Page:History of Art in Phœnicia and Its Dependencies Vol 1.djvu/290

 268 HISTORY OK ART IN PIKF.XICIA AND ITS DEPENDENCIES. to be dispelled by a bilingual dedication, in Phoenician and in Cypriot Greek, in which the Phoenician word meaning statue is rendered not by dyaX/ta, which would be the right one in speaking of a divine image, but by dvSptas, which always denotes the figure of a man. 1 In speaking of another figure found at Amrit M. Renan has already pointed out the connection between the scanty monu- ments of Phoenician sculpture and the numerous iconic statues which have been found during excavations at Cyprus, and this is how he explains the sentiment which led to the creation of these votive statues : "Must we agree with the hypothesis that would take these figures for a series of portraits of priests and priestesses continued through more than one century ? I think not. The personage represented in each figure seems to me to be the author of a vow, the donor of an offering made to the divinity of the temple, the baal haz-zdhakh, or master of the sacrifice, according to the expression used in the tariffs of Marseilles and Carthage. This vow, or sacrifice, was soon over, and its author might fear that it would be soon forgotten. An inscription would do something to keep its memory green, but a statue would be much more certain. In causing himself to be set before the eyes of the god in a material and in an attitude that would recall unceasingly the sacrifice made and homage rendered, the worshipper perpetuated the memory of his piety in the surest way. Such an idea was quite in keeping with the materialistic and almost commercial religion of Phoenicia, where a vow was a sort of business transaction, in which a clearly understood bargain was struck, so to speak, on both sides. We have, then, in these statues, the figures of pious men who came in their order to fulfil their vows, and took every precaution to insure that the liquidation of their debts should be remembered. The size, material, and workmanship of the statues, depended upon the circumstances of those by whom they were set up." 2 For the safe guarding of these statues, and of the other contents of the temple and its precincts, a numerous personnel was required. In a curious inscription recently discovered at Larnaca we find succinct but authentic information as to how this personnel was 1 Or/ us Inscriptiomtm Semiticamm, pars i. No. 89, and see especially the observations of M. Ren.in, at page 106, referring to line 2 of the inscription. - REX.y, F.erue Arch'colo^i^ue, 2nd series, vol. xxxvii. p. 323.