Phoenicia

knʿn / kanaʿan  (Phoenician) Φοινίκη Phoiníkē  (Greek) Phoenicia
←   ←   ← 1500 BC[1]–539 BC →   →
Map of Phoenicia and its Mediterranean trade routes
Capital		Byblos, Mount Lebanon (1200 BC–1000 BC) Tyre, South Lebanon (1000 BC–333 BC) Carthage (333 BC–149 BC)
Languages		Phoenician, Punic
Religion		Canaanite religion
Government		Kingship (City-states)
Well-known kings of Phoenician cities
•	c. 1000 BC	Ahiram
•	969 BC – 936 BC	Hiram I
•	820 BC – 774 BC	Pygmalion of Tyre
Historical era		Classical antiquity
•	Established	1500 BC[2]
•	Tyre in South Lebanon, under the reign of Hiram I, becomes the dominant city-state	969 BC
•	Pygmalion founds Carthage (legendary)	814 BC
•	Cyrus the Great conquers Phoenicia	539 BC
Population
•	3200 BC[3] est.	200,000
Today part of		Lebanon  Palestine  Syria  Algeria  Cyprus  Egypt  France  Greece  Italy  Jordan  Israel  Libya  Malta  Morocco  Portugal  Spain  Tunisia  Turkey

Phoenicia (UK /fᵻˈnɪʃə/ or US /fəˈniːʃə/;^[4] from the Greek: Φοινίκη, Phoiníkē; Arabic: فينيقية‎, Fīnīqīyah) was an ancient Semitic thalassocratic civilization situated on the western, coastal part of the Fertile Crescent and centered on the coastline of modern Lebanon, Israel and Syria. All major Phoenician cities were on the coastline of the Mediterranean, some colonies reaching the Western Mediterranean. It was an enterprising maritime trading culture that spread across the Mediterranean from 1500 BC to 300 BC. The Phoenicians used the galley, a man-powered sailing vessel, and are credited with the invention of the bireme.^[5] By their innovations in shipbuilding and seafaring, the Phoenicians were enabled to sail as far west as present-day Morocco and Spain carrying huge cargoes of goods for trade.^[6] They were famed in Classical Greece and Rome as 'traders in purple', referring to their monopoly on the precious purple dye of the murex snail, used, among other things, for royal clothing, and for the spread of their alphabets, from which almost all modern phonetic alphabets are derived.

Although Egyptian seafaring expeditions had already been made to Byblos to bring back Lebanon cedars as early as the 3rd millennium BC, continuous contact only occurred in the Egyptian New Empire period. In the Amarna tablets of the 14th century BC, people from the region called themselves Kenaani or Kinaani.^[7] Much later, in the 6th century BC, Hecataeus of Miletus writes that Phoenicia was formerly called χνα (Latinized: khna), a name Philo of Byblos later adopted into his mythology as his eponym for the Phoenicians: "Khna who was afterwards called Phoinix".^[8]

Phoenicia is really a Classical Greek term used to refer to the region of the major Canaanite port towns, and does not correspond exactly to a cultural identity that would have been recognised by the Phoenicians themselves. The term in Greek means 'land of purple', a reference to the valuable murex-shell dye they exported.^[9] It is uncertain to what extent the Phoenicians viewed themselves as a single ethnicity and nationality. Their civilization was organized in city-states, similar to ancient Greece.^[10] However, in terms of archaeology, language, life style and religion, there is little to set the Phoenicians apart as markedly different from other Semitic cultures of Canaan. As Canaanites, they were unique in their remarkable seafaring achievements.

Each city-state was a politically independent unit. They could come into conflict and one city might be dominated by another city-state, although they would collaborate in leagues or alliances. Though ancient boundaries of such city-centered cultures fluctuated, the city of Tyre in South Lebanon seems to have been the southernmost. Sarepta (modern day Sarafand) between Sidon and Tyre in South Lebanon is the most thoroughly excavated city of the Phoenician homeland.

The Phoenicians were the first state-level society to make extensive use of alphabets. The Phoenician alphabet is generally held to be the ancestor of almost all modern alphabets. They spoke Phoenician, a part of the Canaanite subgroup of the Northwest Semitic language family. Other members of the family are Hebrew, Ammonite, Moabite and Edomite. ^[11][12] However, due to the very slight differences in language, and the insufficient records of the time, whether Phoenician formed a separate and united dialect, or was merely a superficially defined part of a broader language continuum, is unclear. Through their maritime trade, the Phoenicians spread the use of the alphabet to North Africa and Europe, where it was adopted by the Greeks, who later transmitted it to the Romans.^[13] In addition to their many inscriptions, the Phoenicians are believed to have left numerous other types of written sources, but most have not survived.

