Page:History of Art in Phœnicia and Its Dependencies Vol 2.djvu/45

. FIGURES OF DEITIES. 23 were governed by a similar idea when they set up their hideous and muscular dwarf on the prows of their ships ; they thus hoped to oppress the imaginations of those almost savage tribes with whom their commerce was carried on when they first began to coast along the shores of Greece, Italy, Sardinia, and Spain. Such a custom once taken up would persist long after its reason had passed away. And the type which we may believe held its place most securely on the bows of the Phoenician galleys was that derived more or less from the Egyptian Bes. The child-god was less well fitted for such a post ; he was without the virile strength, the great beard, the threatening countenance, the feathered head-dress and the generally fantastic accoutrements of the valiant dwarf. To Syria belongs the credit of having created the type, or rather the types, of a terrible but benevolent god, who put his strength and valour at the service of humanity. There as in FIG. 20. Flat side of a scarab found in Sardinia. From Occurti. 1 Greece a single idea was embodied in many different forms. Beside this dwarf Hercules there was another of good stature, thickset indeed, but only after the manner of athletes, and some- times even colossal, as we shall find him in Cyprus. What was his name ? Was he the Ousoos of Sanchoniathon, the hunter and traveller, who wore the skins of wild beasts, who invented navigation and set up landmarks upon distant coasts ? 2 What- ever his name may have been, the type was always popular in Phoenicia ; we have already encountered it in its primitive form upon the stele of Amrit (Fig. 7) ; we find the same person struggling with real or fantastic beasts in the decoration of metal cups ; and when, towards the end of the sixth century, Phoenicia 1 Bulletino archeologico Sardo, vol. iv. plate ii. 13. 2 PHILO OF BYBLOS, i. 8 ; in the Fragmenta historiforum gracorum (Didot), vol. ii. p. 556.