St. Clement of Alexandria (c.150-c.215) confirms in "The Stromata" that the origin of the arts and philosophy were from non-Greek cultures such as Phoenician, Carthaginian, Thracian, Egyptian, Etruscan, Persian...etc. |
In the first part of this essay I am endeavouring to prove that which, in
reading for this subject I found to be taken for granted in many books1
on the history and religion of ancient Greece: that in the 9th to 6th centuries,
well documented objects such as votive offerings were not all that was transported
to Greece from Phoenicia and other Near Eastern countries. Ideas were transported
too.
To argue the case for Phoenician influence on, and traits in, Greek religion,
the Greek relationship with these peoples of the Levant must first be established.
Furthermore, the following questions need to be addressed: who were the Phoenicians
and when and where was contact made? What influenced these people who influenced
the Greeks? And what practices of the Greeks merely paralleled those of the
Phoenicians, hinting at the possibility of even earlier contact? The last
of these questions leads into a grey area as it is often impossible to tell
for certain that which merely parallels, from that which is actually affected
by foreign influences.
The Phoenicians were Semitic peoples who came from the Levant. Their main
cities were Sidon, Tyre and Byblos2 In the
first millennium, they lived along a 200 km3
stretch of coastline, backing onto the mountains of Lebanon. In the 8th and
7th centuries land constrictions imposed on their homeland by others forced
them to venture overseas,4 a necessity which
they turned to their advantage, becoming formidable traders dealing in dyes,
wood, glass, metalwork and ivory. Their culture was heavily influenced by
that of their neighbours, specifically the Assyrians, Hittites and Egyptians.
The last of these great empires to fall, Assyria, was their eventual Levantine
downfall, with the monarchy of the great naval empire of Tyre5
being the last Phoenicians to flee to the islands. The new Phoenician settlements
were often little more than ports or enclaves and are found firstly on the
Aegean islands6 and then around the southern
shores of the Mediterranean, while some of the last were situated on Sicily7
and in Spain.
There was interaction between the Near East and many of the main islands
in the second millennium, the Minoans and Mycenaeans both being strong naval
powers. There was a subsequent loss of contact between the Aegean, Cyprus
and the Syro-Palestine area because of the collapses caused by the Sea Peoples.8
However, archaeological finds, such as those found on some of the islands,
indicate that communication was re-established quite quickly. Some of the
first Greek sailors of whom we have knowledge are the Euboeans. This is confirmed
by finds of Oriental wares in Euboeans graves of the 10th and 9th centuries,
and in grave finds of their immediate neighbours.9
In the early first millennium, Phoenician merchants still dominated the markets
in areas where otherwise their influence had declined, but they were forced
into a mixture of co-operation and competition as local dynasts began to encourage
others to their ports. The two main Near Eastern centres that the Greeks visited
were Tell Sukas and Al Mina.10 This latter
has a confirmed Greek presence from the second half of the 8th century, and
here was a likely place for an early cross-fertilisation of ideas.11
In the 8th century there is also evidence of Phoenicians and Greeks intermixing
in the West at the Euboean colony of Pithecusae. Crete was another main area
of interaction as North Syrian craftsmen were resident here.12
Itanos was traditionally settled by Phoenicians13
and here is found the shrine of Kommos.14 The
mixed population of Crete was known in the Greek world for its legal arbitrators
both in the contemporary period and in myth. (Cretan Minos was a mythical
son of Zeus and Europa,15 and also one of the
judges of the dead.) The Cretans even had an office of rememberancer known
as the poinkastos who, in exchange for privileges, was responsible
for remembering all the city's laws, both sacral and secular.
To discover who influenced the Phoenicians, we must go back to the second
millennium. The Aegean Mycenaeans had a minor influence,16
but the main influences came from the Hittites and Egyptians, both of whom
were dominant in the Levant. It was mainly features from the surviving Egyptian
empire that crept into Phoenician religion, with some identifications being
made between Egyptian and Phoenician gods.17
Egyptian influences can be seen at Beth Shou, Lachish, in Crete at Kition
where a Bes plaque was discovered in one of the temples, and also at Kommos,
where statuettes were found of Sekhmet and Nefertum. The Egyptian influence
eventually gave way to that of Assyria, a rising power in the region from
the 8th century. Other Semitic cultures with which the Phoenicians intermixed
and married - Jews, Assyrians, Egyptians and Babylonians - all added something
to the Phoenician religion. Of these peoples, only the Jews kept a distance,18
retaining their own traditions while probably adding something to the religious
practice of the Phoenicians.
Addressing the question of connections between the pantheons of Phoenicia,
the Near East and Greece one must look at mythology and written documentation
in use at the time. Greek evidence is harder to assess as a written language
was only reintroduced during the Orientalising period. The decipherment of
Linear B19 does give some clues as to the persona
of earlier Greek gods, some of whom are identified in the works of Homer thus
showing at least some continuity between Mycenaean and Archaic Greek religion.
Cyprus, Crete, the islands, Anatolia and Greece were all accessible, and ideas
and religious practices could well have flowed freely between these areas.
Early myths may have been introduced, with the gods of one religion becoming
the demons and legendary monsters of the other, particularly given the breakdown
in contact between the various cultures at the end of the Bronze Age.
The cities of Phoenicia had their own local pantheons as can be seen from
decipherment of the Ugaritic text. The gods mentioned, El, Dagon and Anat,
seem to disappear in the first millennium, to be replaced by Melqart, Eshmun20
and Reshef, gods with whom the Greeks made identifications. The gods were
now paired,21 though in areas where there
was contact with Greeks, some shrines still show a triad of deities. The
pairing
of gods can be seen at Byblos with Baal Shamen and Baalat Gebal, �lady of
the beasts," and at Sidon with the pairing of Astarte and Eshmun. Another
god, Melqart the son of Astarte-Asteria, is also worshipped at Byblos as
well
as at his temple in Tyre.
The diffusion of Oriental wares
through the ports of northern Syria - especially the port of Poseide�on,23 where Greeks and Near
Easterners met - played a major role in bringing about the mix of Hittite
and Mesopotamian mythology found in Greek religion. Phoenicians were the dominant
traders at this time and this land had once been heavily influenced by them.
Their own myths were in turn heavily influenced by their neighbours, although
they also carried with them practices which originated in their homeland.
