Page:History of Art in Phœnicia and Its Dependencies Vol 2.djvu/38

 16 HISTORY OF ART IN PHOENICIA AND ITS DEPENDENCIES. creations are lost have been handed down to us. On a coin ascribed to the Balearic Islands we see a god, probably one of the Cabeiri, perhaps Esmoun, whose attitude and accessories show some likeness to those above described. In his right hand he brandishes a hammer ; between his left arm and his body a serpent raises its head like a " familiar " ; his short petticoat leaves body and legs exposed (Fig. n): in its heavy shape- lessness this figure recalls the inelegant sculptures from Malta figured above (Vol. I. Figs. 230 and 231). The feather head-dress is that of the Egyptian Bes. Another type, which we should have known only from coins had it not been for the recent discovery of the Carthaginian steles, is that of the winged female who holds the lunar disk between her hands ; she has been recognized as the " Tanit, face of Baal," to whom these steles are consecrated. In one of these monuments, the goddess holds the disk pressed against her chest (Vol. I. Fig. 192) ; in others, she holds it against her hip or her stomach FIGS. 12, 13. Coins ot Mallos, in Cilicia. From Gerhard. (Figs. 12 and I3). 1 Our knowledge of the Phoenician pantheon is too incomplete to allow us to decide whether the same goddess is represented in certain female figures with a long veil covering head and body. We have already encountered this figure on two steles from Sulcis (Vol. I. Figs. 193 and 233) ; we find it repeated in a small terra-cotta fragment, also found in Sardinia. Both classes of figures have the same attribute, the great lunar disk. On the other hand, certain sculpturesque types seem never to have been used on coins. Such, for instance, is that of the naked goddess whose hands either lie on her abdomen or support her breasts (Vol. I. Fig. 150, and Fig. 15). Its vogue may have 1 These coins have been successively ascribed to Marathos (GERHARD), and Marion in Cyprus (WADDINGTON, Melanges de Numismatique et de Philologie, 8vo, 1861, p. 55). More recently M. IMHOOF-BLUMNER has made good the claim of Mallos in Cicilia to them {Mallos, Megarsos, Antioche du Pyramos, 8vo, 1883, pp. *3- 1 s)-