#punic goddess

[mask131]

About Tanit

I recently posted about how people should be looking more into other gods outside of the Greco-Roman pantheons. If you follow me for quite some times, you will also have noted I posted a bunch of loose translation from the French Dictionary of literary myths (which is truly a great reference). Well, I wanted to share with you today a loose translation – well, more of an info-mining at this point – of an article about a goddess that people often ignore the existence of, despite being located right next to Ancient Greece and Rome, and being involved in the history of the Roman Empire. And this goddess is Tanit.

Written by Ildiko Lorinszky, the article is organized in two – at first it takes a look and analysis at the mythological Tanit, at who and what she likely was, how her cult was organized all that. The second part, since it is a Dictionary of LITERARY myths, takes a look at the most prominent and famous depiction of Tanit in French literature – that is to say Flaubert’s famous Salammbô. (If you recalled, a long time ago I posted about how a journalist theorized in an article how Flaubert’s Salammbô was basically an “epic fantasy” novel a la Moorcock or Tolkien long before “fantasy” was even a genre)

Part 1: Tanit in mythology and archeology

Tanit was the patron-goddess of the city of Carthage. Considered to be one of the avatars o the Phoenician goddess Astarte, Tanit’s title, as found on several Punic engravings, was “The Face of Baal” – a qualification very close to how Astarte was called in Sidon and Ugarit “The Name of Baal”. These titles seem to indicate that these two goddesses acted as mediators or intermediaries between humanity and Baal.

Tanit is as such associated with Baal, the vegetation god, but sometimes she is his wife, other times she is simply his paredra (companion/female counterpart). She seems to be the female power accompanying the personification of masculinity that is Baal, and as such their relationship can evoke the one between Isis and Osiris: the youthful sap of the lunar goddess regularly regenerates the power of the god. This “nursing” or “nourishing” function of Tanit seems to have been highlighted by the title she received during the Roman era: the Ops, or the Nutrix, the “Nurse of Saturn”. Goddess of the strengthened earth, Tanit is deeply tied to agrarian rituals: her hierogamy with Baal reproduces in heaven the birth of seeds on earth. Within the sanctuaries of Tanit, men and women devoted to the goddess practiced a sacred prostitution in order to favorize the fecundity of nature. The women tied to the temple were called “nubile girls”, while the men working there were called “dogs” to highlight how completely enslaved they were to the goddess. We know that the prostitutes of both sexes brought important incomes to the temple/

The etymology of Tanit (whose name can also be called Tannit or Tinnit) is obscure. The most probable hypothesis is that the Phoenico-Punic theonym “Tnt” is tied to the verb “tny”, which was used in the Bible to mean “lamenting”, “wailing”, “crying”. According to this interpretation, the “tannît” is originally a “crier”, a “wailer”, and the full name of Tanit means “She who cries before Baal”. As such, the Carthaginian goddess might come from a same tradition as the “Venus lugens”.

According to some mythographers, Tanit (or Astarte) was the supreme goddess of Carthage, and might have been identical to the figures of Dido and Elissa. As in, Dido was in truth the celestial goddess, considered as the founder of the city and its first queen. According to this hypothesis, the suicide of Dido on a pyre was a pure invention of Virgil, who took this motif from various celebrations hosted at Carthage. During these feasts-days, images and depictions of the goddess were burned The word Anna would simply mean “clement”, “mild”, “merciful” – the famous Anna, sister of Dido, is thought to have been another Punic goddess, whose cult was brought from Carthage to Rome, and who there was confused with the roman Anna Perenna, a goddess similar to Venus. Varro claimed that it was not Dido that burned on the pyre, but Anna, and according to this angle, Anna appears as a double of Dido – and like her, she would be another manifestation of the goddess Tanit. Anna’s very name reminds of the name “Nanaia”/”Aine”, which was a title given to Mylitta, yet another manifestation of Tanit.

The sign known as the “sign” or “symbol of Tanit” seems to be a simplified depiction of the goddess with her arms open: it is a triangle (reduced to a trapezoid as the top of the triangle is cut) with an horizontal line at its top, an a disc above the horizontal line. This symbol appears throughout the Punic world on monuments, steles, ceramics and clay figurines.

Part 2: The literary Tanit of Flaubert

Gustave Flaubert’s novel Salammbô is probably where the goddess reappears with the most splendor in literature. While her essence is shown being omnipresent throughout the Punic world, Tanit, as the soul of the city, truly dwells within the town’s sanctuary, which keeps her sacred cloak. The veil of the goddess, desired by many, stolen then regained throughout the plot, plays a key role within the structure of this very enigmatic text, which presents itself as a “veiled narrative”.

The town and its lands are filled with the soul of the “Carthaginian Venus”. The countryside, for example, is filled with an erotic subtext, sometimes seducing, sometimes frightening – reflecting the ambiguity of the goddess. The landscape is all curves, softness, roundness, evoking the shapes of a female body – and the architecture of both the city-buildings and countryside-buildings are described in carnal ways. Within Salammbô, Flaubert describes a world where the spirit and the flesh are intertwined – the female world of Carthage is oppressed by an aura mixing lust with mysticism; and through the erotic nature creeps both a frightening sacred and an attractive morbidity. For death and destruction is coming upon Carthage.

The contradictory nature of the goddess appears as early as the very first scene of the novel, when the gardens of Hamilcar are described. The novel opens on a life-filled landscape: the gardens of the palace are a true Land of Eden, with an abundant vegetation filled with fertility symbols. The plants that are listed are not mere exotic ornaments: they all bear symbolic and mythological connotations. The fig-tree, symbol of abundance and fecundity ; the sycamore, “living body of Hathor”, the tree of the Egyptian moon-goddess ; the grenade, symbol of fertility due to its multiple seeds ; the pine tree, linked to Attis the lover of Cybele ; the cypress, Artemis’ tree ; the lily, which whose perfume was said to be an aphrodisiac ; the vine-grapes and the rose… All those plants are linked to the moon, that the Carthaginian religion associated with Tanit. Most of these symbols, however, have a macabre touch reflecting the dark side of the goddess. The cypress, the “tree of life”, is also a funeral tree linked to the underworld ; the coral is said to be the same red as blood, and was supposedly born from the blood-drops of Medusa ; the lily symbolizes temptation and the unavoidable attraction of the world of the dead ; the fig-tree just like the grenade have a negative side tied to sterility… The flora of this passage, mixing benevolent and malevolent attributes, already depict a world of coexisting and yet opposed principles: fertility cannot exist without sterility, and death is always followed by a renewal. The garden’s description introduces in the text the very cycles of nature, while also bringing up the first signs of the ambivalence that dominates the story.

The same union of opposites is found within the mysterious persona of Tanit. The prayer of Salammbô (which was designed to evoke Lucius’ lamentations to Isis within Apuleius’ Metamorphosis) first describes a benevolent goddess of the moon, who fecundates the world : “How you turn, slowly, supported by the impalpable ether! It polishes itself around you, and it is the movement of your agitation that distributes the winds and the fecund dews. It is as you grow and decrease that the eyes of the cats and the spots of the panthers lengthen or shrink. The wives scream your name in the pains of labor! You inflate the sea-shells! You make the wines boil! […] And all seeds, o goddess, ferment within the dark depths of your humidity.” As a goddess presiding to the process of fermentation, Tanit is also tied to the principle of death – because it is her that makes corpses rot.

The Carthaginian Venus appears sometimes as an hermaphrodite divinity, but with a prevalence and dominance of her feminine aspect. Other times, she appears as just one of two distinct divinity, the female manifestation in couple with a male principle. Tanit synthetizes within her the main aspects of all the great moon-goddesses: Hathor, Ishtar, Isis, Astarte, Anaitis... All are supposed to have an omnipotence when it comes to the vegetal life. Mistress of the elements, Tanit can be linked to the Mother-Earth : for the character of Salammbô, the cloak of the goddess will appear as the veil of nature. The daughter of Hamilcar is linked in a quite mysterious way to Tanit – for she is both a frightened follower of the goddess, and the deity’s incarnation. Described as “pale” and “light” as the moon, she is said to be influenced by the celestial body: in the third chapter, it is explained that Salammbô weakened every time the moon waned, and that while she was languishing during the day, she strengthened herself by nightfall – with an additional mention that she almost died during an eclipse. Flaubert ties together his heroine’s traits with the very name “Salammbô”, which is a reminiscence of the funeral love of Astarte: “Astarte cries for Adonis, an immense grief weighs upon her. She searches. Salmmbô has a vague and mournful love”. According to Michelet’s explanations, “Salambo”, the “love name” of Astarte, is meant to evoke a “mad, dismal and furious flute, which was played during burials”.

As a character embodying Tanit, Salammbô is associated with the two animals that were sacred to the goddess: the holy fishes, and the python snake, also called “the house-spirit”. Upon the “day of the vengeance”, when Mâtho, the scape-goat, is charged with all the crimes of the mercenaries, she appears under the identity of Dercéto, the “fish-woman”. The very detailed costumes of Salammbô contain motifs borrowed to other goddesses that are avatars of Tanit. By using other goddesses, Flaubert widens the range of shapes the lunar goddess can appear with, while also bringing several mythical tales, whose scattered fragments infiltrate themselves within the novel. When she welcomes her father, Salammbô wears around her neck “two small quadrangular plates of gold depicting a woman between two lions ; and her costume reproduced fully the outfit of the goddess”. The goddess depicted here is Cybele, the passionate lover of Attis, the young Phrygian shepherd. This love story that ends in mutilations bears several analogies with the fatal love between Salammbô and the Lybian leader. And the motif of the mutilation is one of the key-images of the novel.