The spread of tales to their trading partners and rivals would have been through
spoken word, as literacy was not widespread.
The following section looks
at the Greek myths - especially those recorded in the work of Hesiod
- that parallel those found in the Near East, and in
particular the texts found at the old Hittite capital of Hattusas. We will
first look at the gods of Hesiod"s Theogony, followed by the aspects
of sacred stones, serpents and monsters, and finish with cultural heroes.
Hesiod"s Theogony parallels much of the creation myth of the Near East �Kingship
in Heaven"24 as found in the Hittite
library of Hattusas. The Kumarbi tale shows up in a Hittite text that predates
Hesiod
by some 500 years. Hesiod"s Theogony follows the sequence so closely
that borrowing almost certainly took place and thus this aspect of Greek
myth shows
aspects of Babylonian, Hittite, Hurrian and Canaanite mythology. This borrowing
must either have occurred in the Bronze Age or some time later and been lifted
either directly from the Hittites or through the neo-Hittite states of Syria.
The creation myth follows these lines: the first god is sometimes known as
Alalu, but does not appear in the Greek tale, Heaven Anu/Uranus is castrated
by Kumarbi/Kronos.25 Kumarbi/Kronos rules
for a number of years and sires three sons. He swallows his offspring, who
include
a storm god and a god of waters, but in the case of the storm god he is tricked
into swallowing a stone instead. The storm god eventually overthrows Kumarbi
who, in the �Song of Ullikumi," attempts to gain revenge.
Pillars
and Stones: The worship of stone bears
direct comparison with the worship of pillars,26
a distinctively Phoenician practice which nonetheless has some parallels with
early Mycenaean tree and pillar cults as well as a relationship with the obelisks
of Egypt. Here it becomes virtually impossible to differentiate between true
Phoenician practices and those of their neighbours, as is demonstrated by
the following myths.
In Greek legend, Kronos swallowed his offspring with the exception of Zeus,
for whom a stone was substituted. The infant Zeus was then raised on the island
of Crete where his cries were masked by warriors, the Kouretes, clashing their
shields.27 Zeus then challenged his father
and made him regurgitate his brothers along with the stone that was his substitute.
On Crete, the stone itself is worshipped and a sacred stone was likewise worshipped
at Delphi.28 The story runs along the same
lines as the Kumarbi myths mentioned overleaf, where the storm god overthrows
his father, who was also given a stone to swallow in place of his son. The
Near Eastern myth does not end here, as the stone takes on a power of its
own as a result of having been within the body of a god. In the Song of Ullikummi,
Kumarbi"s attempts to overthrow the weather god are assisted by his
nurturing of the stone. It grows rapidly on the shoulder of a Titan figure,
the god
Upelluri, who is identified with the Greek Atlas. Ullikummi, the giant child
of earth, makes war on the storm god, daring to approach the very gates of
heaven, a feature seen also in the story of Typhon. At this point, it is
worth
mentioning that to the Greek mind, almost every demon was born of earth and
as such represented an old order.29
Serpents: The snake is a recurring emblem in Semitic myth. Gilgamesh himself
is robbed of his immortality by one, just as man"s fall from grace is attributed
to a serpent in Hebrew myth. This latter has shades of Heracles" search
for the apples of Hesperides which, like the fruit in the Garden of Eden,
were
guarded by a serpent. With the exception of the Hebrew, snakes and serpents
are often dual-aspected in Semitic myth,30
having both a beneficial and harmful aspect. Similarly, by watching snakes,
one mythical Greek healer learnt how to resurrect the dead. The cult of Asclepius
is associated with snakes; his emblem, the Caduceus, was a pair of snakes
wound around a staff; and furthermore one of his cult images was a live snake.
On Crete, the ancient snake goddess is identified with Aphrodite-Pandemos.
In Egypt, Isis uses a snake to gain knowledge from Ra, whose great enemy is
the serpent Apep. The Egyptian god of knowledge, Thoth, whom the Greeks identified
with Hermes, also carried a Caduceus.
In Greece, the serpent was particularly associated with the worship of earth
deities. It was an emblem of the old Chthonic practices, which centred on
the cycle of rebirth and resurrection, as represented by the snake shedding
its skin. Both Greek and Near Eastern myth often portray serpents as monstrous
sons and daughters of the earth; which must be defeated as they rise up and
challenge the ruling god. Combat against this creature represented a fight
between the old world and the new, although this very aspect also saw it celebrated
as a symbol of the New Year. At Delphi, Apollo fought and slew the serpent
Pytho in much the same way as the Babylonian god Marduk fought the mother
of monsters, the serpent Tiamat. There are further Eastern parallels here,
with the combat of Greek Zeus and Typhon,31
and Babylonian Ninurta and Anzu. The Zeus-Typhon myth parallels that of the
Ullikumi myth mentioned above, even to the site of the fight, mount Casius.
The central myth is of a god fighting against a serpent; either an earth goddess
and consort, or son or daughter of the Earth Goddess. The god eventually successfully
slays the serpent where others have tried and failed. In some cases the god
first suffers defeat by the serpent and then is aided by another, such as
his son.32 The death of the monster is often
brought about by an arrow, hence one of the identifications with Apollo. Hittite
myth also celebrates the slaying of the dragon. Heroes had a tendency to fight
serpents and Heracles very first act was to strangle two snakes sent against
him by the goddess Hera. He also, with a companion, fought and defeated the
Hydra, a seven-headed creature of the earth and child of Typhon and Echidna.
A similar creature also appears in Semitic literature dating from the Bronze
Age.
Monsters:
Some mythological creatures were shared by the Near East and the Greek world,
notably Lamia, Lamashtu, the Gorgon and Gello.33
Some of these bogeys were slain by heroes, but others could only be warded
off and Eastern charms for this purpose have been found in Greek graves. Lamia
is a popular figure of horror, yet there is no undisputed Greek representation
of her. She resembles the demoness Lamashtu who steals children from their
mother's womb and is a deity whom pregnant women must ward off. In Greek myth,
Lamia becomes the daughter of the Phoenician Belos,34 who
in Eastern myth was cursed by Ishtar. There is a depiction of her in profile,
naked with dangling breasts and a lion's head, almost as a mistress of animals.