Etymology

The name Phoenicians, like Latin Poenī (adj. poenicus, later pūnicus), comes from Greek Φοίνικες (Phoínikes), attested since Homer and influenced by phoînix "Tyrian purple, crimson; murex" (itself from φοινός phoinós "blood red",^[14] of uncertain etymology; R. S. P. Beekes has suggested a Pre-Greek origin of the ethnonym).^[15] The oldest attested form of the word is the Mycenaean po-ni-ki-jo, po-ni-ki, ultimately borrowed from Ancient Egyptian fnḫw (fenkhu)^[16] "Asiatics, Semites". The folk-etymological association of phoiniki with phoînix mirrors that in Akkadian which tied kinaḫni, kinaḫḫi "Canaan; Phoenicia" to kinaḫḫu "red-dyed wool".^[17][18] The land was natively known as knʿn (cf. Eblaite ca-na-na-um, ca-na-na), remembered in the 6th century BC by Hecataeus under the Greek form Chna, and its people as the knʿny (cf. Punic. They called themselves Kn'n, a name that survived until the 4th Century CE, in North Africa.

Origins: 3200–1200 BC

Herodotus' account (written c. 440 BC) refers to the myths of Io and Europa. (History, I:1):

According to the Persians best informed in history, the Phoenicians began the quarrel. These people, who had formerly dwelt on the shores of the Erythraean Sea, having migrated to the Mediterranean and settled in the parts which they now inhabit, began at once, they say, to adventure on long voyages, freighting their vessels with the wares of Egypt and Assyria ...^[19]

The Greek historian Strabo believed that the Phoenicians originated from Bahrain.^[20] Herodotus also believed that the homeland of the Phoenicians was Bahrain.^[21][22] This theory was accepted by the 19th-century German classicist Arnold Heeren who said that: "In the Greek geographers, for instance, we read of two islands, named Tyrus or Tylos, and Arad, Bahrain, which boasted that they were the mother country of the Phoenicians, and exhibited relics of Phoenician temples."^[23] The people of Tyre in South Lebanon in particular have long maintained Persian Gulf origins, and the similarity in the words "Tylos" and "Tyre" has been commented upon.^[24] However, there is little evidence of occupation at all in Bahrain during the time when such migration had supposedly taken place.^[25]

Culturally, they appear to have derived uninterrupted from the chalcolithic cultures of the region. Byblos is attested as an archaeological site from the Old Kingdom of Egypt.

High point: 1200–800 BC

Fernand Braudel remarked in The Perspective of the World that Phoenicia was an early example of a "world-economy" surrounded by empires. The high point of Phoenician culture and sea power is usually placed c. 1200–800 BC. Archaeological evidence consistent with this understanding has been difficult to identify. A unique concentration in Phoenicia of silver hoards dated between 1200 and 800 BC, however, contains hacksilver with lead isotope ratios matching ores in Sardinia and Spain.^[26] This metallic evidence agrees with the biblical memory of a western Mediterranean Tarshish that supplied Solomon with silver via Phoenicia, during the latter's heyday (see 'trade', below).^[27] The oldest finds in connection with the Phoenicians were made in the area of the modern port of Huelva, the ancient city of Onoba.

Many of the most important Phoenician settlements had been established long before this: Byblos, Tyre in South Lebanon, Sidon, Simyra, Arwad, and Berytus, the Capital of Lebanon, all appear in the Amarna tablets. Archeology has identified cultural elements of the Phoenician zenith as early as the 3rd millennium BC.

The league of independent city-state ports, with others on the islands and along other coasts of the Mediterranean Sea, was ideally suited for trade between the Levant area, rich in natural resources, and the rest of the ancient world. Around 1200 BC, a series of poorly-understood events weakened and destroyed the adjacent Egyptian and Hittite empires. In the resulting power vacuum, a number of Phoenician cities rose as significant maritime powers.

Phoenician societies rested on three power-bases: the king; temples and their priests; and councils of elders. Byblos first became the predominant center from where the Phoenicians dominated the Mediterranean and Erythraean (Red) Sea routes. It was here that the first inscription in the Phoenician alphabet was found, on the sarcophagus of Ahiram (c. 1200 BC). Later, Tyre in South Lebanon gained in power. One of its kings, the priest Ithobaal (887–856 BC) ruled Phoenicia as far north as Beirut, and part of Cyprus. Carthage was founded in 814 BC under Pygmalion of Tyre (820–774 BC). The collection of city-states constituting Phoenicia came to be characterized by outsiders and the Phoenicians as Sidonia or Tyria. Phoenicians and Canaanites alike were called Sidonians or Tyrians, as one Phoenician city came to prominence after another.

Decline: 539–65 BC

Persian rule

Cyrus the Great conquered Phoenicia in 539 BC. The Persians divided Phoenicia into four vassal kingdoms: Sidon, Tyre, Arwad, and Byblos. They prospered, furnishing fleets for the Persian kings. Phoenician influence declined after this. It is likely that much of the Phoenician population migrated to Carthage and other colonies following the Persian conquest. In 350 or 345 BC a rebellion in Sidon led by Tennes was crushed by Artaxerxes III. Its destruction was described by Diodorus Siculus.