A fish-woman, like Dercéto, Salmmbô is also a dove-woman, reminding of Semiramis ; but more so, she is a snake-woman, linked mysteriously to the python. Before uniting herself with Mâtho (who is identified to Moloch), Salammbô unites herself with the snake that incarnates the lunar goddess in her hermaphroditic shape. It is the python that initiates Salammbô to the mysteries, revealing to Hamilcar’s daughter the unbreakable bond between eroticism and holiness. In the first drafts of the novel, Salammbô was a priestess of Tanit, but in the final story, Flaubert chose to have her father denying her access to the priesthood. So, she rather becomes a priestess under Mathô’s tent: using the zaïmph, she practices a sacred prostitution. The union of Hamilcar’s daughter and of the leader of the mercenaries reproduces the hierogamy of Tanit and Moloch.

Salammbô, confused with Tanit, is also victim of the jealous Rabbet. Obsessed with discovering the face of the goddess hidden under the veil, she joins the ranks of all those female characters who curiosity leads to the transgression of a divine rule (Eve, Pandora, Psyche, Semele). And, in a way, the story of Mathô and Salammbô reproduces this same story: the desire to see, the desire for knowledge, always leads to an ineluctable death.

[mask131]

I find this statue so creepy by accident due to the baby's head being missing

Dea Nutrix. (400-300 BC). Representation of the Mother Goddess. Related to an agrarian worship, incarnated by Astarte and Tanit in the Punic world.

[lionofchaeronea]

Roman marble statuette (2nd cent. CE) of the Phrygian goddess Cybele, aka the Magna Mater ("Great Mother"). The goddess was imported to Rome from Pergamum during the Second Punic War, in the form of a black meteoric stone (βαίτυλος), at the behest of the Sibylline Books; she was given a festival in April (the Megalensia), but due to the "exoticness" of her cult, Romans were barred from taking part in the ecstatic procession of her eunuch priests. Here, the goddess is shown seated and attended by the lions that were said to draw her chariot. Now in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Photo credit: LACMA.

[mistresskayla-blog1]

The Spoils of War

**TRIGGER WARNING** Sensitive smut material present

NSFW - NSFM 18+++

Characters: Raymond de Merville as Mars - God of War x OC Rhea Silvia

Lyn's Writing Event 2024 - Day 13 - Week 2

May 13th: Week 2: Mars (god of war) 18+++  NMDI NSFW

****TRIGGER WARNING****  (this will be in two parts)

Characters: (AU) Raymond de Merville (as Mars – God of War) x OC Rhea Silvia depiction   

Fandom: Richard Armitage – Pilgrimage – Raymond de Merville

The character of Raymond de Merville was created by Jamie Hannigan (for film)

The character of Rhea Silvia is a depiction from myths and legends written by Virgil and referred from the Aeneid (Book 1) and other Greek mythology.

This is my interpretation of a Greek myth. Enjoy.

Location: Ancient Rome – The Punic Wars  

Word Count: 2.7k

Warnings: graphic violence, rape, Greek undertones, shewolf, shame, abuse, dominant male, religious factions, character death, virginity, forced impregnation (implied), rope play, forced fellatio,

            Mars rode into the city, he was battered and bruised but triumphant in his latest battle. He saw a woman sitting on the steps of the temple and dismounted, somewhat compelled. As he approached her, a statesmen came up to him,

“Mars, how is the battles?” Amulius asked. Mars looked at Amulius and then to the woman, “It is well. Now what business do you have with me?” he gritted his teeth.

Amulius blocked his advance, “If you are looking to pursue her, I had a deal to strike with you”. Mars stopped moving, and looked down at Amulius, “I’m listening” mars said, cooly.

Amulius put a hand on his shoulder and stepped away from the steps further from steps, “That is my sister, Rhea Silvia, and I have made her a vestal virgin. She comes highly regarded but I cannot have her heirs, so, well” he looked at Mars and then down at the ground.

Mars nodded, “I see, so I can have her, but if she bears fruit I am to what? Kill my progeny?”

Amulius, “Yes, in a manner, but be not worried, she knows not of a man, she is pure. And –“

Mars cut him off, “That’s enough, I care not about such things. Send her to me tonight”. Mars walked off and away from Amulius and the distant Rhea Silvia, who looked towards him as he tread past. His armor glistened in the afternoon light and it clattered as he proceeded away.

Amulius stomped towards her, and pulled Rhea up from the steps, “You are to be a bride now, and that is final.” Rhea pulled her arm away, but Amulius was forceful, “Take your hand off me. I am a protected priestess”. Rhea tried to stand her ground.

Amulius glared at her, “I made you a vestal to keep you quiet, but now I have another use for you, but if you betray me and create heirs I will destroy you”. Rhea shuddered, “How am I to do that my.. (gulped) King?” Amulius amusedly looked at her, staring at her bosom that was covered in the gauzy fabric of the age, “I am sure you will please him, but you dare not enjoy it”.

Rhea eyes wide looked in a manner confused and terrified. Amulius led her away from the Vesta temple and down to some quarters where he ordered servants to strip her and bathe her. Rhea stood in the tub, tears running down her cheeks. Servants rubbed her down with cloths until her pale skin was reddened. Then they dressed her again in a bridal shift. 

Rhea was a beautiful woman, not like the goddesses they worshipped in what would become the city of Rome, but still quite taking, and her eyes were bright with promise, until today. Rhea trembled in her new gown, and waited until she was retrieved. A robe of dark blues was placed over her shoulders and clasped in the front. It was night now, and the chill of the area was setting in.

---

Torches were lit on the hall walls, and Amulius entered the room.

“It is time, the arrangements have been made, you are his wife now”. Amulius spoke. Rhea looked puzzled, “without a ceremony?” Amulius sneered, “This isn’t a public display, it is just affairs of state”. Rhea looked down and walked slowly towards him, “Please brother be merciful, he is a brut, surely you know that”. Amulius looked at Rhea in the eyes then, and unmistakably sighed greedily, “Oh, I’m counting on it”. Rhea’s eyes widened again, as Amulius let out a deep throaty sinister chuckle. Rhea gathered her robe tighter about her and followed him down the corridor.

A while later they were in the center of the palace, in a section she was unfamiliar with, even though she had spent many years exploring the palace as a child. She could smell the stench of unclean men and hear the ruckus of their chants. A revelry was going on in a room, and she looked up long enough to see them taking part in a drinking game of sorts. Pounding the table and shouting wildly, most men in various layers of battle garb, some nearly nude, she blushed discernibly.

Amulius knocked on a door in the corridor, and a gruff deep voice boomed on the other side. Rhea shivered, even though there was no breeze tonight. Amulius covered her face with the hood of the robe and waited for the door to open. Heavy foot falls came to the door, and when it lurched open a tall dark-haired man stood, somewhat undressed, from battle, an apple in his hand. Mars looked at Amulius amused, “Oh, right. Is this her then?” Mars looked to Rhea, whose eyes were careening past the shadow of her hood, he saw her soft lips, and he groaned into the apple as he took a bite, “Leave her with me” he said to Amulius. Amulius, smirked, “the papers are all in order, Mars”. Mars snatched a scroll from Amulius’ hand. Then looked him up and down again, scoffing, “For a King you do an awful lot of your own dirty work.”

Amulius, “This one I wanted to take care of personally. She is my niece after all”, he replied, bringing his arm around Rhea’s back and pushing her into Mars as he stood barring the doorway with his frame. Rhea’s eyes were fixed on his hulking chest, it breathed in and out as he chewed his apple, the crunching noise above her ears. She dare not look him in the eyes, she was far too nervous. Amulius retreated and went back to his own chambers for a night of blissful sleep.

            When Rhea knew he was out of earshot she fell to her knees in front of Mars, “Please, my, Archon, please take pity on me, and let me go back to my work a vestal, I promise I will bring no shame upon you.” Mars chuckled, still chewing his apple. He grabbed Rhea by the shoulder and drug her inside the room, closing the door and locking it. He dropped is hands from her shoulder and she dropped her hood. Her brown eyes stared up at him from the floor, and he tossed the apple core across the room and yanked her up to her feet. His eyes searched hers for something, innocence? Meaning? Love? Hate? Rhea did not know. Rhea saw him visibly smell her, take her in, his hands squeezing her upper arms so intensely she let out a little whimper. Mars shook her a little at that, and Rhea turned her head away from him. Mars set her on her feet then, and placed his hand across her chin, “You think I care about your family’s honor. I am a god amongst men” he spat, his face was so close to her, she could smell the apple on his breath, amongst other things and feel the heat of his breath. Mars pivoted and tossed her towards the bed then made two hasty strides to meet her there.

Rhea cowered at the end of the bed; eyes bright. Rhea slumped to the floor again, but removed her robe, leaving her shift that was so thin, he could see the nipples bead against the fabric. He picked her up again, and set her on the end of the bed, and grabbed her breast in his meaty hand, and massaged it, his thumb brushing the nipples through the fabric. Rhea felt a new sensation tingle through her, but she was still scared. Her other nipple followed suit and pursed against the fabric. Mars watched her face as she let him touch her. All things happened in microseconds of time.

Mars tore at her gown, exposing all of her to him. He roared excitedly and shucked off his pants hastily. Rhea shivered again, and closed her eyes, as his hands were all over her. Gripping her buttocks, her hips, and brushing by her throat. His one hand on the back of her neck, he stared at her, then grabbed his cock in his other hand, and started to stroke it. Rhea looked down shamefully and was amazed at what she saw. It was large and veiny and it pulsed in his hand, extending from his body. Rhea had never seen anything like that before. He panted a bit, as he said, “Suck it” to her, and then he pushed her mouth towards his cock. She didn’t know what to do, so she closed her eyes, and he grabbed her hair and pulled, “Look at it!” he barked. She still had use of her hands, so she tried to touch him, but he simply shoved his cock into her open mouth and started to rock into her, his hand on her hair was tight and he fucked her throat with righteous abandon. Rhea gagged and spat and tried to breathe.