Here she resembles the Greek Gorgon, Medusa, who is shown en face, but also
with dangling breasts. Some of the earliest artist"s impressions of
Gorgons come from Cyprus where she is depicted being slain by Perseus, who
is hacking
off her snake-haired head. Here there are clear parallels with the slaying
of Humbaba by Gilgamesh. The last of these monsters, Gello, is mentioned
in
the works of Sappho; she bears resemblance to the Sumerian-Akkadian evil
spirit Gallu.
Cultural Heroes and DemiGods:
There are decided similarities between Near Eastern Ninurta and Gilgamesh,
and the Greek heroes Achilles, Diomedes, Perseus35 and
Heracles. All are cultural heroes involved in great events, whose actions
represent the overcoming of major obstacles or foes. In Near Eastern myth,
Ninurta undertook 12 labours, the same number as Heracles. Gilgamesh and
Achilles
both have a goddess for a mother who aids them in time of need, and are also
connected with humankind"s inability to attain immortality. Another parallel
appears where they both speak with the ghost of their dead best friend, but
hereafter the two heroes" paths diverge. Gilgamesh is a warrior-priest, who
more closely parallels Heracles than Achilles, being a great hero credited
with far more than his actions at the siege of Troy alone. Gilgamesh even
rebukes the goddess Ishtar, and this too is captured in the Iliad with Diomedes" wounding
of Aphrodite. Heracles, however, has a more direct relationship with the
Near East in his identification with the god Melqart, whose centre of
worship was Tyre.36 This identification means
there was a cult of Heracles going back 2300 years, predating his existence
in the Greek world. In their separate myths both gods fought a lion. Further
reason for identification occurs during the gods" annual festival just
before Spring, around February or March, which involved ritual cremation
symbolising
the god resurrected phoenix-like through fire, as was Heracles who attained
his immortality on his funeral pyre.37 Whenever
a new colony was founded, a temple of Melqart was built,38
a practice paralleled in Greece. Heracles is also found in the Roman world
as Hercules. This may just have been the Roman adoption of the Greek demigod
or it may imply some direct Phoenician influences, as Oriental goods from
this period have also been found in Italy.
The House of Kadmus:39
Kadmos and his family seem to be associated intimately with the East and almost
all things Phoenician. The first myth is that of his father Agenor, also the
father of Phoinix, the father of the Phoenicians. Phoinix was the brother
of Syros, Cilix, Cadmus and Europa. Europa was the mother of the Kings of
Crete, while Syros is credited with founding Syria, Cadmus with Thebes, and
Cilix with Cilicia. There is an Oriental flavour to many Greek myths, and
many of their origins were assumed to have been Phoenician, probably because
it was Phoenicians who introduced them. A connection was made between Crete
and Phoenicia by making Minos a son of Europa. Rhodes was also drawn into
the picture by a myth describing that Kadmos40
making a dedication to Athena here. There was also a hereditary line of Phoenician
priests of Poseidon at Ialysos.41
The subject of another pertinent Greek myth is the mermaid Leukothea,42
the White Goddess. Originally a mortal daughter of Kadmos, she came to be
identified with the Syrian fish goddess Atargatis. Leukothea acted as nursemaid
to the young god Dionysus, her sister's son and the grandson of Kadmos. Frustratingly,
despite the many myths associated with Kadmos, and the early Phoenician presence
in Greece these imply, there is no archaeological evidence to back it up.43
The
Gods: The Oriental influences seen in the gods and goddesses
worshipped in Greece
This section deals with the Greek gods and notes discrepancies between the
writings of Homer and Hesiod as to the Greek pantheon. Complicating matters
further, prior to these writings there was no fixed number to the Greek deities44
and foreign divinities could easily be integrated and worshipped among the
greater Greek gods. Local deities, too, were soon assimilated, hence the many
epithets under which some Greek deities were worshipped.
This section traces the most Oriental goddess Aphrodite and her companion
god, and then describes Near Eastern traits seen in the worship of other Greek
gods and goddesses. It continues with a description of practices where comparisons
and identifications can be made, and finishes with a summary of these practices
as seen by the Greeks.
Aphrodite:45 Aphrodite"s
un-Hellenic character is ascribed to the Phoenicians and thus she is the
easiest to identify with her Eastern counterparts. The fully formed
goddess was probably a relatively late arrival to the Greek pantheon. She
is the Greek version of the Near Eastern Great Love Goddess who can be
identified
with the following: Anaea, Anaitis, Anath,46Aneitis,
Ashera, Ashtart,47 Ashtoret, Ashtorith, Astarte,
Atargatis, Hathor,48 Innana, Ishtar, Kilili,49
Kybele, Nanaea and Tanais.50 In these forms,
she was worshipped in Armenia, Assyria, Cappadocia, Egypt, the Levant and
Persia. Not all the goddesses bore direct comparison and there were blendings
with the worship of Artemis, Demeter, Rhea and Cybele. Anaitis was identified
with Artemis" fertility aspect and Anataea is found as a surname of
Demeter, Rhea and Cybele. An early cult site to Aphrodite was Paphos,51 which
also at some point in its history was a cult site to Astarte. The identification
of the two goddesses allowed the cult site to be taken over by different
peoples
who merely changed the name of the goddess to whom they offered worship.
There was a further similarity between the cults of Aphrodite and Astarte
in the
sacrifice of doves to both goddesses. Aphrodite"s Greek cult appears
on Cyprus52 and she is called the �Cyprian".53 One myth
sees her washed up in the foam on the shores near Paphos, while one of her
epithets is aphrogena �foam born". Aphrodite was also known as
Ourania 54 �queen of heaven" or �Heavenly One";
this is a title of Ishtar, the Heavenly One being an all-encompassing goddess
of the population.
As an all-embracing goddess, Aphrodite was worshipped under the name of pandemus.55
The title Ourania also associates her with Uranus, the emasculated god of
heaven who in one of her birth myths is seen as her father. This myth has
her born from semen from the castrated member Uranus from when it hits the
sea and there is a depiction of a bearded Aphrodite emerging from a scrotal
sac.56 This leads to a connection with another
of her titles, Philomedes, meaning genital-loving, appropriate to a
deity of sexual union. There is also a bearded Ishtar and Astarte, and the
goddesses have an androgynous aspect. Homer took on board the Eastern mythology
of Anu and his wife as being parents of the Love Goddess, making Zeus and
Dione the parents of Aphrodite, where Dione is the feminine form of Zeus.