Greek rule

Alexander the Great took Tyre in 332 BC after the Siege of Tyre. Alexander was exceptionally harsh to Tyre, executing 2,000 of the leading citizens, but he maintained the king in power. He gained control of the other cities peacefully: the ruler of Aradus submitted; the king of Sidon was overthrown. The rise of Macedon gradually ousted the remnants of Phoenicia's former dominance over the Eastern Mediterranean trade routes. Phoenician culture disappeared entirely in the motherland. Carthage continued to flourish in North Africa. It oversaw the mining of iron and precious metals from Iberia, and used its considerable naval power and mercenary armies to protect commercial interests. Rome finally destroyed it in 146 BC, at the end of the Punic Wars.

Following Alexander, the Phoenician homeland was controlled by a succession of Macedonian rulers: Laomedon (323 BC), Ptolemy I (320), Antigonus II (315), Demetrius (301), and Seleucus (296). Between 286 and 197 BC, Phoenicia (except for Aradus) fell to the Ptolemies of Egypt, who installed the high priests of Astarte as vassal rulers in Sidon (Eshmunazar I, Tabnit, Eshmunazar II).

In 197 BC, Phoenicia along with Syria reverted to the Seleucids. The region became increasingly hellenized, although Tyre became autonomous in 126 BC, followed by Sidon in 111. Syria, including Phoenicia, was seized and ruled by king Tigranes the Great of Armenia from 82 until 69 BC, when he was defeated by Lucullus. In 65 BC Pompey finally incorporated the territory as part of the Roman province of Syria. Phoenicia became a separate province ca. 200 AD.

Demographics

Genetic studies

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A study by Pierre Zalloua and others (2008) claimed that six subclades of haplogroup J2 (J-M172) J2 in particular, were "a Phoenician signature" amongst modern male populations tested in "the coastal Lebanese Phoenician Heartland and the broader area of the rest of the Levant (the "Phoenician Periphery")", followed by "Cyprus and South Turkey; then Crete; then Malta and East Sicily; then South Sardinia, Ibiza, and Southern Spain; and, finally, Coastal Tunisia and cities like Tingris in Morocco". (Samples from other areas with significant Phoenician settlements, in Libya and southern France could not be included.) This deliberately sequential sampling represented an attempt to develop a methodology that could link the documented historical expansion of a population, with a particular geographic genetic pattern or patterns. The researchers suggested that the proposed genetic signature stemmed from "a common source of related lineages rooted in Lebanon".^[28]

None of the geographical communities tested, Zalloua pointed out subsequently (2013), carried significantly higher levels of the proposed "Phoenician signature" than the others. This suggested that genetic variation preceded religious variation and divisions and, by the time it became Phoenicia, "Lebanon already had well-differentiated communities with their own genetic peculiarities, but not significant differences, and religions came as layers of paint on top.^[29] Another study found evidence for genetic persistence on the island of Ibiza.^[30]

Economy

Trade

The Phoenicians were among the greatest traders of their time and owed much of their prosperity to trade. At first, they traded mainly with the Greeks, trading wood, slaves, glass and powdered Tyrian purple. Tyrian purple was a violet-purple dye used by the Greek elite to color garments. In fact, the word Phoenician derives from the ancient Greek word phoínios meaning "purple". As trading and colonizing spread over the Mediterranean, Phoenicians and Greeks seemed to have split that sea in two: the Phoenicians sailed along and eventually dominated the southern shore, while the Greeks were active along the northern shores. The two cultures rarely clashed, mainly in Sicily, which eventually settled into two spheres of influence, the Phoenician west and the Greek east.

In the centuries after 1200 BC, the Phoenicians were the major naval and trading power of the region. Phoenician trade was founded on the Tyrian purple dye, a violet-purple dye derived from the shell of the Murex sea-snail, once profusely available in coastal waters of the eastern Mediterranean Sea but exploited to local extinction. James B. Pritchard's excavations at Sarepta in present-day Lebanon revealed crushed Murex shells and pottery containers stained with the dye that was being produced at the site. The Phoenicians established a second production center for the dye in Mogador, in present-day Morocco. Brilliant textiles were a part of Phoenician wealth, and Phoenician glass was another export ware.

To Egypt, where grapevines would not grow, the 8th-century Phoenicians sold wine: the wine trade with Egypt is vividly documented by the shipwrecks located in 1997 in the open sea 50 kilometres (30 mi) west of Ascalon.^[31] Pottery kilns atTyre in South Lebanon and Sarepta produced the big terracotta jars used for transporting wine. From Egypt, the Phoenicians bought Nubian gold. Additionally, great cedar logs were traded with lumber-poor Egypt for significant sums. Sometime between 1075 and 1060 BC an Egyptian envoy by the name of Wen-Amon visited Phoenicia and secured seven great cedar logs in exchange for a mixed cargo including '4 crocks and 1 kak-men of gold; 5 silver jugs; 10 garments of royal linen; 10 kherd of good linen from Upper Egypt; 500 rolls of finished papyrus; 500 cows' hides; 500 ropes; 20 bags of lentils and 30 baskets of fish.' Those logs were then moved by ship from Phoenicia to Egypt.^[32]

