Page:History of Art in Phœnicia and Its Dependencies Vol 2.djvu/44

 22 HISTORY OF ART IN PIICENICIA AND ITS DEPENDENCIES. 141); we find him also upon the flat side of a similar object in green jasper, a most carefully-executed little work now in the Louvre (Fig. 19),* but of uncertain provenance. That it is the work of a Phoenician engraver is put beyond doubt by the occurrence of the disk and crescent symbol on the upper left- hand corner. The feather-crowned god is seen almost in profile. In his right hand he holds up a boar by the tail ; across his shoulders he carries a lion, which he keeps in place by holding one of the hind-feet. The lion's mouth is wide open. We know neither the name borne by this god in Phoenicia, nor the functions assigned to him, nor the part he played in popular traditions ; 2 but on the gem just described and on the flat of a scarab found in Sardinia (Fig. 20), where the same god appears between two lions, an allusion is certainly made to myths in which he figured as a vanquisher of wild beasts. Perhaps we have here, in his FIG. 19. Bes upon a scarab. Slightly enlarged from the original in the Louvre. Phoenician and indigenous form, the young and handsome Adonis whom Aphrodite loved. The popularity of this type was due to its curious mixture of strength and deformity. Thirty or forty years ago, when the Chinese had to meet European troops for the first time, they tried to terrify them by lining their walls with the images of grimacing monsters and flame-breathing dragons. The Phoenicians 1 LONGPERIER, Notice des antiquit'es assyriennes, &c., exposes dans les galeries du Louvre (1854), No. 591. HEUZEY, de quelques representations du dieu grotesque appele. Bes par les Egyptiens (Comptes-rendus de I' Academic des Inscriptions, 1879, pp. 142, 143). 2 It might be reasonably suggested that he was identical with the Poumai, discovered on the inscriptions by M. Ph. Berger, whose attempt at writing his story has been already quoted. The Greek words Pygmy and Pygmalion must be derived from Poumai.