A further myth makes Persephone a sister of Aphrodite by this same parentage.
Zeus was worshipped together with a goddess Dione at Dodona.57
In the Iliad,58 Aphrodite supports the Trojans
and she is the mother of Aeneas. In order to save his life she even takes
the battlefield, as would Ishtar or Inanna. Homer, though, has little respect
for Aphrodite"s fighting prowess and she cuts a poor fighting figure
who as a result is wounded by Diomedes.59 The Greeks
condensed the love and war goddess into one goddess of love, with the aspects
of love accentuated and those of war diminished. Needless to say, an armed60 Aphrodite
may still bestow victory, as may Ishtar. Disasters inevitably befell the
mortal and immortal lovers of the Love Goddess, and Aphrodite"s lovers,
such as Anchises, were no exception. In Near Eastern myth, this is why Gilgamesh
refuses the love of Ishtar, who complains to her father. Ishtar"s companion
god is Dumuzi, while Inanna has Tammuz; Kybele, Attis; and Aphrodite, Adonis.
Death and rebirth are associated with these gods, who often have vegetation
aspects to their characters. In Greece, the major vegetation fertility rites
were held to Demeter, Persephone and to a lesser extent, Dionysus/Zagreus.
Demeter takes the role of the Eastern fertility/earth61
goddesses Ishtar and Inanna, who are usually equated with Aphrodite, while
the role of the companion god is taken by Persephone. Another variant on myth
has Ishtar descending to hell to supplant her sister Erishkegal as queen of
the dead, equating with the previously mentioned Zeus Dione parentage of Persephone
and Aphrodite.
Adonis:
Adonis is a young fertility god who represents death and rebirth in an oriental
vegetation cult; he parallels the Eastern companion god62
Dumuzi/Tammuz and the Hittite Telipinu. He is a Semitic immigrant to the Greek
pantheon and is therefore not counted among the greater gods. His cult was
established in Greece by 600 BC and his worship was known to Sappho and her
circle.63 Adon is the Semitic word
for master or �lord" and i means �my", therefore Adonis translates as �my
lord"; similarly the meaning of Baal, with whom he shares traits, is also
�lord" or �master".64 Adonis has two origins:
Cyprus and Byblos. On Cyprus,65 his father
is either Cinyras of Paphos or Pygmalion. At Byblos, it is Phoinix, father
of the Phoenicians. Paphos sees him linked to the goddess Aphrodite, with
whom a tie has already been established. The worship of Adonis, a cult especially
popular with women, was celebrated on flat roof tops by the planting of plants
and the offering of incenses. It also involved lamentations for the dead god.
The incense and wailing of women are identical practices to those found in
Baal worship. In Greece, much of his role is fulfilled by the goddess Persephone.
In Phoenicia, his worship supplanted that of Aleyin,66
a vegetation god and son of Baal, who was killed by Mot.
Dionysus:
A later arrival to the Greek pantheon, whose cult is connected with that of
Adrastus, another Eastern deity. Dionysus is a male fertility god, linked
with the house of Kadmus, whose Phoenician connections have already been established.
Like Adonis, Dionysus can also be linked to the god Tammuz, by his association
with wailing women. Dionysiac religion shows an increasing Osirian presence
after 660 BC, reinforcing the Eastern connection.
Hephaistos:
The fire and volcano god Hephaestos was the Greek divine smith, a Lemnian67
version of the Asiatic craftsmen. He parallels the Phoenician god Chursor,68
who was credited as the inventor of iron. In the East, early metalwork and
religion were connected, bringing about the rise of the god of metalcrafts.
In Anatolia in the late second millennium, the Hittite priest kings were also
smiths.69 The worship of the later smith god
spread with the use of iron, yet this also lessened his importance because
the smiths" craft became more accessible. In Greece, he was a popular
god of the people who maintained his position among the twelve Olympians,
yet
his worship was unknown on the island of Crete. He does, though, have a connection
with Cyprus and in particular with the cult of Aphrodite. Hephaistos and
Aphrodite
were linked in the Odyssey70 by Homer, as were
Aphrodite and Ares. A strengthening of the former relationship occurs on Cyprus
where, in the 12th century, two divinities connected with metalcrafts71
were worshipped; this pairing of deities would have helped to lead to the
later association of Hephaistos and Aphrodite.
Artemis:
The virgin goddess Artemis, who is probably identifiable from Linear B, has
stronger Anatolian connections than Levantine. Her cults,72
especially that of Taurian Artemis, display certain traits that are also seen
in the worship of Phoenician gods. Primarily she is associated with human
sacrifice, making her a mistress of cruel and bloody rites. She is sometimes
identified with the Phoenician warrior goddess Anat, though her major associations
are with the goddess Kybele, mistress of animals. Anat, the goddess daughter
of Baal, was likewise a virgin. She revelled in battle, paralleling the Egyptian
lioness goddess Sekhmet, and was a female Ares rather than an Athena. The
Sekhmet connection is further enhanced by depictions of Artemis with Eastern
lions in her train. In the Iliad Artemis, like Aphrodite, retains Eastern
warrior goddess origins, but Homer73 reduces
this aspect of her and when she is beaten by Hera, she flees to father Zeus.74
There is a connection between Artemis and Aphrodite that can be seen in the
cult of the Ephesian Artemis, who was a motherly Eastern fertility goddess.
Hecate:
Another goddess of Near Eastern75 origin, known
to Hesiod76 as a daughter of the Titans. She
was later identified with Artemis and became lunar-aspected around the same
time. Her cult of Laguda77 in Caria had eunuchs.
Athena:
The goddess Athena has minimal Near Eastern connections, though from
the 8th century in line with other Oriental influences seen at Corinth, she
was worshipped with the title Phoinike.78
Apollo: Artemis" brother
also has Semitic Eastern connections, as shown previously in mythology
and through his cult sites on Cyprus. Apollo Kereates was the
Mycenaean Horned God of the temple of Enkomi79 and
was identified with the Semitic god Reshef or Re�ep, god of lightning.