From elsewhere, they obtained other materials, perhaps the most important being silver from (at least) Sardinia and the Iberian Peninsula. Tin was required which when smelted with copper from Cyprus created the durable metal alloy bronze. The archaeologist Glenn Markoe suggests that tin "may have been acquired from Galicia by way of the Atlantic coast or southern Spain; alternatively, it may have come from northern Europe (Cornwall or Brittany) via the Rhone valley and coastal Massalia".^[33] Strabo states that there was a highly lucrative Phoenician trade with Britain for tin via the Cassiterides whose location is unknown but may have been off the northwest coast of the Iberian Peninsula.^[34] Professor Timothy Champion, discussing Diodorus Siculus's comments on the tin trade, states that "Diodorus never actually says that the Phoenicians sailed to Cornwall. In fact, he says quite the opposite: the production of Cornish tin was in the hands of the natives of Cornwall, and its transport to the Mediterranean was organised by local merchants, by sea and then over land through France, well outside Phoenician control."^[35] Tarshish (Hebrew: תַּרְשִׁישׁ) occurs in the Hebrew Bible with several uncertain meanings, and one of the most recurring is that Tarshish is a place, probably a city or country, that is far from the Land of Israel by sea where trade occurs with Israel and Phoenicia. It was a place where Phoenicians reportedly obtained different metals, particularly silver, during the reign of Solomon. The Septuagint, the Vulgate and the Targum of Jonathan render Tarshish as Carthage, but other biblical commentators read it as Tartessos perhaps in ancient Hispania (Iberian Peninsula). William.F. Albright (1941) and Frank M. Cross (1972)^[36][37] suggested Tarshish might be or was Sardinia because of the discovery of the Nora Stone and Nora Fragment, the former of which mentions Tarshish in its Phoenician inscription. Christine M. Thompson (2003)^[38] identified a concentration of hacksilver hoards dating between c.1200 and 586 BC in Israel and the Palestinian Territories (Cisjordan). This silver-dominant Cisjordan Corpus is unparalleled in the contemporary Mediterranean, and within it occurs a unique concentration in Phoenicia of silver hoards dated between 1200 and 800 BC. Hacksilber objects in these Phoenician hoards have lead isotope ratios that match ores in Sardinia and Spain.^[27] This metallic evidence agrees with the biblical memory of a western Mediterranean Tarshish that supplied Solomon with silver via Phoenicia. Assyrian records indicate Tarshish was an island, and the poetic construction of Psalm 72 points to its identity as a large island in the west -the island of Sardinia.^[39]

The Phoenicians established commercial outposts throughout the Mediterranean, the most strategically important being Carthage in North Africa, directly across the narrow straits. Ancient Gaelic mythologies attribute a Phoenician/Scythian influx to Ireland by a leader called Fenius Farsa. Others also sailed south along the coast of Africa. A Carthaginian expedition led by Hanno the Navigator explored and colonized the Atlantic coast of Africa as far as the Gulf of Guinea; and according to Herodotus, a Phoenician expedition sent down the Red Sea by pharaoh Necho II of Egypt (c. 600 BC) even circumnavigated Africa and returned through the Pillars of Hercules after three years. Using gold obtained by expansion of the African coastal trade following the Hanno expedition, Carthage minted gold staters in 350 BC bearing a pattern, in the reverse exergue of the coins, which Mark McMenamin has controversially argued could be interpreted as a map. According to McMenamin, the Mediterranean is represented as a rectangle in the centre, a triangle to the right represents India in the east, and an irregular shape on the left represents America to the west.^[40][41]

In the 2nd millennium BC, the Phoenicians traded with the Somalis. Through the Somali city-states of Mosylon, Opone, Malao, Sarapion, Mundus and Tabae, trade flourished.

Phoenician ships

The Greeks had two names for Phoenician ships: hippoi and galloi. Galloi means tubs and hippoi means horses. These names are readily explained by depictions of Phoenician ships in the palaces of Assyrian kings from the 7th and 8th centuries, as the ships in these images are tub shaped (galloi) and have horse heads on the ends of them (hippoi). It is possible that these hippoi come from Phoenician connections with the Greek god Poseidon equated with the Semitic God "Yam".

Depictions

The Tel Balawat gates (850 BC) are found in the palace of Shalmaneser III, an Assyrian king, near Nimrud. They are made of bronze, and they portray ships coming to honor Shalmaneser.^[42][43] The Khorsabad bas-relief (7th century BC) shows the transportation of timber (most likely cedar) from Lebanon. It is found in the palace built specifically for Sargon II, another Assyrian king, at Khorsabad, now northern Iraq.^[44]

Important cities and colonies

From the 10th century BC, the Phoenicians' expansive culture led them to establish cities and colonies throughout the Mediterranean. Canaanite deities like Baal and Astarte were being worshipped from Cyprus to Sardinia, Malta, Sicily, Spain, Portugal, and most notably at Carthage in modern Tunisia.