Mars just kept fucking her, and moaning, happily, “oh, in all my years” he crowed. Rhea pushed at him and gasped as he pulled out, his hold of her hair loosened. Mars let go of her and she choked and spat on to the floor. Her back was turned so she did not see the rope he gathered from the bedclothes. He tied her hands behind her, “So you won’t get away, or think to mark me up. I have a reputation to hold in the bordellos, you know” he smirked and chuckled, his voice deeper now. Mars picked Rhea up again, by her arms and laid her on her back on the bed, her arms tied and pinned beneath her. He stroked his cock again, filling the slick of her spit on it in revelry. He pushed his thighs against hers, parting them. Rhea tensed, not knowing what to expect next, but only hearing stories from the older ladies of the village.

Mars rubbed his cock against her mound, and felt a warmth and slickness, “You told me you haven’t been with a man, then why are you wet?” he cajoled. Rhea’s face flushed with heat, “I don’t know my archon, I.. I”. Mars leaned over her, and spoke against her lips, “It doesn’t matter now, you are mine, now, I can mark you however I wish, and I don’t care about Amulius’ little treaty.  I’ll fill you with my pups until you can’t stand it anymore”, he said grinned wildly. As he stood back up, pulling her ass to the edge of the bed. Mars entered her with conviction and Rhea screamed from the mixing of flesh on flesh and the tearing of her insides it seemed. Mars roared louder feeling her tightness against his throbbing cock. Her walls were untouched and it felt amazing, he pounded into her, holding her hips, his hands gripping her tight. Rhea’s legs were draped past either hip, limp, but not willing. Mars looked at her, and saw her ashen face, he slowed down a moment. Tears were streaming down her cheeks, towards her ears.

“Been a while since I had a virgin” he cackled, “And your so fucking sweet, you may turn me into a softer man.” Mars stayed deep inside her, Rhea’s pussy trembled around him, pulsing. Rhea could feel a warmth in her core now, it rose and fell with his thrusts, but in his stillness, there was a yearning for more. Mars felt the twitch of her cunt, and he smiled again, leaning down to bite her neck, and sucked her flesh between his teeth, “Mine” he growled. And Rhea let out a sensational moan, she hadn’t ever heard herself make that sound before, “My archon, what was..” Rhea murmured. Mars stopped sucking her neck, and came to look upon her, “That my wife was a moan”. Rhea nearly giggled, but still was mightily uncomfortable.

Mars started his pace again, thrusting deep and fast into her, and panting as he went. His eyes bore into hers, and still tears filled hers in fright and confusion. Mars pulled out of her and readjusted her. He picked her up by the waist, turned her around and pushed her face first into the bed, her ass presented for him. Mars grinned broadly, “oh the gods did smile upon me this day.” And Mars grabbed Rhea’s ass, massaging it greedily, parting her cheeks, and pressing his cock into her pussy again. Rhea moaned, but into the bed. Mars’ cock strained and grew thicker as he pushed deeper and pumped faster. He could feel his climax building inside him, and he wanted to fill her core with as much of his seed as he could. He needed to, to rebel against that spoiled King, Amulius.

Mars kept pushing deeper, right to her Rhea’s cervix, and he banged into it with great relish, bruising it, and causing more spasms inside her. Rhea did not know how to orgasm, he knew that, and her body reacted to him just as nature intended. Rhea’s face was smooshed into the bed clothes, her ass in the air, her core spasming. She felt totally out of control, and she made little sounds with her mouth, but she didn’t know if they were a call for relief or more. Mars went faster and faster and harder and harder. Rhea spasmed around his cock, and as he cum, shooting his hot load against her cervix, washing it with his seed, Mars growled again, and pulled Rhea’s torso up to meet his chest.

His hand drifted lazily against her folds, and he rubbed her clit a little. Kissing her neck, softer now, as she gasped from his fingers on her. His cock was still inside her, pulsing, and when he touched her clit, Rhea’s eyes rolled back in her head in joyful sadness, “Please, my archon, I don’t understand”.  He shushed against her cheek, “Its alright, you’ll understand one day, I’ll teach you”. Rhea’s eyes closed then, tears rolling down her cheeks. Mars cock was still hard, and he pumped into her a few more times, her pussy still clamping onto him, Mars breath hitched against her neck, “You are amazing, just think what can happen, when you know what your doing.”

Rhea blushed at those words, the warmth in her belly transferring to her cheeks. Mars’ arm held her to him, across her chest and against his own. Rhea’s arms still bound behind her. Mars set her down gently then and untied her. He rubbed her wrists, and checked for marks, tossing the rope aside. Rhea turned to him, gathering herself into a sitting position, her knees up at her chest. Mars looked at her then and realized how youthful her face, in the torchlight. “My god, you really are beautiful aren’t you?” Rhea looked down, and wept into her knees. Mars’ seed was oozing out of her pussy, and he noticed it gathering on the bed. He coaxed her with whispered to her to ‘lay down’, and he propped her legs up, against his side.

Mars gathered a bit of covers over her then. And Rhea gratefully accepted them. Mar’s propped his hand on his head and looked at her. Rhea looked at him still puzzled, “What are we doing now?” Mars lazily retorted, “trying to make heirs so your uncle will lose all he has”. Rhea smiled then for the first time all night, “Oh, well, if that’s what it takes, I will try my best.” Mars grinned, letting his finger make circles on her belly against the blanket, “And if it doesn’t, we can just keep trying.” Rhea looked at him then still a little shaken, “But not like that, every time, right?”

Mars looked down a second, a light in his eyes shining warmly towards her, “No, not every time,” he paused, sitting up a bit, “Unless I’m fresh from battle, I tend to be an ogre”, his boyish grin is almost endearing. Rhea tries to feel something besides the tenderness between her legs and the utter sadness of losing her position as priestess, “So what does a wife of a guard captain do?” Mars looked at her with as much seriousness as he could muster in that moment, “Take care of me, I guess. I honestly don’t know”. Rhea actually felt a bit lighter as at his relaxed confession, “Well maybe we can make it as we go along?” she asked. Mars looked at her a bit steely, his blue eyes sharpening in the lamplight “Perhaps.” Rhea nodded in understanding.

(Part 2?)

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@ scariusaquarius @legolasbadass @sweetestgbye @middleearthpixie @evenstaredits @lathalea @riepu10

Lyn’s writing event 2024 

[yamayuandadu]

I don't know how well versed in Canaanite or Phoenician stuff, but if so, what's the deal with Tanit? Did she originate in Ashtart, or was a separate goddess? I keep finding a lot of conflicting information on her, and the fact that she's associated with supposed child-sacrifice means a lot of the stuff I find on her has an air of sensationalism

I won’t claim it’s a major interest (recall that the only strictly Canaanite deity whose wiki page I wrote is Baalat Gebal) but I think I can help. However, bear in mind there might be significant gaps in my knowledge esp. regarding the various colonies across the Ibernian peninsula, Sardinia etc.

Saying anything firm about Tanit is not exactly easy since virtually all attestations of her are brief dedicatory inscriptions, theophoric names, toponyms (ex. Aqtanit, Aitanit, Kfar Tanit) and symbolic representations. No hymns, no myths, no theological speculation, not even much in the way of sources hinting at how her cult was organized. Such a body of evidence doesn’t let one do much beyond concluding she certainly was an actively worshiped deity.

There are multiple proposals regarding her name but as far as I am aware most if not all come from authors whose methods leave a lot to be desired, so I’ll leave that out. It’s really not possible to say much beyond the fact she was clearly regarded as the tutelary goddess of Carthage. There is also evidence for some degree of worship in Sidon from the sixth century BCE onward, Kition from the fifth (references to a group of devotees, theophoric names) and in the Mount Lebanon range (a single Carthaginian inscription mentions “Tanit in Lebanon”; see Spencer L. Allen, The Splintered Divine, p. 243-244 and 302). The only connection between Tanit and another deity we can be sure about is that with Baal Hammon, presumably her spouse. It’s best reflected in her epithet “Face of Baal”, found almost exclusively in sources from Carthage, the main exception being two attestations from Constantine in Algeria. What exactly this title entails is difficult to tell, though (The Splintered Divine, p. 242-243). An interesting Neo-Punic inscription pairs Tanit with Kronos, which would indicate the author was familiar with the interpretatio graeca of Baal Hammon, which goes back at least to Sophocles’ times (The Splintered Divine, p. 57).

Out of necessity the rest of the response will largely focus on explaining who Tanit certainly wasn’t. 

For starters, she definitely was not Ashtart in any shape or form. Aren M. Wilson-Wright in Athtart. The Transmission and Transformation of a Goddess in the Late Bronze Age (the book isn’t open access, but you can find the dissertation it was based on here) points out that authors seeking to prove they’re related treat data from different locations and time periods as fully interchangeable, without taking into account deities change across time (p. 7). 

Ultimately the only real argument comes from a text discovered during the excavations in Sarepta dated to the sixth century BCE. It contains the compound name “Tanit-Astarte” (The Splintered Divine, p. 241). The problem is that the two were clearly viewed as distinct in Carthage, as evidenced by roughly contemporary sources. (The Splintered Divine, p. 244). 

Allen notes we might be dealing with a situation like Tanit being worshiped alongside Astarte and the double name designating her as an “associate” of sorts, or that similarly as in the case of Neo-Assyrian compound theonyms the double name indicates a form of Tanit with Astarte’s attributes, like how “Ashur-Enlil” was a designation of Ashur as the king of the gods and not an indication he was merged with Enlil (The Splintered Divine, p. 241).

There are some issues with this book, Wilson-Wright describes the editor’s introduction in particular as “Frazerian” (Athtart, p. 9) and I have to agree with him. 