The identification between the two gods is made because both Re�ep and Apollo"s
areas of influence are healing and plagues; furthermore both are archers:
Apollo shoots arrows80 and Re�ep firebrands.
From this and other evidence it is safe to say that the influences seen in
the cult of Apollo are a mix of Cretan, Greek and Syro-Hittite.
Cultic Practices
This is broken into two parts; individual followers and general practice.
Individuals may devote themselves to particular gods and this section deals
with three different types of followers, two of whom - transvestites and eunuchs
- are often closely connected. This section picks out those followers whose
practices can be regarded as being particularly Eastern or where there is
Greek practice with a strong parallel with those in the Phoenician world.
The state role of Phoenician kings in cult is also discussed, as is who fulfils
this function in Greece. Festivals, offerings, fire rituals and human sacrifice
are discussed under the heading General Practices.
Followers
Prostitutes:
The cult of Aphrodite numbered prostitutes among its followers,81 a
direct copy of the Eastern practice in the worship of the Goddess. In the
Near East, the act of prostitution was sacred and the priestesses of the
cult
of Ishtar were also prostitutes. In the Bible, we have a picture of Jezebel,
a follower of Astarte, in a window. She has "painted her eyes and dressed
her hair" in an attempt to save herself from Jehu.82
This is reminiscent of the scene depicted on ivories83
found at Nimrud which allude to the prostitutes of Astarte. The goddess in
Persia had slaves who were her attendants and the female slaves were temple
prostitutes. Later Egyptian temples also had prostitutes; temple servants
who brought in money for the temple.
Transvestites:
A small number of the followers of Aphrodite and Astarte were transvestites84
and some depictions of the sometimes androgynous goddess show her bearded.85 In
Dionysiac myth, Pentheus dressed in women"s clothes to spy on the god"s
followers and on the island of Kos a sacrifice was made to Heracles by a priest
in woman"s clothing.86
Eunuchs:
The followers of Aphrodite/Astarte sometimes attempted to copy the
androgynous state in a more dramatic way and during the height of an orgiastic
rite, emasculated themselves. Castration was also known in the cults of other
Oriental deities,87 though it remained an uncommon
practice in Greece.
Kings:
Phoenician kings were also high priests and were responsible for building
temples to the Phoenician gods; King Hiram built three major temples to the
Phoenician gods Melqart, Astarte and Baal Shamen; and Abibal built a temple
to Melqart on the isle of Tyre. The number of kings in Greece declined in
the first millennium, but in places where they were maintained, like Sparta,
they also held religious authority. Where kings had been overthrown, like
Athens, there was a yearly elected office that gave a man the religious authority
of a king. Phoenician religion was further organised in that it had a priestly
caste and priestly colleges; these are paralleled in Egypt, Persia and Israel88
though not in Greece. In the East, spiritual and temporal power were combined,
the king often being the head priest of the most powerful deity; Greek religion
never gained this level of organisation.
Practices
Festivals and
processions: These two are intimately
linked as festivals often involved a procession where a god or goddess was
brought out from their sanctuary, as in the Near East or Egypt.89 Most
of the year the statue was kept in a part of the sanctuary, to which often
only a priest was allowed access. Sacred duties often involved changing
the statue"s clothes and making offerings of food. These actions could only
take place once the Greeks had anthropomorphised their gods and created statues
in their image. The celebration to Adonis, the Adonia a 2-8 day festival,
occurred in June/July - the same month that Tammuz was worshipped in the East.
This was an important Near Eastern festival that was also celebrated in Egypt
and corresponded to the Athenian New Year"s festival. Festivals could
only be celebrated by the populace during a slack time in the agricultural
year.
In the 8th century, the Corinthians celebrated the month of Phoinikaios.90
Another Athenian festival, the Thargelia alludes to human sacrifice in mainland
Greece in the middle of the first millennium; on the sixth day of the festival
a human scapegoat is either driven out of the city or killed in order to bring
about purification.91 Plutarch, writing on
Isis and Osiris mentions human holocausts in Egypt and Hebrew scriptures mention
a goat being driven out into the desert.
Offerings:
There are two types of offerings: votives92
and sacrifices. The former includes animal sacrifice, which was usually accompanied
with first fruit offerings,93 and common in
Semitic ritual.
Fire Rituals:
This is an area of Greek practice where some Phoenician and Semitic practices
are evidenced. Offerings were often made to a god by burning them and the
air at religious ceremonies must often have had a pungent or aromatic scent.
Incense such as frankincense, first mentioned by Sappho, and myrrh, used for
fire rituals, are likely to have only been imported to Greece from the Near
East from just before the middle of the first millennium. Incense offerings
were particularly common in the cults of Aphrodite and Adonis. The actual
fire cult, rather than hearth cult, may have reached Greece through the island
of Cyprus, though fire is also important in the cult of Hephaistos. Holocausts,
the consummation of the offering by fire, are characteristic of the Semitic
religion,94 that of the West Semites, the
Jews and the Phoenicians. The Greeks used holocausts in connection with their
cults
of the dead; to the Chthonic god Zeus Polieus a piglet was first burnt, then
a bull slaughtered, a sequence familiar among the Semites. Fire and purity
were very closely linked in Semitic practice and borrowings can be detected
in myths associated with Isis and Demeter, both of whom attempted to immolate
a king"s children to bestow immortality.
Human Sacrifice:
As the first millennium progressed, this practice would appear to have gone
into decline in the Phoenician homeland, but was still carried out by the
Carthaginians in the time of the Punic wars. The most demanding of the gods
was the bull-headed Moloch, into whose fiery arms children were given. Moloch
with his bull associations was a god who may have been known to the Cretans,95
and thus also the early Greeks. If this is true, he may be linked with the
minotaur96 of Greek myth, defeated by the
hero Theseus. Bronze Age Greeks may have practised human sacrifice, as it
is alluded
to in Homer, as seen in Agamemnon"s sacrifice of Iphigeneia to Artemis
and the substitution of a deer at the last minute. It would appear that the
Greeks
therefore normally used an animal substitute rather than a human sacrifice.