Culture

Language

The Phoenician alphabet was one of the first (consonantal) alphabets with a strict and consistent form. It is assumed that it adopted its simplified linear characters from an as-yet unattested early pictorial Semitic alphabet developed some centuries earlier in the southern Levant.^[56][57] It is likely that the precursor to the Phoenician alphabet was of Egyptian origin, since Middle Bronze Age alphabets from the southern Levant resemble Egyptian hieroglyphs or an early alphabetic writing system found at Wadi-el-Hol in central Egypt.^[58][59] In addition to being preceded by proto-Canaanite, the Phoenician alphabet was also preceded by an alphabetic script of Mesopotamian origin called Ugaritic. The development of the Phoenician alphabet from the Proto-Canaanite coincided with the rise of the Iron Age in the 11th century BC.^[60]

This alphabet has been termed an abjad — that is, a script that contains no vowels — from the first four letters aleph, beth, gimel, and daleth.

The oldest known representation of the Phoenician alphabet is inscribed on the sarcophagus of King Ahiram of Byblos, dating to the 11th century BC at the latest. Phoenician inscriptions are found in Lebanon, Syria, Israel, Cyprus and other locations, as late as the early centuries of the Christian Era. The Phoenicians are credited with spreading the Phoenician alphabet throughout the Mediterranean world.^[61] Phoenician traders disseminated this writing system along Aegean trade routes, to Crete and Greece. The Greeks adopted the majority of these letters but changed some of them to vowels which were significant in their language, giving rise to the first true alphabet.

The Phoenician language is classified in the Canaanite subgroup of Northwest Semitic. Its later descendant in North Africa is termed Punic. In Phoenician colonies around the western Mediterranean, beginning in the 9th century BC, Phoenician evolved into Punic. Punic Phoenician was still spoken in the 5th century AD: St. Augustine, for example, grew up in North Africa and was familiar with the language.

Art

Phoenician art lacks unique characteristics that might distinguish it from its contemporaries. This is due to its being highly influenced by foreign artistic cultures: primarily Egypt, Greece and Assyria. Phoenicians who were taught on the banks of the Nile and the Euphrates gained a wide artistic experience and finally came to create their own art, which was an amalgam of foreign models and perspectives.^[62] In an article from The New York Times published on January 5, 1879, Phoenician art was described by the following:

He entered into other men's labors and made most of his heritage. The Sphinx of Egypt became Asiatic, and its new form was transplanted to Nineveh on the one side and to Greece on the other. The rosettes and other patterns of the Babylonian cylinders were introduced into the handiwork of Phoenicia, and so passed on to the West, while the hero of the ancient Chaldean epic became first the Tyrian Melkarth, and then the Herakles of Hellas.

Religion

Deities

Attested 1st millennium BC

Attested 2nd millennium BC

Foreign relations

Influence in the Mediterranean region

Phoenician culture had a huge effect upon the cultures of the Mediterranean basin in the early Iron Age, and had been affected by them in turn. For example, in Phoenicia, the tripartite division between Baal, Mot and Yam seems to have influenced the Greek division between Zeus, Hades and Poseidon. The Tartessos region probably embraced the whole southern part of the Iberian Peninsula.^[63] Strab. 3.2.11). In various Mediterranean ports during the classical period, Phoenician temples sacred to Melkart were recognized as sacred to Greek Hercules. Stories like the Rape of Europa, and the coming of Cadmus also draw upon Phoenician influence.

The recovery of the Mediterranean economy after the late Bronze Age collapse (ca. 1200 BC) seems to have been largely due to the work of Phoenician traders and merchant princes, who re-established long distance trade between Egypt and Mesopotamia in the 10th century BC.

There are many countries and cities around the Mediterranean region that derive their names from the Phoenician Language. Below is a list with the respective meanings:

• Altiburus: City in Algeria, SW of Carthage. From Phoenician: "Iltabrush"
• Bosa: City in Sardinia: From Phoenician "Bis'en"
• Cádiz: City in Spain: From Phoenician "Gadir"
• Dhali (Idalion): City in Central Cyprus: From Phoenician "Idyal"
• Erice: City in Sicily: From Phoenician "Eryx"
• Malta: Island in the Mediterranean: From Phoenician "Malat" ('refuge')
• Marion: City in West Cyprus: From Phoenician "Aymar"
• Oed Dekri: City in Algeria: From Phoenician: "Idiqra"
• Spain: From Phoenician: "I-Shaphan", meaning "Land of Hyraxes". Later Latinized as "Hispania"
• Carthage: City in Tunisia: From Phoenician "Qart Hadašt" meaning "New City",
• Cartagena: City in Spain (Greek Νέα Καρχηδόνα; Latin Carthago Nova; Spanish Cartagena) A colony of Carthage, which also gave rise to Cartagena, Colombia.

