Page:History of Art in Phœnicia and Its Dependencies Vol 1.djvu/341

 THE TEMPLES OF SICILY AND CARTHAGE. 319 is to say the " goddess who gives a long life," whence the name Eryx, given to the town by the Greeks of Sicily and used by all the classic writers. Of this temple we know only that it was built on the very top of the mountain, within a strong wall which crowned its slopes and defended its summit (Fig. 34). Of the vast collection of monuments which it must have possessed the only thing that has survived is a stele with an inscription referring to some building executed within its precincts by a certain Himilco, son of Baaljatho. 1 Lilybaeum, on the site of the modern Marsala, seems to have had a temple to Ammon ; this we infer from a curious stele quite recently discovered (Fig. 232). - It bears a short dedication signed by a personage calling himself Hanno, son of Adonbaal. But the chief interest of the monument lies in the bas-relief on its upper part. In the' middle of the field stands one of those candelabra of which we have already given examples taken from Carthaginian steles (Figs. 82 and 83) ; to the left is the sacred cone, here represented with head and arms as on the coins of certain Asiatic towns ; near the cone stands a caduceus, on the right there is a man adoring. He is dressed in a robe falling to the feet and gathered in a band about the waist ; a pointed cap is on his head. The whole thing is without value as a work of art, but it gives a good idea of the Phoenician costume, a costume which resembles that still worn in the Levant by those Greek, Syrian, and Armenian merchants who have not yet adopted the costume of Europe. 3 Several votive inscriptions have been found in Sardinia which allow us to infer that there were Phoenician sanctuaries on that island also; 4 they bear the names Baal Sama'im or Baal of the skies, of Astarte-Erek-Hayim, of JEsmoun, of Baal-Ammon, of Elat. Some steles, found mostly in the tombs of Sulcis, confirm this conjecture. On many of them Astarte may be recognised as a female figure in a long robe and an Egyptian head-dress. She 1 Corpus Inscriptionum Semiticarum, pars i. No. 135. The text of the inscription has,-unfortunately, been lost for the last two hundred years, and we know it only by two ancient copies which leave much to be desired. 2 Ibid. No. 138. 3 Conf. the worshipper on the Carthaginian stele figured above (fig. 13) and another on a stele given below (Fig. 305). 4 Corpus Inscriptionum Semiticarum, pars i. Nos. 139-141, 143, 147-149, 151.