There is a parallel as in Jewish Scripture, Abraham was commanded by god
to
sacrifice his son Isaac and at the last minute a ram was substituted. Human
sacrifice is evidenced in the cult of Hera Akraia with reference to Medea
and was identified as being influenced by the Phoenicians.97
In summing up this and the previous section, it must be stated that there
was a tendency among the Greeks to link Eastern origins to Phoenicia, and
in particular to the house of Kadmus.98 In
actuality, myths were more likely to have developed through the mixing of
cultures and identifications made between similar gods in different regions.
The intermingling of myths means that direct translations did not always come
through and that the story as adapted for a Greek god may have aspects to
it that contradict locally held beliefs. The mixing of cultures also saw some
old festivals celebrated in the name of new deities and the introduction of
new cult practices.
The Physical
world: The Physical signs of Phoenician influences in Greek Religion
The peoples who inhabited the Greek peninsula and islands in the late
Bronze Age - say 1600-1200 BC - were already skilled in fine architecture
and life size portrayal of human beings and animals in both sculpture and
painting.99 This was because the Minoan
and Mycenaean cultures were in contact with advanced Near Eastern cultures,
but with the demise of both of the former civilisations came a major decline
in the arts. The skills needed for fine art were eventually reintroduced in
the Orientalising period when the Near East itself had settled down.100
Oriental goods found their way into the Greek world through sea-travelling
merchants. These entrepreneurs either left dedications to Greek gods whom
they identified with their own gods, or sold their goods to others who left
them as offerings. In some areas, where they settled and established colonies,
they set up their own temples which Greek travellers could see without visiting
the Near East.
Architecture
Temples:
A theory cited by many modern scholars101
and that cannot be entirely dismissed is that the first Greek temples developed
out of the early Mycenaean megaron house, and it is true that the basic architectural
arrangement is similar. Indeed, the Samian Heraion c800 BC, the first Greek
monumental stone temple, resembled the megaron house found at Chios. Though
possibly based on the megaron pattern, early temples are on a grander scale
and similar to those found in Egypt. The Heraion102
was a Hekatompedon, which established the canonical length of a hundred feet.
At the back of the cella, the stone base of the cult statue was placed slightly
off centre. Later a wooden peristyle was added, to be replaced by stone in
the 7th century, when there was a rebirth of monumental Greek sculpture. Stone
foundations are typically found on early Greek temples, whereas the upper
layers and columns are of less durable building materials such as wood or
clay. We can look to the monumental temples of Egypt as the origin of these
foreign influences in architecture, with the Phoenicians as intermediaries.
The architecture of the Near East, especially that of the western Semites,
presented a united front which imposed standards of architecture and divine
iconography on the Aegean. Even back in the 13th to 12th centuries these architectural
styles were adopted by the Mycenaeans. Western Semitic dominance can be seen
from the sites of Zinjirli, Tell Halaf and Karatepe, where archaeological
finds show that through the 8th and 9th centuries much of northern Syria103
and southern Anatolia underwent strong Semitic influences. 104
The centre of this was the Phoenician lands and from here new motifs were
spread, though with such continuity that the art of the first millennium owed
much to the second.105
The later style of early Phoenician and Phoenician-influenced temples
can be seen from the 14th, 13th and 10th centuries. The 13th century temple
at Alalakh had one antechamber and a cella, whereas both the 14th century
temple of Hazor and the 10th century temple of Solomon106
had two antechambers before you reached the room at the rear. The temple of
Solomon was long, with a courtyard situated in front containing a font or
bowl of lustral water and an altar for sacrifice. The temple door was flanked
by two named bronze columns.107 The
temple was in three parts and a priest would pass further back into the temple
until reaching the Most Holy area at the back - a dark, square room reached
by a door covered by a curtain. The central room was rectangular and held
a golden altar and cedar table. Before the Greeks anthropomorphised their
gods, the Greek world knew no temples such as these, although they were common
in the Near East. Thus the Greek temple as the home of the god108
that held the cult image in the naos was a creation of the 8th century.109
Architecture and temple building
was an area where Phoenician influences could certainly be felt and "The
Greeks themselves traced much of their originals to Eastern origins,
to Egypt and Phoenician communities of the Levant." 110
The temples of the Near East were great stone and brick affairs with the lower
courses generally being of stone elaborated with orthostats and friezes. It
was on the Greek Islands that some of the first temples were seen, either
built by Phoenicians or by those who met or lived with these traders; on Cyprus,
Greeks, Phoenicians and others lived side by side. The early architecture
of the settlers in Cyprus was a form of monumental architecture as can be
seen by their temple complexes at Palaipaphos, Kition and Enkomi.111 The
Mycenaeans" use of Canaanite forms of temple building was reinforced
by later Phoenician settlers and from the late Cypriot II and III112
periods, Kition reflects these earlier influences. Kition was a well-established
Phoenician settlement by the 9th century, with a temple to a fertility goddess
whom the Phoenicians identified with their goddess Astarte. Another Cyprian
temple, that of Aphrodite in Paphos, was established by Phoenicians from Askalon.
The Phoenician presence arrived here at the beginning of the first millennium,
but the temple site was first established at the end of the Mycenaean period.
When the Phoenicians arrived on Cyprus, Cypriot traditions were submerged
beneath those of the Orient, and sunk still further into oblivion with the
arrival of western Greeks, as Cyprus became an intermediary place between
East and West.
Pillars:
The Mycenaeans had not needed temples; their places of worship were either
natural sites or rooms within houses. Their gods were represented by natural
items such as trees 113 and pillars;114
this feature paralleled contemporary Phoenician cult practices in which sacred
stones played a large part. In Phoenician architecture, the column fulfilled
a ritual rather than purely structural function, with pillars possibly representing
gods. Records show that the son of Abibal115
erected a gold column in the temple of Baal Shamen (Greek Zeus Olympus). At
Kition there were two free-standing pillars either side of the central opening
as well as 28 forming the support for a pair of porticoes. Baetylic shapes
of the god are present on Crete, and Cyrenaica has a small Baetylic altar.116
Mycenaean connections can be seen from Crete where there is a stalactite in
the cave to the goddess Eileithya at Amnisus.117
Three pillars at the Kommos shrine may have represented a triad of deities,
one of them possibly Artemis. Further proof of the sacredness of pillars comes
from pillar depictions on rings.118 Pillar
worship and pillar shrines were particularly common in the Syro-Palestine
area in the second millennium and they are mentioned in the Hebrew scripture
as free standing masseba119 or baetyls.120
These showed some similarities with the obelisks of Egypt. There is also an
Egyptianising style that dates to the 7th century.121
Pillar Shrines:
Temple B at Kommos 122 is one of our best
examples of a pillar shrine. It would appear to be inspired by Phoenician
models and stands out on Crete, because unlike in Cyprus, there are no indigenous
Cretan pillar shrines. It was first used c800-760 BC, a period when the Phoenicians
would appear to have been expanding westwards. Compared to other known Eastern
pillars, those of this tripillar shrine are relatively small. There are similarities
with the pillar from Kition and a single pillar found at a 7th century Greek
temple at Sukas. There does not seem to have been the wholesale adoption of
pillar worship by the later Greeks that can be seen from Minoan tripartite
shrines. Another shrine, at Byblos, was a major centre of pillar worship,
and pillar worship is still traceable at Sarepta from an 8th century shrine
of Tanit-Ashtart. There were between one and three columns at Bit Hilani and
Tyre had two columns of gold and emerald flanking the front of a god's tomb.