Relations with the Greeks

Trade

Towards the end of the Bronze Age (around 1200 BC) there was trade between the Canaanites (early Phoenicians), Egypt, Cyprus, and Greece. In a shipwreck found off of the coast of Turkey, the Ulu Bulurun wreck, Canaanite storage pottery along with pottery from Cyprus and Greece was found. The Phoenicians were famous metalworkers, and by the end of the 8th century BC, Greek city-states were sending out envoys to the Levant (the eastern Mediterranean) for metal goods.^[64]

The height of Phoenician trade was around the 7th and 8th centuries. There is a dispersal of imports (ceramic, stone, and faience) from the Levant that traces a Phoenician commercial channel to the Greek mainland via the central Aegean.^[64] Athens shows little evidence of this trade with few eastern imports, but other Greek coastal cities are rich with eastern imports that evidence this trade.^[65]

Al Mina is a specific example of the trade that took place between the Greeks and the Phoenicians.^[66] It has been theorized that by the 8th century BC, Euboean traders established a commercial enterprise with the Levantine coast and were using Al Mina (in Syria) as a base for this enterprise. There is still some question about the veracity of these claims concerning Al Mina.^[65] The Phoenicians even got their name from the Greeks due to their trade. Their most famous trading product was purple dye, the Greek word for which is phoenos.^[67]

Alphabet

The Phoenician phonetic alphabet was adopted and modified by the Greeks probably at the 8th century BC (around the time of the hippoi depictions). This most likely did not come from a single instance but from a culmination of commercial exchange.^[67] This means that before the 8th century, there was a relationship between the Greeks and the Phoenicians. Though there is no evidence to support the suggestion, it is probable that during this period there was also a passing of religious ideas. The legendary Phoenician hero Cadmus is credited with bringing the alphabet to Greece, but it is more plausible that it was brought by Phoenician emigrants to Crete,^[68] whence it gradually diffused northwards.

Connections with Greek mythology

In both Phoenician and Greek mythologies, Kadmos is a Phoenician prince, the son of Agenor, the king of Tyre in South Lebanon. Herodotus credits Kadmos for bringing the Phoenician alphabet to Greece^[69] approximately sixteen hundred years before Herodotus' time, or around 2000 BC,^[70] as he attested:

So these Phoenicians, including the Gephyraians, came with Kadmos and settled this land, and they transmitted much lore to the Hellenes, and in particular, taught them the alphabet which, I believe the Hellenes did not have previously, but which was originally used by all Phoenicians.^[71]

Due to the number of deities similar to the "Lord of the Sea" in classical mythology, there have been many difficulties attributing one specific name to the sea deity or the "Poseidon–Neptune" figure of Phoenician religion. This figure of "Poseidon-Neptune" is mentioned by authors and in various inscriptions as being very important to merchants and sailors,^[72] but a singular name has yet to be found. There are, however, names for sea gods from individual city-states. Yamm is the god of the sea of Ugarit, an ancient city-state north to Phoenicia. Yamm and Baal, the storm god of Ugaritic myth and often associated with Zeus, have an epic battle for power over the universe. While Yamm is the god of the sea, he truly represents vast chaos.^[73] Baal, on the other hand, is a representative for order. In Ugaritic myth, Baal overcomes Yamm's power. In some versions of this myth, Baal kills Yamm with a mace fashioned for him, and in others, the goddess Athtart saves Yamm and says that since defeated, he should stay in his own province. Yamm is the brother of the god of death, Mot.^[74] Some scholars have identified Yamm with Poseidon, although he has also been identified with Pontus.^[75]

Plato

In his Republic, Greek philosopher Plato contends that the love of money is a tendency of the soul found amongst Phoenicians and Egyptians, which distinguishes them from the Greeks who tend towards the love of knowledge.^[76] In his Laws, he asserts that this love of money has led the Phoenicians and Egyptians to develop skills in cunning and trickery (πανουργία) rather than wisdom (σοφία).^[77]

In his Histories, Herodotus gives the Persian and Greek accounts of a series of kidnappings that led to the Trojan War. While docked at a trading port in Argos, the Phoenicians kidnapped a group of Greek women including King Idacus's daughter, Io. The Greeks then retaliated by kidnapping Europa, a Phoenician, and later Medea. The Greeks refused to compensate the Phoenicians for the additional abduction, a fact which Paris used a generation later to justify the abduction of Helen from Argos. The Greeks then retaliated by waging war against Troy. After Troy's fall the Persians considered the Greeks to be their enemy.^[78]

Ancient sources

In the Bible

Hiram (also spelled Huran), the king of Tyre, is associated with the building of Solomon's temple.

1 Kings 5:1 says: "Hiram king of Tyre sent his servants to Solomon; for he had heard that they had anointed him king in the place of his father: for Hiram was ever a lover of David." 2 Chronicles 2:14 says: "The son of a woman of the daughters of Dan, and his father [was] a man of Tyre, skillful to work in gold, silver, brass, iron, stone, timber, royal purple (from the Murex), blue, and in crimson, and fine linens; also to grave any manner of graving, and to find out every device which shall be put to him ..."

This is the architect of the Temple, Hiram Abiff of Masonic lore.

Later, reforming prophets railed against the practice of drawing royal wives from among foreigners: Elijah execrated Jezebel, the princess from Tyre in South Lebanon who became a consort of King Ahab and introduced the worship of her god Baal.

Long after Phoenician culture flourished, or Phoenicia existed as a political entity, Hellenized natives of the region where Canaanites still lived were referred to as "Syro-Phoenicians", as in the Gospel of Mark 7:26: "The woman was a Greek, a Syro-phoenician by birth".