Even with Ashtart out of the picture, the dreadful specter of interchangeability of goddesses refuses to leave the room, though. There’s an even more nonsensical proposal, namely that Tanit is, somehow, Asherah. We have Frank Moore Cross of Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic to blame for this one. As outlined by Steve A. Wiggins in A Reassessment of Asherah With Further Considerations of the Goddess (p. 131), subsequent publications making the same claim just rely on Cross, with no new material added. The equation is utterly baseless since it depends on assigning symbols to “Asherah” (really to Ugaritic Athirat) based on the pure vibes school of scholarship. Alleged leonine connections rest entirely on the deeply puzzling equation with the sparsely attested Qudshu (or however we’re romanizing her name this week), conclusively proven to be an Egyptian invention (see Christiane Zivie Coche, Foreign Deities in Egypt, pages 4-5) and thus irrelevant to this discussion.

It’s worth noting the only reason why forced attempts are made every now and then is that since Q. appears once - on a now lost stela, lol - with Anat and Ashtart - she CLEARLY must be a northern goddess of equal standing which somehow means Athirat (hardly attested outside Ugarit, and even then, Shapash, Nikkal, Pidray, the collective Kotharat are all equally if not better attested…). So, in other words: the Tanit link here was built on multiple levels of unsound foundations.

[readyforevolution]

THE AMAZIGH!

Amazighs are very likely the direct descendants of the Mesolithic and Neolithic Caspian populations that live between 8000 and 2700 BC in North Africa. The reason why there are many Amazigh groups that are quite different from each other is the vast extent of the North African territory where they have live for millennia. Each region has its specific geographical characteristics imposing therefore a specific lifestyle. That's why the northern regions of North Africa that have a Mediterranean climate with regular seasons has a sedentary population, while hotter and arid regions in the High Plateaus and the Sahara have nomadic populations.

The Amazighs live in scattered communities across Morocco 🇲🇦 Algeria 🇩🇿 Tunisia 🇹🇳 Libya 🇱🇾 Egypt 🇪🇬 Mali 🇲🇱 Niger 🇳🇪 and Mauritania 🇲🇷 They speak various Amazigh languages belonging to the Afro-Asiatic family related to ancient Egyptian.

The Amazighs, indigenous to North Africa, have a rich and ancient culture. Their traditional crafts, including jewellery, pottery, weaving, and henna art, hold great value and have been passed down for generations.

The heaviest concentration of Amazighs speakers is found in Morocco. Major Amazigh languages include Tashelhit (Tashelhiyt, Tashelhait, Shilha), Tarifit, Kabyle, Tamazight, and Tamahaq.

In North Africa, the The Amazighs religion was based on Phoenician and Punic deities, with a god (Baal) and a goddess (Tanit).

#AfricaMyAfrica

[catilinas]

second punic war historical fiction pov character anna As In, Dido's Sister From The Aeneid Who Was Going To Maybe Be Murdered By Lavinia And Turned Into A River About It, assimilated into the roman goddess anna perenna (there's a cool motif about circular narratives in there. like we Are trapped in meanings that circulate like blood). in silius italicus' punica she helps out hannibal or something. Elaborate On That. (and it Needs to get weird about time + epic narrative in a laviniacore way.) the other pov character is iuturna As In, Turnus' Unwillingly Immortal Sister From The Aeneid Who Was Also A River Goddess. altar in the forum romanum despite her spending the whole aeneid on the side of the war that Lost to aeneas. And They Are Lesbians. turnus has always been hannibalcoded we Know this. did you know turnus and dido are also parallels and also Cousins. the potential for evil mimetic haunted sibling relationships is almost infinite. we are trapped in meanings that circulate like blood! second punic war is the main event but if it gets weird and nonlinear i think polybius should be there also. in what is very clearly a hostage situation. also hannibal is being pursued by an army of ghosts or something idk

[dea-syria]

The primitive statue of the goddess of Pessinus, a black stone or baetyl dignified by the name of the Mother of the Gods, was transported to Rome in the stress of the Second Punic War and there became the centre of a ritual served by eunuch priests supported by the State; while, later, her analogue, the Syrian goddess, whose temple at Hierapolis, according to Lucian, required a personnel of over three hundred ministrants, became the object of the special devotion of the Emperor Nero.

--Francis Legge, "Forerunners and Rivals of Christianity"

[butterclaw]

Dama de Elche (Lady of Elche), Punic-Iberian goddess Tanit

[mask131]

Last time, when I posted the vague translation of an article about Tanit, a lot of people were surprised and said they were unaware of the goddess' very existence... So for those who are interested into the Punic mythology, I will list here some points one can find literaly by going to the French Wikipedia article about the Punic religion. (I precise French Wikipedia because the French and English Wikipedias sometimes do not have the same information)

(Again this is not exact or definitive stuff, just a little bit of intro ; a "little taste for the beginning of the research")

The Punic religion/mythology is the one of the city of Carthage. You know? The Great Carthage, the famed rival and enemy of Rome, Hannibal and all that. It also extended to all the cities and regions which were under Carthage's influence and control. (So we are talking the coasts of Northern Africa, the south of Spain and Italy, and other adjacent areas)

The Punic mythology is derived from the Phoenician mythology, hence why several Phoenician gods can be found back among the Punic pantheon - but differences between the Phoenician and Punic religions are attested as early as Carthage's foundation.

Despite the conquest and destruction of Carthage by the Roman Empire, the religion still went on - it is attested as having been performed during the 3rd and 2nd centuries BCE, and some theorize the Punic gods might have stayed "alive" as late as the fourth century CE.

One of the big problems when studying the Punic religion is to differentiate historical facts from biased accusations, because the Roman authors were known to heavily caricature and demonize its rites. Notably the Romans regularly accused the people of Carthage of monstrous infant-sacrifices, and the archeological discoveries are quite ambiguous as to whether there were indeed sacrifices of children or not...

As I said before, the Punic gods were born when the Phoenician gods were brought over to Northern Africa and acquired there specific traits, while also interacting with other local religions. The Punic gods are dominated by the figure of the "superior god" that is Ba'al Hammon (or just Ba'al), and which is inherited from the Phoenicians - though the Punic Ba'al and the Phoenician Ba'al are quite different from each other. Astarte, Ba'al paredra (female companion) in the Oriental religions, is also present in the Punic religion but in a secondary and "weakened" way - she was rather replaced/fused with an emblematic goddess of the Punic religion, Tanit, the paredra of the Punic Baal (and even called the "face of Baal").

Astarte was preserved as a goddess of fecundity and war, though she seems to have been moved to a "secondary" situation. Other Phoenician gods preserved include Eshmun, god of medecine, and Melkart, a god symbolizing expansion and enrichment. Melkart was quite notably fused/equated with the Greek figure of the hero-god Herakles.

Most of the gods of the Punic pantheon (except for Baal, which oversaw and dominated them all) acted as "poliads", aka as city-gods. Tanit is considered to have been the goddess of the city of Carthage, while Melkart was the patron of the city of Gades (Cadiz), and Sid the tutelar deity of Sardinia (hence his alternate name "Sardus Pater").

Ba'al Hammon, the leader of the Punic gods, was born of the meeting between the Phoenician Baal, and the Egyptian Ammon, whose cult had spread to Lybia and almost most of Northern Africa (Ba'al Hammon notably had the same ram-association as Amon). This dual god, who symbolized fire and the sun, was later, in the Roman era, assimilated with Jupiter - and it is attested that the Punic Baal (Baal-Amon-Jupiter) still had a worship when Christianity started establishing itself.

The Punic religion had some "imported" cults too. Most notably, during the Greco-Punic wars, the Punic civilization adopted the worship of Demeter and Kore, as goddesses of fertility and harvest. This was due (according to Diodorus of Sicily) to the destruction of these goddesses' temple at Syracuse in 396 BCE: after this, all sorts of disasters plagued the army of Carthage, and so the city adopted the worship of the goddesses in an attempt at appeasing them. Some archeological clue also indicate that the cult of Isis might have existed at Carthage - but it is not firmly confirmed.

The Punic gods were usually invoked when an important historical event had to take place: for example before any military campaign, they were invoked, and if a sea-expedition was successful, the gods were thanked. The Punic religion was a state-business, since there was not cleric/secular division in the Carthagian lifestyle. The priests did not have any direct or open political power, but they had an enormous influence over society - and the members of the higher ranks of the religious hierarchy all belonged to the most powerful families of Carthage.

There was an entire "society-within-a-society" linked to the temples, since each temple had its own set of barbers, slaves and servants. Sacred prostitution was also common within many Punic temples: this prostitution involved both male and female prostitutes, and to be one could be either a definitive, lifetime state, or a temporary function. There was also a whole commerce of ex-votos the followers of the god could buy in buildings linked to the temples - in fact this commerce was most developped by the sea-shores and in coastal cities, where foreigners could bring donations and offerings or receive ex-votos. In fact, the offerings of the temples (usually meat and other resources for consumption) played a big part in the economical model of Carthage. There were specific "prices" and "tariffs" when it came to offerings: we have preserved several "price lists" indicating which type and amount of offering was needed depending on the request or demand. Could be sacrificed vegetables, food, objects, but also small and big animals (usually birds for "small" and cows for "big"). The offering was shared between the priest, the offerer and the god, and then a commemorative stone was set.

A big debate point is the tophet of Carthage, the sacred area dedicated to Tanit and Baal. The thing is we have very little clues and knowledge about this area, outside of vague and repetitive texts found on the ex-votos, thanking "Tanit Pene Baal and Lord Ba'al Hammon". The problem is that some Roman writers and historians (but not all - which adds oil to the fire) said the child-sacrifices took place within this area, identifying these rituals to the sacrifices of Moloch. Some child bones were found in urns, but given no violent cause of death could be found, it is unknown if this indeed was a place of child-sacrifices, or a necropolis for dead children.

