Page:Archaeologia volume 38 part 1.djvu/243

 Recent Excavations at Carthage. 213 and Lybian languages, has arrived at the conclusion that those words mean a tomb or sepulchre, relying partly on the not unfrequent occurrence of a human hand among the devices on the tablets ; which he considers analogous to the expression in the Hebrew scriptures * for the pillar or tomb of Absalom. The use of the hand as expressing supplication might be sufficient to account for its presence on votive tablets. An inscription, or rather two similar inscrip- tions, found at Malta," and engraved apparently on the bases of two candelabra, seem to decide the question beyond all doubt. Those inscriptions, which are exactly alike, are bilingual Greek and Phoenician. The Greek is as follows : AIONTSIOS KAI SAPAHinN OI SAPAninNOS TTPIOI HPAKAEI APXHFETEI. This evidently records the dedication, no doubt in performance of a vow, of the inscribed objects by Dionysius and Sarapion, sons of Sarapion, Tyrians, to Hercules the Founder ; and it contains nothing which can be regarded as sepul- chral. The Phoenician inscription reads, " To our Lord Melcarth, God of Tyre, the vow of [ TW t?K ] thy servant Abdosir and his brother Osirshamar, both sons of Osirshamar, son of Abdosir." Then follows the formula which we have noticed above as invoking blessings on the votaries. It will be remembered that -nj t-s are the words on the Carthaginian inscriptions, and therefore indicate their votive character. We have no means of determining in what way these votive tablets were used ; they may have been let either into the walls or into the floor, or have been simply deposited in some, consecrated building or grove. Future discoveries may possibly throw some light on this subject. We have next to consider the divinities to whom the tablets were dedicated; viz. Tanith-Penbaal, and Baal-IIamon, a subject to be approached with some dif- fidence, as speculations relating* to mythology, especially if they involve questions of etymology, are generally far from satisfactory. For the divinities, and par- ticularly the oriental, were usually personifications of some principles of nature. In the lapse of time, what was originally one divinity, having been the object of worship in different places, came to receive distinct attributes and names. Then the love of novelty, political circumstances, or other accidents brought in as a 2 Samuel, xviii. 18. tab. 6, and numerous other works.
 * One of the inscriptions is in the Public Library at Malta, the other at Paris,