The word Bible itself derives from Greek biblion, which means "book" and either derives from, or is the (perhaps ultimately Egyptian) origin of Byblos, the Greek name of the Phoenician city Gebal.^[79]

Legacy

The legacy of the Phoenicians are many and varied and include:

• The spread of the alphabet throughout the Mediterranean extended literacy beyond a narrow caste of hierarchical priests.
• They re-opened the trade routes in the Eastern Mediterranean that connected the Egyptian and Mesopotamian civilizations after the long hiatus of the Bronze Age collapse recovered, beginning the "Orientalising" trend later seen in Greek art.
• They invented a more democratic and flatter oligarchic social structure than any people prior to the Athenian revolution, and in this were an inspiration to Greek constitutional government.
• They pioneered the development of multi-tiered oared shipping throughout the Mediterranean region, being the first people exploring beyond the Straits of Gibraltar.
• They were the first Eastern Mediterranean people to colonise the Western Mediterranean in any significant way (The Shardana may have preceded them in Sardinia), opening up urban development and trade in this region.
• Greeks, Etruscans, and Romans freely admitted what they owed to the Phoenicians, and Phoenician influence can be traced in the Iberian and Celtic worlds from the 8th century onwards.
• It is possible that Zeno of Citium, the founder of Stoicism, was of Phoenician heritage. Diogenes Laërtius writes that Crates once chastised Zeno, crying out, "Why run away, my little Phoenician?"^[80]

See also

References

Sources

• Assyria: Khorsabad (Room10c). http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/galleries/middle_east/room_10c_assyria_khorsabad.aspx. (2 May 2009
• Boardman, J. 1964. The Greeks Overseas. London: Thames and Hudson Limited
• Bondi, S. F. 1988. "The Course of History." In The Phoenicians, edited by Sabatino Moscati, 38–45. Milan: Gruppo Editoriale Fabbri.
• Cunliffe, B. 2008. Europe Between the Oceans; 9000 BC-AD 1000. New Haven: Yale University Press.
• Elayi, J. 2013. Histoire de la Phénicie. Paris: Perrin
• Gordon, C. H. 1966. Ugarit and Minoan Crete. New York: W.W. Norton & Company
• Habel, N.C. 1964. Yahweh Versus Baal: A Conflict of Religious Cultures. New York: Bookman Associates
• Heard, C. Yahwism and Baalism in Israel & Judah (3 May 2009).
• Herodotus. 440 BC. The Histories. Translated by Andrea L. Purvis. New York: Pantheon Books
• Homer. 6th century BC (perhaps 700 BC). The Odyssey. Translated by Stanley Lombardo. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company.
• Markoe, G. E. 2000. Peoples of the Past: Phoenicians. Los Angeles: University of California Press
• Mikalson, J.D. 2005. Ancient Greek Religion. Malden: Blackwell publishing
• Moscati, S. 1965. The World of the Phoenicians. New York: Frederick A. Praeger, Inc., Publishers
• Ovid. 1st century AD. Metamorphoses. Translated by Rolfe Humphries. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
• Rawlinson, George, 1989, "History of Phoenicia"; Google Archives
• Ribichini, S. 1988. "Beliefs and Religious Life." In The Phoenicians, edited by Sabatino Moscati, 104–125. Milan: Gruppo Editoriale Fabbri.
• Ringgren, H. 1917. Religions of the Ancient Near East. Philadelphia: The Westminster Press
• 1999. Canaan and Ancient Israel. http://www.museum.upenn.edu/Canaan/index.html
• Urquhart, David, "Mount Lebanon"; Google Archives

Further reading

Library resources about Phoenicia

Online books Resources in your library Resources in other libraries

• Carayon, Nicolas, Les ports phéniciens et puniques, PhD Thesis, 2008, Strasbourg, France.
• Aubet, Maria Eugenia, The Phoenicians and the West: Politics, Colonies and Trade, tr. Mary Turton (Bryn Mawr Classical Review, 2001: review)
• The History of Phoenicia, first published in 1889 by George Rawlinson is available under Project Gutenberg at: http://digital.library.upenn.edu/webbin/gutbook/lookup?num=2331 Rawlinson's 19th-century text needs updating for modern improvements in historical understanding.
• Todd, Malcolm; Andrew Fleming (1987). The South West to AD 1,000 (Regional history of England series No.:8). Harlow, Essex: Longman. ISBN 0-582-49274-2. , for a critical examination of the evidence of Phoenician trade with the South West of the U.K.
• Markoe, Glenn (2000). Phoenicians. University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-22613-5. 
• Thiollet, Jean-Pierre, Je m'appelle Byblos, foreword by Guy Gay-Para, H & D, Paris, 2005. ISBN 2-914266-04-9
• Cerqueiro, Daniel. 2002. Las Naves de Tarshis o quiénes fueron los Fenicios. Buenos Aires: Ed.Peq. Venecia. ISBN 987-9239-13-X

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Phoenicia.