It is established that, in the Punic religion, there was a difference between the state-religion, dominated by Carthage, and a folk-religion expressed through the amulets and the talismans protecting against demons and diseases. The folk-religion was heavily influenced by the Egyptian mythology: the Egyptian god Bes was a very popular folk-god of the Punic civilization, charged with protecting both the living and the dead.

We also know a few more details of religious practices, though they stay obscure... For example we know there was a worship of the ancestors within the houses of Carthage, but we don't know how, why, when. Similarly we know the Punic civilization forbade the eating of pork - a diet restriction still efficient by the early 4th century... But why, we don't know. We also do know the Punics seemed to have a belief in life after death, because even though the funeral rites involved incineration, there were mortuary chambers decorated like a house of the living, filled with offerings of food and drinks, and perfumed before being sealed. The position of the corpse was sometimes similar to the "Oriental" rites inherited from the Phoenicians, but other times influenced by the funeral practices of the Berbers (which were one of the population with influential interactions with the Punic civilization).

Numerous elements of modern-day Northern African/Muslim cultures were directly inherited from the Punic religion. For example, the khamsa amulet is widely recognized as being a leftover of the Punic amulets ; similarly, modern-day Tunisia regularly uses the "Symbol of Tanit" (it is used within the cinematographic prize of the "Gold Tanit"). The Algerian and Tunisian expression "Baali agriculture" to designate a non-irrigated agriculture is explained as a reference to the Punic Baal, the same way the Tunisian ritual of the Umuk Tangu/Ommek Tannu (Oumouk Tangou, Ommek Tannou, "Mother Tannou/Tangou"), a rain-invocation for periods of droughts, is a survival of the goddess Tanit (of whom Tangu/Tannu are alternate names). Some go as far as to theorize that the "star and the crescent", symbol of the Muslim religion ever since the Ottoman empire popularized it, might have been influenced by the Punic religious symbols...

[jasper-the-menace]

So, as those of you who witnessed my spiral in my Chima Discord server know, I recently realized that my Tales of Chima series had some fascinating parallels with Egyptian mythology and divines therein, which is fun because that's one of the pantheons I worship and honor as a polytheist.

Well, I decided to be a lot more intentional from the get-go when it came to mythological and religious references in Chimahaven, starting with the surnames of our protagonists:

Emily and Onyx Zephyras: Derived from Zephyros, the Greek god of the west wind and one of the Anemoi. This gives them both a connection between the two of them to all four classical elements (with Emily having earth-as-plants and Onyx using steam magic, a combination of fire and water). It also gives Onyx a stronger connection to their elemental Prismari college.

Dennari Areia: Derived from the epithet Areia, meaning "the Warlike", used for the goddesses Aphrodite and Athena in ancient Greece. This emphasizes Dennari's combat magic specialty and ties her more into her Lorehold college. Her first name is also a reference to the denarius, the standard Roman silver coin introduced during the Second Punic War.

Eris Notus: Derived from Notos, the Greek god of the south wind and one of the Anemoi. This gives her a connection to both her air/wind elemental magic and the fire-based powers granted to her by her strange connection to the Phoenixes.

Scorm Imperator: Unlike the others, Scorm's surname isn't derived from a Greek or Roman god. It's instead derived from the scientific name for the emperor scorpion, Pandinus imperator, because that's what I've clocked the Scorpion Tribe as. This has nothing to do with his magic in this setting, he's just here.

Cragger Ponteid: Cragger's surname is derived from the Greek primordial ocean god, Pontos, who was the biggest ocean guy on the block before Okeanos showed up (and then later Poseidon). This ties Cragger back into his home swamp and into his water elemental magic.

Razar Pheletes: Razar's surname comes from an epithet for Hermes (Φηλητης, Phêlêtês, of which he is the only bearer) that means "Thief", "Robber", and "Rustler". It felt quite fitting, especially since Razar's magic is vocal instead of elemental in nature.

Laval Vestalia: Derived from the ancient Roman festival of Vestalia, which ran from June 7th to June 15th and honored the hearth goddess Vesta. Since Laval has the most prominent fire elemental magic of our protagonists (besides possibly Onyx), I felt that depicting it as the fire of the hearth was a pretty neat idea. There's a lot of focus on fire as destroyer in element-based media, so I wanted to take a different angle with Laval's magic.

So, building on this, most of the symbolism I'll use for Chimahaven will be rooted in Greek mythology/religion (of which I identify most closely with in my honoring), while adding some from later Roman mythology/religion for a little extra...texture, we'll say.

[galleryofart]

The Vision of a Knight

Artist: Raphael  (1483–1520)

Title: An Allegory

Genre: Mythological Painting

Date: c. 1504

Medium: Tempera

Collection: National Gallery, London, England

Raphael's Vision of a Knight shows a young man in armour asleep under a tree, flanked by two women. One is holding a book and a sword, the other holds a flower. This small picture is an allegorical painting (a figurative representation of an abstract idea).

The most likely source is an allegory about choices taken from a passage in the Punica, an epic poem recounting the Second Punic War by the Latin poet Silius Italicus. Resting in the shade of a bay tree, the young soldier Scipio has a vision of two ladies that he had to choose between: Venus (pleasure) and Minerva (Virtue).

Minerva was the Roman goddess of wisdom and sponsor of arts, trade, and defense. Behind her is a clear path which symbolizes dutiful work that leads to a castle.

Venus, in the looser robes, is the Roman goddess of love, and behind whom is a steeper, rockier path that leads to distant lands, or the sea where Venus was born, via river .

The items held by the two represent their ideals: the book, sword suggest the ideals of scholarship, law, and defense. The flower suggest the ideals of a lover both ideals a knight might debate choosing from while daydreaming.

The laurel tree was used to fashion the laurel wreath of ancient Greece, a symbol of highest status. A wreath of bay laurels was given as the prize at the Pythian Games because the games were in honor of Apollo, and the laurel was one of his symbols. A crown of Laurel's or the Laurel on the helmet would be a symbol of fame.

[cincinnatusvirtue]

Countries that are no more: Ancient Carthage (814BC-146BC)

The state discussed in this post is one of the most famous and important in antiquity. Yet, it remains one of the most elusive and mysterious civilizations in world history because its own written records have been virtually erased with all contemporary written records coming from foreign sources that both praised and reviled its existence. However, it was influential for its model of government, its expansion of Mediterranean trade, its influence on models of economic production, naval exploration and for its military leaders whose tactical and strategic prowess influence warfare to the modern day and for its rivalry with the other emerging Mediterranean superpower of antiquity: Rome. A rivalry that is characterized as the quintessential clash of civilizations. This is Carthage.

Name: In its native language, the Phoenician dialect known in Latin as Punic, it was 𐤒𐤓𐤕𐤟𐤇𐤃𐤔𐤕, or annunciated as qrt-ḥdšt or Qart-Hardasht. This translates into English as "New City". In Latin it was known as Carthago or Karthago, the modern English pronunciation of Carthage comes by way of French.

Language: Carthage as a city-state and its empire more broadly held a cosmopolitan mixture of peoples and languages. However, the founders of Carthage and its ruling elite spoke Punic, a dialect of Phoenician associated with the city of Carthage which was founded by Phoenician colonists from the Levant. Punic was Phoenician in origin and became a distinct local dialect of Phoenician speakers in Carthage and other cities. These settlers founded colonies throughout North Africa and the Western Mediterranean. The Phoenician language and its dialects were from the Semitic language family native to the Middle East. It originated as a distinct dialect of the Canaanite peoples from who the Phoenicians and subsequently the Carthaginians descend from. The Canaanites also gave rise to the other Semitic speaking peoples such as the Israelites, Moabites and Ammonites among others. Modern Hebrew is said to be the extant language most similar to ancient Punic. In Carthage's empire there were also local varieties of Berber (Amazigh) languages spoken by the native Berbers who settled in North Africa. There were also local languages in Iberia (Spain and Portugal) from the Iberian and Celtic tribes settled there and the languages of native Sardinian and Balearic peoples as well. Additionally, ancient Greek was spoken by Greek colonists, mercenaries and traders who also settled within Carthage's empire and sphere of influence.

Territory: The city of Carthage is located in the environs of modern Tunis, capital of the modern state of Tunisia in North Africa. It was from this centrally located city founded by Phoenician colonists that their subsequent empire grew. The established contact and control with other Phoenician colonies in the area such as nearby Utica and eventually grew to control all of coastal North Africa from modern Morocco to western Libya. The modern states of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya were its core territory, with Tunisia being its heartland. It also included Malta, the western half of Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica's coastal regions, the Balearic Islands of Spain and the southeastern portions of Iberia, particularly the coastal areas with influence into parts of the interior and south of the Ebro River.

Symbols & Mottos: The symbols associated with the state of Carthage are often in reference to their pantheon of gods which were quite extensive but centered mostly around the Phoenician gods but also included Berber, Iberian and Greek influences within their pantheon as well. A military standard associated with Carthage includes a staff with a sun disc and topped with a crescent moon. Also, the sign of Tanit, a Phoenician goddess's whose symbol was found on Carthaginian ruins along with Phoenician ruins found back in the Phoenician colonists' homeland in the Levant (Lebanon, Israel and Syria). The sign of Tanit appears in many varieties but is usually found as a schematic like sketch of a person with a triangular base with a disc on top with horizontal lines then pointing upwards like raised arms.