Decoration and styles:
New features appeared in the art and architecture of this period: the lotus,
guilloche, palmette, spiral and rosette. 123
These Eastern styles were commonly seen on early temples and on shrine representations
such as that found at Idalion124 which
displayed two lotus-capped columns. Cyprus also produced proto-Aeolic capitals
bearing the Phoenician palmette. The prototypes for capitals were essentially
Eastern as were most architectural forms, though not all Eastern types were
copied. New Greek art styles using Eastern prototypes appeared after 750 BC125
when Assyria was on the rise. The spread from Egypt of the proto-Ionic capital
in the form of a lotus blossom occurred in the 10th century when it entered
Phoenicia and from here it came to Cyprus and Ionia.126
Phoenician ivories show this palmette, as do pilasters127
from Cyprus and a stone capital found at Arkades on Crete.
Orthostats
and pediment relief:
Near Eastern temples used orthostats, such as those found at Tell Halaf dating
from the 9th century. Palaces, temples and other public buildings of the neo-Hittites
in northern Syria were typically ornamented with many reliefs carved on orthostats
set along the lower walls. From the second half of the 8th century, further
connections can be seen between decorative motifs on seals, reliefs seen at
Karatepe and tombs at Pithekoussai.128
Furthermore, figures on Syrian stele show similarities to the relief found
at Kommos B. A Near Eastern connection can also be made between one of the
Tell Halaf orthostats and the limestone pediment of the 7th century Temple
A at Prinias. The orthostat depicts the slaying of Humbaba 129
by two heroes and the styles of the slayings are similar. Temple A also has
a horse frieze, a minor relief frieze of the Eastern type, and it is likely
that it was at ground level rather than around the top as the horses have
abnormally long legs.130
Image: The cult
image is common in the religion of the western Semites, Egyptians and Mesopotamians,
and from the late stages of Minoan-Mycenaean civilisation statuettes of goddesses
appear. From the Greek Dark Ages there are no images of the gods until the
8th century, when statuettes 131 of bronze
and clay began to be made. These early images tended to be basic, such as
the Apollo from Amyklai which is pillar shaped, or otherwise in the warrior
style with shield, spear or lance.132
Life-size Human
statuary:
With the setting down of the Greek pantheon in the works of Homer and
Hesiod came the desire to depict those gods as life-size statues displaying
traits that would make it easy to identify which god was which. There are
Syro-Hittite bronze statues of the warrior god brandishing his weapon in his
right hand. In much the same manner, early depictions of Zeus and Poseidon
have both carrying a weapon; a thunderbolt and trident respectively. The first
statues were probably carved from wood, later being produced in limestone,
a medium almost as easy to carve as wood. This early statuary often copied
the forms set out in votive offerings. Eastern influences were strong and
Egypt 133 is sometimes named as the origin
of statuary, as Egyptian gods were predominantly depicted in stone. Kourai
were often used to mark out graves or to represent worshippers in permanent
attendance upon their gods. One of the earliest found pieces, the Auxerre
goddess, falls into an area somewhere between votive offering and cult image.
She is a limestone statue several feet tall and may well have fulfilled a
function similar to modern day Catholic Madonnas. Her style is typical of
Daedalic workmanship as it begins to move away from a direct copy of a Syrian
original. Her depiction still remains typical of an Astarte fertility pose;
pronounced breasts with one arm raised and drawn across the body. Her nose
is set high, she has a triangular face and her wig-like hair shows more of
a Syrian than Egyptian influence. The statue also shows traces of paint, and
polychromy would appear to have been the rule on free standing and architectural
sculpture. Greek full-size sculpture only began c660 BC and appears to follow
Egyptian fashions in the stance of the male figure.
Temple Guardians: With
reference to the Greeks, temple guardians comprise two major types: lintel
goddesses and guardian felines. The Greek lintel goddess was generally
on
a similar scale to the Auxerre goddess, and similar to those found in the
Near East; a seated goddess found at Catul H�y�k has distinct similarities
to the Hera at Tiryns. At the Gortyn temple of Athena there was an unusual
example; a life-size stone figure of a seated goddess. This temple was
a rectangular
building dating from 800 BC, and was built in a north Syrian tradition. Near
Eastern influences can also be seen in the seated limestone goddess from
Prinias134
of 650-625 BC. Typically in the Near East, stone lions were used to guard
gates to temples and palaces. In the Greek world, too, guardian lions performed
the same functions at Prinias and near the tomb of Menecrartes in Corcyra,
135 where a limestone lion was discovered.
This latter piece is of early workmanship and has a formalised treatment of
the head suggesting it was probably made from a description of the beast,
as the artist was not likely to have seen a lion. The Greek adoption of animal
sculpture was well developed by the end of the 7th century.
Art
Oriental and Phoenician influences can be seen in grave goods and from Greek
sanctuaries where the most common finds are votive offerings. Phoenicians
gained a reputation as craftsmen and their works were found in royal palaces
throughout the Near East. They particularly excelled in carving ivory and
items they produced were often used as decorations or as votives. In the 8th
century this translated into an increased number of offerings to gods.
