Page:History of Art in Phœnicia and Its Dependencies Vol 1.djvu/77

 RELIGION. in spite of the industry of modern criticism, many points are still obscure. The epigraphic texts are dry and short ; they explain nothing, and the analysis of proper names gives little after all but the titles of gods ; the existing fragments of Sanchoniathon bear traces of the syncretism of the decadence, and can only be utilized with considerable caution ; and when we turn to the materials left us by the classic authors we must do so with no less prudence and reserve. The latter only knew Phoenicia in its decline, when it was already more or less Hellenized. Moreover, they did not always comprehend what they saw and heard. Finally, they were content with comparisons which were often forced and inaccurate. 1 Traces of that bent of thought which we encounter in all pri- mitive societies and call fetishism may be found in the Phoeni- cian religion. The mountains had their gods, or, to speak more exactly, they were worshipped as gods. Their imposing mass, the majesty of the black forests with which they were clothed, the voices of their torrents, their snowy summits and the depths of their narrow gorges, gave them a mysterious power over the imaginations of the people (Fig. 17). The worship of the mountain gods dates certainly from the first days of the Phoenician occupation ; its persistence is attested by the epithets we meet with in the Semitic texts, such as Baal-Lebanon, Baal- Hermon, and in Greek transcriptions like Zeus-Casios? In the same spirit prayers and sacrifices were offered to rocks, to grottoes, to springs and rivers. The cavern whence the stream of the Nahr Ibrahim makes its " sudden sally " has been for thousands of years one of the most sacred spots in Syria. The temple of Astarte, developed into the Aphacan Aphrodite, was overthrown by Constantine, but it was restored after his day was past. The rites there performed doubtless dated back to the commencement of the Phoenician occupation. We cannot wonder that a religious senti- ment was excited by this scene, one of the loveliest in the world conjectures by J. HALEVY, in his paper entitled : Les Principes pheniciens IIo(9os et Mwr (in the Comptes Rendus de V Academic des Inscriptions, 1883, p. 36). 1 Upon the nature and the inadequacy of our materials for the study of the Phoenician religion, see BERGER, La Phenicie, pp. 17-19. 2 The Baal-Lebanon is mentioned in the oldest Phoenician inscription we possess, viz., the dedication engraved upon a bronze cup the fragments of which are now in the French National Library {Corpus Inscriptionmn Semiticarum, part i., No. 5). VOL. I. I