Religion: With Phoenician settlers being the originators of Carthage its ruling elite, the primary state religion was their variety of the ancient Phoenician religion which was polytheistic and included many notable gods and goddesses from Tanit to Baal Hammon, Melqart and Astarte among others. Many of these gods found companions with the Greeks and indeed due to the interfacing with Greeks both through trade and war, some Greek gods would also be incorporated into the Carthaginian pantheon, though it remained distinctly Punic at its core. There also appears to be Berber (Libyan and Numidian) influences along with Sardinian and Iberian interfacing that both saw the spread of worship of the Punic/Phoenician deities with local influences likewise being adopted by the Carthaginians. Even some ancient Egyptian gods appear to be included in Carthaginian worship. This syncretism and tolerance reflect the cosmopolitan outlook and composition the Carthaginians had within their realm.

There were priests who maintained the temples and sanctuaries devoted to particular deities. Likewise, Carthaginians practiced everything from ritual banquets to funerary rites such as those in the Levant like disposing of the remains of the dead, feasts for the dead, ancestor worship and goods in the tombs of the dead, indicating belief in life after death. Cemeteries were often built outside the walls of Punic settlements and included stelae with inscriptions serving as grave markers. Carthaginians practiced both burial and cremation.

There does appear to be cases of animal sacrifice to appease the gods in Carthaginian society as well. This tended to follow very specific regulations and rules.

The most controversial topic of the Punic religion however appears to be the practice of child sacrifice. The sources for this we must bear in mind come from Greco-Roman writers that weren't known to actually witness the practice and from civilizations that had biases toward Carthage more broadly. Yet both Greek and Roman sources cite the Carthaginians as practicing child sacrifice in their religion. These sources sometimes do contradict one another in their specifics. Modern historians debate the extent of this practice and what are the contents found at the sites known as Tophet in urns with ashes that may come from human infants. The Greco-Roman sources state children were specifically killed for ritual purposes and killed in various manners and burned as offerings. Based on archaeological findings some historians take the position that the practice may have occurred but may have been relegated to the ritual cremation of infants who died of natural causes. Others uphold the Greco-Roman sources and other deny the practice at all, chalking it up as pure invention of biased sources from Greece and Rome. Because Carthage was destroyed by Rome in 146 BC and virtually all extant written sources on Carthage come from Roman and Greek sources, there doesn't appear to be any definitive answer to this practice's purported extent or even its existence. Modern archaeology can lend more nuance to the topic but a clear answer like much of what we know about Carthage and its society remains a mystery.

Currency: The basic coinage of Carthage was called the shekel which derived from its Phoenician antecedents. There were gold, silver and bronze coins found throughout Carthage's empire. Mints were found not only in North Africa but Sicily and Iberia. Coins depicted everything from date palm trees to famous soldiers and politicians both Carthaginian in origin like the Barcid family of Hannibal Barca and even Greek rulers such as Alexander the Great.

Population: At its peak the empire had probably 3.7-4.3 million people. The city of Carthage proper at its peak was anywhere 250,000-500,000 people.

Government: The basis of our understanding of Carthage's governance is limited and largely based on ancient Greek and Roman sources. Some of which write of it in disparaging terms and others praise it for its complexity and nuance.

The basic understand is that during the first few centuries of Carthage's existence it was probably a monarchy. However, the extent to which the kings ruled over Carthage is debated. The Phoenician city states from which Carthage descended, namely Tyre had nominal monarchs but who deferred to a council of advisors who helped craft policy and administer the law. It seems reasonable that Carthage followed this political model in its earliest stages with nominal monarchs who likewise consulted a council of advisors made up Carthaginian nobility to craft and administer policy. The degree to which kings of Carthage held power probably fluctuated.

Following the First Sicilian War against the Greek colonists on Sicily in 480 BC, the nature of Carthage's government changed gradually with a weakening of the monarchy. By the 300s BC Carthage was at its peak and best characterized as an oligarchic republic. It was noted to have numerous checks and balances on the branches of government, a vast and complex administrative state, high levels of public accountability and participation in civic duty. Aristotle the famed Greek philosopher wrote on Carthage in his treatise "Politics" as the only non-Greek polity to be represented in the work.

Carthage as a republic became ruled nominally by two simultaneously elected non-hereditary magistrates called sufetes or shophets. This position's title translates as "judges" and they are said to handle a mix of judicial and executive powers. How they were elected and who was eligible for this head of state position is not known. What is known is they were always from the oligarchic ruling class of Carthage and that they held annual terms. The Roman writer Livy states this was comparable to the Roman republican practice of electing two consuls for annual terms. They are said to have ruled jointly and likewise handled matters of state through the convening and presiding over the supreme consultative council known as Adirim (similar to the Roman Senate), submitting legislation to the popular assembly and adjudicating trials. The sufetes interestingly did not hold any military power as this was separated and reserved for military commanders with the generals reporting to the Carthaginian assembly in the Adirim.

The Adirim held about 30 members on the council and like senators in Rome were elected from the wealthy elite merchant families of Carthage. They administered the treasury, conducted foreign affairs and providing some control over military affairs. It is said matters of state required unanimous decision making to go into effect.

Carthage also had judicial assembly called the One-Hundred and Four. These judges provided oversight of the military and other politicians and bureaucrats within Carthage. As an example of Carthage's political checks and balances, the One-Hundred and Four had the power administer monetary fines or even the death penalty, sometimes by crucifixion on military or government officials found to have engaged in unbecoming behavior that went against the interest of the public. It also formed small committees to provide oversight on political matters.

Separate from these bodies also came numerous junior bureaucratic positions to held administer everything from tax collection, public works and the state treasury.

Carthage also contained at local levels trade unions, a popular assembly and town meetings. In matters where the sufetes and Adirim could not decide law in a unanimous manner a popular assembly was consulted to make a final determination. Whether this was a formal institution or ad hoc solution has never been determined.

Aristotle singled out the Carthaginian government as more meritocratic than its contemporary Greek counterparts. He also praised its complex balance of monarchical, aristocratic and democratic elements. Some other Greek writers went so far as to say it was the best form of government in existence at that time only equaled in the Greek world by Sparta. Meanwhile, Aristotle himself stated that Carthage had some form of constitution and found it superior to Sparta's.

The Greek historian Polybius writing for a Greco-Roman audience in his commentary on the Punic Wars between Rome and Carthage stated that Carthage had more democratic elements than Rome did and that the common people were on average given more say than Romans at the time. However, Polybius saw this as a detriment to Carthage during the Punic Wars, in his estimate too much bickering and infighting to gain a unanimous decision led to paralysis and indecision. Whereas he favored the Roman Senate's rules which were less democratic overall and therefore more decisive in determining important decisions at crucial moments such as in war.

Carthage's republican government appears to have been replicated in the colonies and territories throughout its empire with sufetes found at local colonial levels. There appears to be cooperation between Punic colonial officials and the local population under Carthaginian rule.

Carthage was primarily mercantile in its outlook. The control of trade commodities and goods throughout the Mediterranean was the basis for its economic development and always of primary concern. Hence the merchant class-oligarchy's vested interest in maintaining power.

Military: Carthage was a classic example of a maritime power. Its navy was its most important military branch in many ways. The navy was used to ensure control over the network of trade routes between the various parts of the Western and Central Mediterranean. It would win naval victories over its Greek and Roman rivals though it would ultimately face defeat by the Romans.

The navy was large in size for antiquity and benefitted from the Phoenician advent of serial production, the ancient equivalent of assembly line production which produced ships of good quality but in an efficient manner. They could maintain hundreds of ships at one time, even after their power dimmed with the rise of Rome.

The ethnic composition of the navy's sailors, oarsman, navigators and marine force was almost exclusively Phoenician. Given the Phoenicians long association with seafaring trade and navigation, the Carthaginians merely upheld this tradition including in warfare.

The army of Carthage, its land based military branch was also crucial in achieving its geopolitical goals. From the subjugation of rebellious tribes in North Africa and Iberia to battling the Greeks and Romans in foreign wars. In conjunction with the navy the ultimate goal was maintaining Carthage's control of trade routes and upholding its sphere of influence to maintain favorable conditions for said trade.

Due to the limited population of Phoenician colonists spread throughout the Carthaginian empire and given their traditional naval prowess, much of the army was not of ethnic Phoenician/Punic background. Instead, they relied on a multinational mix of auxiliaries and mercenaries to fill the armies ranks. There might be Phoenician officers and generals such as the famed Hannibal Barca and his relatives including his father Hamilcar and brothers Mago and Hasdrubal, but many other officers could be Greeks among others. The rank and file including Greek mercenaries fighting in the hoplite style, many Greek colonists from Sicily and Southern Italy, Berber infantry and cavalry, particular the light cavalry of Numidia famed for its fast-moving skirmishers armed with javelins and the Libyan infantry. Iberian infantry and cavalry of mixed Celtic and Iberian backgrounds. The famed light skirmisher infantry from the Balearic Islands who slung stones at their enemies were likewise part of the army. Also included in the army were Gallic (Celtic) infantry and cavalry from France and Italy, Sardinians (Nuragic) and Italic peoples such as Samnites, Lucanians, Etruscans and even some Latin peoples including Roman defectors could be found among Carthage's land army. The Phoenician rank and file in the army were usually colonists from other Punic settlements and not Carthage proper. The exception being the famed 3,000 strong Sacred Band of Carthage which were derived from the strongest and healthiest of Carthage's wealthiest families to fight as an elite special unit of the army. Armed and trained int the Greek hoplite style and phalanx formation.

The army also utilized African Forest elephants as a mobile force similar to a wrecking ball. These elephants provided a fearsome complement to the army and was famously used by Hannibal Barca in his crossing of the Alps to invade Roman Italy during the Second Punic War.