Look up phoenicia in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

•  "Phœnicia". The New Student's Reference Work. 1914. 
•  Gabriel Oussani (1913). "Phœnicia". Catholic Encyclopedia. 
• BBC Radio4 – In Our Time: The Phonecians (audio archive)
• The quest for the Phoenicians in South Lebanon
• The Phoenician Ship Expedition
• Phoenician Encyclopedic reference: Timeline, Illustrations, Articles
• Phoenician Alphabet

Ancient Syria and Mesopotamia Syria Northern Mesopotamia Southern Mesopotamia c. 3500–2350 BCE Martu Subartu Sumerian city-states c. 2350–2200 BCE Akkadian Empire c. 2200–2100 BCE Gutians c. 2100–2000 BCE Third Dynasty of Ur (Sumerian Renaissance) c. 2000–1800 BCE Mari and other Amorite city-states Old Assyrian Empire (Northern Akkadians) Isin/Larsa and other Amorite city-states c. 1800–1600 BCE Old Hittite Kingdom Old Babylonian Empire (Southern Akkadians) c. 1600–1400 BCE Mitanni (Hurrians) Karduniaš (Kassites) c. 1400–1200 BCE New Hittite Kingdom Middle Assyrian Empire c. 1200–1150 BCE Bronze Age collapse ("Sea Peoples") Arameans c. 1150–911 BCE Phoenicia Syro-Hittite states Aram- Damascus Arameans Middle Babylonia (Isin II) Chal de- ans 911–729 BCE Neo-Assyrian Empire 729–609 BCE 626–539 BCE Neo-Babylonian Empire (Chaldeans) 539–331 BCE Achaemenid Empire (Persians) 336–301 BCE Macedonian Empire (Ancient Greeks) 311–129 BCE Seleucid Empire 129–63 BCE Seleucid Empire Parthian Empire (Iranians) 63 BCE–243 CE Roman Empire/Byzantine Empire (Syria) 243–636 CE Sasanian Empire (Persians)

Phoenician cities and colonies Algeria Cirta Malaca Igigili Hippo Regius Icosium Iol Tipasa Timgad Cyprus Kition Dhali Marion Greece Callista Italy Karalis Lilybaeum Motya Neapolis Nora Olbia Panormus Solki Soluntum Tharros Lebanon Amia Ampi Arqa Baalbek Berut Botrys Gebal Sarepta Sur Sydon Tripolis Libya Leptis Magna Oea Sabratha Malta Gozo Għajn Qajjet Imtarfa Maleth Ras il-Wardija Tas-Silġ Mauritania / Morocco Cerne  /  Arambys Caricus Murus Chellah Lixus Tingis Israel Achziv Acre Arsuf Caesarea Portugal Olissipona Ossonoba Spain Abdera Abyla Akra Leuke Gadir Herna Ibossim Sa Caleta, Ibiza Mahón Malaca Onoba Qart Hadašt Rusadir Sexi Tyreche Syria Amrit Arwad Safita Shuksi Ugarit Tunisia Carthage Hadrumetum Hippo Diarrhytus Kelibia Kerkouane Leptis Parva Sicca Thanae Thapsus Utica Turkey / others Myriandrus Phoenicus  /  Gibraltar

Empires Ancient Akkadian Egyptian Hittite Carthaginian Phoenician Assyrian Babylonian Kushite Aksumite Hittite Iranian Median Achaemenid Parthian Sasanian Kushan Tuoba Hellenistic Macedon Ptolemaic Seleucid Indian Nanda Maurya Satavahana Shunga Gupta Harsha Chinese Qin Han Jin Roman Western Eastern Teotihuacan Xianbei Xiongnu Medieval Byzantine Nicaea Trebizond Georgian Hunnic Arab Rashidun Umayyad Abbasid Fatimid Córdoban Ayyubid Moroccan Idrisid Almoravid Almohad Marinid Iranian Tahirid Samanid Buyid Sallarid Ziyarid Turko-Persian Ghaznavid Great Seljuk Khwarezmian Timurid Somali Ajuran Ifatite Adalite Mogadishan Warsangali Bulgarian First Second Aragonese Benin Latin Oyo Bornu Indian Chola Gurjara-Pratihara Pala Eastern Ganga dynasty Delhi Mongol Yuan Golden Horde Chagatai Khanate Ilkhanate Kanem Serbian Songhai Khmer Carolingian Holy Roman North Sea Norwegian Angevin Mali Chinese Sui Tang Song Yuan Wagadou Aztec Inca Srivijaya Majapahit Malaccan Bruneian Ethiopian Zagwe Solomonic Tibetan Modern Tongan Ashanti Indian Maratha Sikh Mughal British Raj Chinese Ming Qing Yuan Shikai Turkish Ottoman Karaman Ramazan Iranian Safavid Afsharid Zand Qajar Pahlavi Moroccan Saadi Alaouite Ethiopian Somali Gobroon Majeerteen Hobyo Dervish French First Second Austrian Austro-Hungarian German Second Reich Third Reich Russian Swedish Mexican First Second Brazilian Korean Japanese Haitian First Second Central African Colonial American Belgian British English Danish Dutch French German Italian Japanese Norwegian Portuguese Spanish Swedish Lists Empires largest ancient great powers medieval great powers modern great powers

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