Pygmalion of Tyre
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For other individuals with this name, see Pygmalion.
Pygmalion (also known as Pumayyaton) was king of Tyre[1] from 820 to 774 BC[2] and a son of King Mattan I (829-821 BC).[3]
During Pygmalion's reign, Tyre seems to have shifted the heart of its trading empire from the Middle East to the Mediterranean, as can be judged from the building of new colonies including Kition on Cyprus and, according to tradition, Carthage. For the story surrounding the founding of Carthage, see Dido.
In Virgil's masterpiece The Aeneid, Pygmalion is the cruel-hearted brother of Dido who secretly kills Dido's husband Sychaeus because of his lust for gold.
In Dante's The Divine Comedy, Purgatorio, Canto XX, verses 103-105, Dante uses Virgil's version of Pygmalion to represent greed.
[edit] Notes
- ^ The traditional king-list of Tyre is derived from Josephus, Against Apion i. 18, 21, and Jewish Antiquities viii. 5.3; 13.2. His list was based on Menander of Ephesus, who drew his information from the chronicles of Tyre. (Jewish Encyclopedia: "Phenicia").
- ^ "...he lived fifty-six years, and reigned forty-seven years. Now in the seventh year of his reign, his sister fled away from him, and built the city Carthage in Libya." (Menander of Ephesus, quoted by Josephus, Against Apion, i.18.).
- ^ Stearns, Peter N., et al., The Encyclopedia of World History. II.B.6. Pheonicia, 2001