Votives
Figurines:
These were often the templates for later statuary and many different
forms showing an array of styles and features have been found. The Oriental
imagery of one hand held to the breast is typical; other statuettes and figurines
typically show a mix of Assyrian and Egyptian styles. Astarte figures were
found at the palace of Nimrud 136 and female
terracotta votive figurines adopted from Near Eastern moulds were found at
the site of Artemis Orthia. Fully nude and unashamed female figures exist
in early Greek sculpture from the 8th century. However, nude female figurines
were replaced in the first half of the 7th century so that in the 6th century
only draped figures were represented. Five fully nude female figurines representing
Astarte were found at Odos Peiraios. In Athens, naked female figures in ivory
have been found in a grave from the middle of the 8th century. One ivory girl
from Athens is rendered from the pudgier-faced, fleshier Syrian prototypes
and is translated into an Attic diadem.137
Greek craftsmen copied Phoenician works, eventually developing their own forms.
This meant in some cases that north Syrian cult scenes needed to be adapted.
Syrian figurines have tilted heads and deep-set eyes. The nude goddess from
Ithaca138 is an early depiction of the love
and fertility goddess and is likewise modelled on Near Eastern contemporary
figures. Two of the commonest types of Oriental ivories found are the votive
Astarte plaques 139 and the lady at the window.140
The former plaque is a naked representation of the goddess, who often has
her hand either raised in the air or to her breast The latter plaque shows
a face at a balcony window and represents Astarte or her votary; they are
found in both the Greek and Near Eastern world.141
In the Near East, plaques have been found from Khorsabad and Tell Beit Mirsim.
Other ivories come from the sanctuary of Artemis Orthia, dating to before
the final subjugation of the Phoenician cities that occurred c600 BC - bone
replaces ivory at the Orthia site after this date. Ivories were also found
at the Idaean cave and on Rhodes, where six were found in a Phoenician and
north Syrian style.142 Much of the ivory may
have come from north Syria as there was a flourishing school of ivory carving
at Hama.143
Metal:
A large number of Eastern votives, often coming from North Syria, were tripod
cauldrons. The protomes riveted to the handles were often in the forms of
bulls, lions and griffins. The bulls may have some religious significance,
but the other creatures were purely apotropaic. Their function - to scare
away evil spirits - was much the same as that of some masks and the use of
Gorgoneions.
Masks:
Moulds144 were used in the mass production
of clay plaques and face masks, and this mass production helped canonise and
stereotype proportions. At the sanctuary of Artemis Orthia, a large number
of sepulchral masks were unearthed dating to the end of the 7th century; of
these a sizeable proportion resembled those of the Near East;145
others were vaguely reminiscent of gold death masks found at Mycenae. Another
mask that archaeologists have found is a Greek terracotta anthropomorphic
mask from the early Iron Age. This mask resembles Near Eastern models such
as those found at Hazor and Tel Qasile. Masks are used for concealment of
the face and typically have eye-holes if they are to be worn. The masks of
Orthia are a mixture as some have eye-holes and others do not. They may have
been used in dances to honour Artemis or in connection with Chthonic ritual
146 where the wearer takes the part of the
deity.
Gorgons: The
Gorgon figure entered Greek art sometime around the middle of the 7th century;
as a direct copy of an Assyro-Babylonian demon or giant. Some of the commonest
portrayals of her show her being slain by Perseus,147 a
scene that resembles closely the one between Gilgamesh and Humbaba. In Syria
there was a vogue for this scene of Gilgamesh and his companion slaying Humbaba,
the wild man of the woods. In Greek art, Gilgamesh"s long skirted companion
is replaced by Athena and this may be a case where a Greek copy of a motif
has either been misunderstood or adapted to Greek tastes. Perseus turning
his eyes away from the monster is also a copy from the Near East. Returning
to the Greek myth, the victorious Perseus gave Athena Medusa"s head,
which she placed on her shield as the terror-inspiring Aegis. The power of
the Gorgon
was supposed to ward off evil, which is why in the Greek world Gorgoneions
are found frequently on coins, vases, as masks and on temples; they can also
be seen in Etruria where the practice was copied of hanging a mask over the
lintel.
Conclusion
The Phoenicians influenced many of the ways in which the Greeks looked
at their gods, although they were by no means the only influence on Greek
religion. This, like other areas of Greek life, showed inputs from all the
surrounding and more advanced cultures. In this essay, I have tried to show
that there are many influences on Greek religion and that even some of these
- such as the Anatolian myths - may have come to Greece by way of the Phoenicians.
Indeed, the Phoenicians own beliefs contained assimilations of Egyptian, Mesopotamian
and Hittite religion, so any influence they had on Greece was not wholly original
in the literal sense.
The Greeks themselves were masters of assimilation. They did not simply
take on all the myths and religious practices that they encountered, and were
unlikely to have had a complete understanding or identification with foreign
gods and rituals. This is demonstrated by the fact that early art shows depictions
of decidedly unGreek features, gradually taking on more and more Greek features
with the passing of time. It is indeed unlikely that the Oriental input would
have had any great effect on the way ancient Greeks actually carried out their
lives, and seems largely cosmetic. Their beliefs remained the same, and their
attitude towards myths generally may have been irreverent, considering them
tales emphasising points rather than truths that had to be believed in their
entirety.
Perhaps the most enduring testament to the Phoenician influence of Greece
and its islands is in the architecture, which changed enormously in this period,
with Greek city states starting to build their first temples. The power of
a nation or state is often reflected in its architecture. In the East, there
were many powerful rulers who governed vast swathes of territory and large
population masses who had to be kept complacent: impressive architecture has
always helped make this task easier. This was a very different situation to
Greece, which was highly fragmented. The Eastern temple fulfilled a unifying
role for the people and was often used as a rallying point. Eastern kings
utilised temples to gain fealty as they often held the highest priestly office.
Power tended not to be concentrated in the hands of one individual in Greece,
but the temple nonetheless helped provide a sense of identity and strength.
Greek temples were a visual display of the power and influence of an individual
city and its ability to construct monuments to its gods. The religious art
of the period shows some of the influences that the Greeks took on board,
with the site of Artemis Orthia showing links with the East through ivory
and masks. The appearance, too, of the Gorgon in art and as decoration is
also likely to have come via Phoenicia.
This page is copyright © 1996, A.A.P. Webb
This material is reproduced by gracious permission of
the author.
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