Corinne, Melqart: Cultes et mythes de l'Héraclès tyrien en Méditerranée (Leuven
and Namur) 1988. The standard summary of the evidences.
Head, Barclay; et al. (1911), "Zeugitana" (http://snible.org/coins/hn/zeugitana.html), Historia
Numorum (http://snible.org/coins/hn/index.html) (2nd ed.), Oxford: Clarendon Press,
pp. 877–882.
External links
Melqart - World History Encyclopedia (https://www.worldhistory.org/Melqart/)
Temple of Melqart (https://web.archive.org/web/20060304175210/http://www.laisladelsur.co
m/monumentos/sancti-petri.asp)
Melqart stele (http://www.kchanson.com/ANCDOCS/westsem/melqart.html)
Roger Wright, review of María Eugenia Aubet, The Phoenicians and the West: Politics,
Colonies and Trade, 2nd ed., 2001 (http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/2003/2003-12-17.html): 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.) (http://www.religionswissenschaft.uzh.ch/idd/
prepublications/e_idd_melqart.pdf)
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