The major conflicts Carthage fought in its history were its colonial wars in North Africa against Berber tribes and kingdoms, Iberia and in Sicily first against the Greeks and later against its archrival Rome. The three Punic Wars fought between Carthage and Rome have been characterized by some historians as the ultimate and perhaps most important clash of civilizations in the ancient world and perhaps of all time. Ultimately, they would all end in Rome's favor and eventual destruction and razing of Carthage by Rome, ending Rome's biggest rival and leading to Roman supremacy over the Mediterranean basin for the next several centuries.

Economy: Economic concerns were of chief importance to the Carthaginians. Their empire was essentially a commercial one or rather an expansive and complex trade network with the state trying to aggressively uphold and expand its scope. Its origins lie with the Carthage's Phoenician roots. The Phoenicians based in the Levantine coast (mainly modern Lebanon, Israel and Syria) weren't one united people but rather a series of city states, with the most powerful being based on the coast. These included the cities of Byblos, Sidon and Tyre among the leading polities and all with an outward maritime trade orientation. The Phoenicians produced many goods and economic models that would be both enriching and influential on trade throughout the ancient world. This included purple dye for fabric, uncolored glass, wine production and Lebanese cedar for timber production and the serial production economic model.

Carthage was founded in modern Tunisia by Phoenician colonists from the city of Tyre (Lebanon) in the 9th century BC. They were not the first Phoenician colony in North Africa but they eventually rose to become the most aggressive and successful. In part this was due to its secure and strategic location. It soon became the leading trade center on the Western and Central Mediterranean. They controlled trade routes at sea and rose to prominence and domination among all the other Phoenician colonies setup in North Africa, Sicily, Malta, Sardinia and Iberia.

Mining for metals silver, lead, copper and tin were of crucial importance for the wealth of Carthage, in particular this motivated their expansion into Iberia. Additionally, the temperate and fertile climate of the Western Mediterranean lead to much wine production. They also traded in amber, timber, grains an food preservatives.

While mostly a maritime trade power, Carthage also had overland caravans to secure goods from the African interior and even the Middle East. Continual exploration for new and expanding trade routes and goods was also important for Carthage. Famed Carthaginian explorers of Punic origin included Himilco the Explorer who lived in the 6th and 5th centuries BC. He is said to have been the first Mediterranean sailor to have explored the Atlantic routes to Northwest Europe, visiting Portugal, France and the British Isles. Britain in particular was important to the ancient tin trade which was necessary in bronze production. Britain was known in the ancient world to the Carthaginians and Greeks as the Tin Isles.

Hanno the Navigator was said to have explore trade routes to western Africa. Reaching as far as modern Senegal and Cameroon,

Lifespan: Carthage was said to have been founded by Phoenician colonists from the city of Tyre circa the 9th century BC. A foundation legend raised from its founding. Namely the legend of Princess Dido from Tyre leading her fellow Phoenicians not as colonists looking for commercial benefits but political refuge from her dictator brother. According to legend Dido and her retinue arrived at Tunisia and tricked the local Berber king into grating them a sizable tract of land from which the core of what became the city of Carthage was founded.

The city was given the name by its settlers of Qart-Hadasht, which in the Phoenician language meant "New City". The year 814 BC is often cited as the approximate date of its founding.

Quickly Carthage made an association with and eventual domination of fellow Phoenician colonies in the area including Utica. Its favorable climate, arable land and strategic location were all crucial to Carthage's rapid growth and dominance of over other Phoenician colonies. It would expand to conquer lands ranging from the whole of North Africa from Morocco to Libya, the islands of Malta, Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica and the Balearics and parts of the Iberian Peninsula over the coming centuries found themselves either under direct Carthaginian rule or favorable treaties incorporating the lands into its sphere of influence hence creating a trade network and empire, a classic example of a thalassocracy.

Initially, the Carthaginians paid a tribute and maintained contact to its mother city of Tyre back in Lebanon. However, this became an irregular occurrence due to Carthage's increasing independence due to its great distance from the Levant and the assertive character to its own local citizenry. Carthage began to see a mix of Phoenicians and local Berbers creating a unique Punic culture that synthesized the two cultures and ethnicities over time with the Phoenician dialect and culture remaining dominant but adaptable for its ability to incorporate other cultures. This was true as its sphere of influences expanded in the Mediterranean.

Carthage's independence was not only due to its relative distance from Tyre but due to the events back in Phoenicia. Various sieges from Babylonia and eventually later the Persian Achaemenid Empire conquered Phoenicia including Tyre circa 530-522BC. The subjugation of these lands reduced contact between the Carthaginian settlers and their Tyrian origins which had until that date sent a steady flow of colonists. While some flow of other Phoenicians would continue, the population would be buttressed by local native populaces and other Phoenician colonies rather than direct Tyrian migration.

The city of Carthage itself expanded over the centuries and created several distinct districts and architecture. At its peak in the 4th century BC, it contained a population between a quarter and half a million people. making it one of the world's largest and most prosperous cities at the time. The city had a mix of wealthy villas, apartment blocks six stories high, had warehouse and commercial districts, goods markets, a Greek style agora or public space, elaborate gardens. temples to various gods, various government buildings and a unique double harbor known as the cothon, which became the physical feature along with the Byrsa hill most associated with Carthage. The cothon featured an outer commercial harbor and military inner harbor with ship warehouses on a man-made island from which ship repairs, construction and maintenance could be addressed through its serial production. The Byrsa hill was the central district of Carthage which contained important temples, it had stair way avenues which were relatively wide for traffic, whereas most of the city's routes had narrow winding paths to navigate. The city was said to have triple walls for defenses, a shorter outer wall made of either stone or wood, followed by a ditch, a second taller stone wall 5 meters thick, a second ditch and a third stone wall 10 meters thick and with armed towers able to hold a force of over 20,000 troops.

In 509 BC it signed its first treaty with Rome, its eventual rival which at the time was the inferior power still clamoring for power on the Italian peninsula. The treaty was meant to demarcate their respective spheres of influence. From 580-265 BC, the Carthaginians found themselves in a series of wars with the Greek colonies of Sicily and Southern Italy. Namely, the city state of Syracuse which was the principal Greek settlement on Sicily.

These wars were back and forth in nature, marked by victory and defeat on land and sea for both sides. Eventually Carthage would retain control over the western half of Sicily until its loss of control in the Punic Wars with Rome. The Sicilian Wars also saw the gradual weakening of the kings of Carthage and its transition to an oligarchic republic (see government section).

The Punic Wars (264-146 BC) began almost by accident with neither Rome nor Carthage initially planning a direct confrontation with the other. The city of Messana (Messina) in Sicily found itself in the 260s BC under the control of a group of Italian mercenaries who had previously served the tyrant (king) of Syracuse who had died in 280 BC. These independent mercenaries were a threat to both Carthage and Syracuse's interests on Sicily. These mercenaries named the Mamertimes (Sons of Mars) divided into two factions, over the issue of the new Syracuse tyrant Hiero II's planned retaking of Messana. One faction advocating a Carthaginian intervention to take charge of the city's security and the other advocating for Roman intervention from the Italian peninsula. Carthage arrived first with a land garrison and naval fleet in the harbor. The Roman Senate was reluctant to assist the mercenaries but recognized the potential threat a permanent presence of Carthaginians in Messana and its location on the narrow Straits of Messina between Sicily and Italian mainland could pose on Roman trade and security. It advocated sending an expeditionary force to retake Messana to eject the Carthaginians. The attack triggered the first Punic War between the two powers. It turned into a quarter century struggle that was marked by intense fighting mostly on Sicily.

The First Punic War was ultimately a Roman victory that ended Carthage's presence on Sicily. It also saw Roman advances in naval technology such as the corvus to help board Carthaginian ships. Hitherto the Romans had little naval strength relative to Carthage but its innovations in naval warfare proved crucial in undermining Carthage's longstanding naval superiority. Meanwhile on land, despite the back-and-forth nature of the battles, the Roman army's tactical flexibility often proved superior to Carthage which after 23 exhausting years agreed to peace. It gave up control of Sicily to Rome (aside from Syracuse) and paid a tribute over the course of 10 years.

Rome also after the war used Carthage's distraction against a Libyan rebellion in the Truceless War to take control of Sardinia and Corsica in 238 BC.

To compensate for the loss of territory on Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica, the Carthaginians under Hamilcar Barca tried to expand its territory in Iberia against Celtic and Iberian tribes especially to profit from increased mining production. They also gained new manpower and agricultural production to boost their economy and military again. They also had a standing agreement with Rome to not intrude north or south of the Ebro River respectively. However, an Iberian city of Saguntum south of the Ebro had an agreement with the Romans. This upset the balance of power established with Carthage in Iberia. Hamilcar Barca's son Hannibal now in charge of the Carthaginian army in Iberia an avowed enemy of Rome, besieged Saguntum which he took in 8 months. This is turn led to Rome's declaration of war, starting the Second Punic War which lasted for the next 17 years.

In one of the most famous military campaigns of all time, Hannibal and his army complemented by Carthaginians, Numidians, Celts, Iberians crossed the Alps and invaded Italy, taking the war to Rome's home territory. Hannibal showing his tactical prowess would defeat Roman armies repeatedly on their own territory most notably at the Battle of Cannae in 216 BC. Many Italian cities that had been incorporated into Roman rule over the previous centuries rose up to join Hannibal against Rome. However, Hannibal never had sufficient strength to directly besiege Rome. Rome was constantly tested by Hannibal's victories over the next 13 years in Italy, but they refused to surrender and adopted an attritional strategy, and this wore down Hannibal by gradually retaking Italian cities allied to him if not able to defeat him directly. Likewise, they repelled Carthage's attempts to reinforce him in Italy. They also faced mixed success gradually conquering Iberia from the Carthaginians. Finally, an invasion of Tunisia forced Carthage to recall Hannibal back to North Africa to defend the capital from a Roman assault. He met the Romans in the Battle of Zama in 202 BC which resulted in a Roman victory over Hannibal himself at once.

Hannibal advocated for the government of Carthage to negotiate a treaty with Rome which it did. Its terms were harsh. A stripping of all overseas possessions of Carthage in Iberia and elsewhere including some African territories. A large punitive indemnity to paid to Rome over 50 years. A reduction of Carthage's navy ten warships, a ban on Carthage's use of war elephants. A prohibition on Carthage being able to fight war outside of Africa and any war it wages in Africa must require Rome's express permission.

Hannibal eventually became a sufete in Carthage and worked to reform the government of Carthage and stamp out corruption so as to ensure its ability to pay Rome its due from the treaty and rebuild its economy. Indeed, Hannibal was somewhat successful in his regards and Carthage's economy was somewhat rebounding but facing pressure from Rome and enemies in the local government, he went into voluntary exile in service to Greek states opposed to Roman expansion in the east. He died in exile under murky circumstances variously described as a suicide or murder.

The Third Punic War 149-146BC began will Carthage went to war in Africa with Berbers who were raiding its territory and without Rome's permission, this was used a pretext to attack Carthage itself by Rome for violating its treaty from the previous war. The third and final Punic War was characterized by a three-year siege of Carthage. Ultimately, the Romans after much pressure on both sides broke through its triple walls and assaulted Carthage in street-by-street fighting. The city was razed to the ground, much of its population killed by angered Roman troops. 50,000 Carthaginians were enslaved and sent elsewhere through the Roman Republic's empire. Carthage was no more as an independent political entity after 146 BC. A century later, Rome rebuilt the city on its ruins as part of its empire and it remained an important city within the Roman Empire until the fall of the Western half of the empire where it fell to the Germanic barbarians the Vandals who had their capital in Carthage, it was reclaimed by the Easter Roman Empire (Byzantine Empire) by the forces of Belisarius in service to Justinian I. Carthage would face a final destruction as a Roman city when the Arabs of the Umayyad Caliphate destroyed the city in the year 698 AD. It never rose as a city again, instead its ruins remain part of the suburbs or the modern city of Tunis, capital of Tunisia.

Carthage despite its being steeped in legend and mystery remains worthy of study as one of the undeniably great civilizations of antiquity. A fact recognized by its contemporaries whether they wrote of it a complimentary fashion or with contempt, its power, wealth and influence was immense enough to engender scholarly study and reflection at the time. It is for these contemporary recognitions whether positive or negative and absence of surviving self-records that many continue its study into the modern age. Particularly its opposition to Rome and the perception by Rome that it was a worthy rival that needed complete annihilation, especially given Carthage's ability to stand up to Rome in a way no other power really could at its peak.

The more Carthage is analyzed both by its contemporary foreign commentators with the surviving archaeological and fragmentary historical record, the more nuance can be shed on the complexity of the civilization and influence it had on world history. Its opposition to Rome might be its most noted aspect but it shouldn't overshadow how else Carthage influenced the world. From its complex style of government and network of commercial imperialism that presaged future thalassocracies such as the Italian republics of the Middle Ages like Venice and Genoa and how it produced economic production models which influenced Rome and Greece and subsequently other areas of the world, they carried that influence on to. Likewise, another legacy of Carthage was how it helped build an ancient iteration of a globalized economy, shrinking the gap between the long distances of the ancient Mediterranean world by linking disparate geographies and peoples under a common commercial interest. In this commercial pursuit it also revealed itself to have both a distinct dominant culture but one that was not intolerant or unable to accommodate and absorb other cultural influences. In many ways ancient Carthage by way of its influence on Greece and Rome and their own influences give us glimpses into how its existence served as a precursor to the modern world we inhabit.

[moonyartsblog]

Today Porsha Crystal as...

Series 6 Post 14:  Goddess and deified personification of victory in peace or war. She first appears during the first Punic War, seemingly as a Romanised re-naming of Nike, the goddess of victory associated with Rome's Greek allies in the Greek mainland and in Magna Graecia. Thereafter she comes to symbolise Rome's eventual hegemony and right to rule. She is a deified abstraction, entitled to cult but unlike Nike, she has virtually no mythology of her own.

🌸 She was worshipped in Magna Graecia and mainland Greece, and was a subject of Greek myth. Around this time, various Roman war-deities begin to receive the epithet victor (conqueror) or invictus (unconquered). 🌸 Other images show her as human-sized, driving a triumphal war-chariot, or in free-standing statuary, standing on the right-hand palm of a much larger figure, typically Rome's supreme god, Jupiter, or war-god Mars, or Roma, divine personification of the Roman state. 🌸 Winged figures, very often in pairs, representing victory and referred to as winged victories, are common in Roman official iconography, typically hovering high in a composition, and often filling spaces in spandrels or other gaps in architecture. These represent the "spirit of victory" rather than a full-blown deity. Pairs of winged victories continued to appear after the Christianization of the Roman Empire and gradually evolved into depictions of Christian angels. 🌸 It was used to store war-booty, and it hosted the Magna Mater's statue while her own temple was under construction. Victoria had several other shrines throughout Rome. In Imperial era Timgad, victoria victrix (conquering victory) was given credit for Imperial successes.

[roseslaces]

30. That those who complain of Christianity really desire to live without restraint in shameful luxury.

If the famous Scipio Nasica were now alive, who was once your pontiff, and was unanimously chosen by the senate, when, in the panic created by the Punic war, they sought for the best citizen to entertain the Phrygian goddess, he would curb this shamelessness of yours, though you would perhaps scarcely dare to look upon the countenance of such a man. For why in your calamities do you complain of Christianity, unless because you desire to enjoy your luxurious licence unrestrained, and to lead an abandoned and profligate life without the interruption of any uneasiness or disaster? For certainly your desire for peace, and prosperity, and plenty is not prompted by any purpose of using these blessings honestly, that is to say, with moderation, sobriety, temperance, and piety; for your purpose rather is to run riot in an endless variety of sottish pleasures, and thus to generate from your prosperity a moral pestilence which will prove a thousand-fold more disastrous than the fiercest enemies. It was such a calamity as this that Scipio, your chief pontiff, your best man in the judgment of the whole senate, feared when he refused to agree to the destruction of Carthage, Rome's rival; and opposed Cato, who advised its destruction. He feared security, that enemy of weak minds, and he perceived that a wholesome fear would be a fit guardian for the citizens. And he was not mistaken: the event proved how wisely he had spoken. For when Carthage was destroyed, and the Roman republic delivered from its great cause of anxiety, a crowd of disastrous evils forthwith resulted from the prosperous condition of things. First concord was weakened, and destroyed by fierce and bloody seditions; then followed, by a concatenation of baleful causes, civil wars, which brought in their train such massacres, such bloodshed, such lawless and cruel proscription and plunder, that those Romans who, in the days of their virtue, had expected injury only at the hands of their enemies, now that their virtue was lost, suffered greater cruelties at the hands of their fellow-citizens. The lust of rule, which with other vices existed among the Romans in more unmitigated intensity than among any other people, after it had taken possession of the more powerful few, subdued under its yoke the rest, worn and wearied.

[zerogate]

In earlier times the shrines of Isis had an equivocal reputation. The goddess was popular with the demimonde, and her worship can have had little connection with moral purity. But such scandals are not recorded in the third century, when indeed they would have hardly have been tolerated. In our period the worship of Isis was organised in a manner very like that of the Catholic Church. There was a kind of pope, with priests, monks, singers, and acolytes. The images of the Madonna were covered with true or false jewels, and her toilette was dutifully attended to every day. Daily matins and evensong were said in the chief temples. The priests were tonsured and wore white linen vestments. There were two great annual festivals, in the spring and autumn. The autumn festival was the occasion of public grief and joy over the death and resurrection of Osiris-Sarapis. The processions and ceremonies described by Apuleius and others were ingeniously contrived to excite curiosity, stimulate devotional feeling, and gratify the æsthetic sense.

For the mystic, Isis represented the deepest mysteries of life. Proclus makes her say, ‘I am that which has been, is, and will be. My garment none has lifted.’ The worship of Isis was closely connected with that of the dog-headed Anubis, long popular in Egypt; of Harpocrates the son of Isis and Osiris, and above all of Sarapis, who more and more took the place of the old Egyptian god, Osiris. Sarapis was a deity of many attributes; he had a great reputation for miraculous cures, and invalids often slept in his temples. He ended as a solar deity of omnipotent majesty, and as the great god of Alexandria threw Isis somewhat into the shade. Caracalla paid him the compliment of dedicating to him the sword with which he had killed his brother Geta, as South-Italian assassins have been known to offer to the Virgin the knife which they have used successfully on a private enemy.

Isis was a suffering and merciful mother-goddess, who longed to ease human troubles. Her worship had a miraculous element for the vulgar, a spiritual theology for the cultured, and an attractive ritual for the average worshipper.

No other religion practised faith-healing, by passing the night in temples (ἐγκοίμησις), on so large a scale. This Egyptian religion never inculcated a very robust or elevated morality. Its power lay in its charm, and in the hope of immortality which was always strong in the Egyptian religion. ‘There is a famous passage in an ancient Egyptian text relating to the worship of Osiris, which speaks of the loyal votary of the god after death. “As truly as Osiris lives, shall he live; as truly as Osiris is not dead, shall he not die; as truly as Osiris is not annihilated, shall he not be annihilated.” The initiate is to share eternally in the divine life; nay, he does already share it. He becomes Osiris.

[...]

The worship of the Magna Mater had been known and recognised in Attica as early as the fourth century B.C., and at Rome as early as the second Punic war, and was patronised by the aristocracy, though no Roman was allowed to enrol himself among the eunuch priests of the Asiatic goddess. King Attalus at this time presented the senate with the black aerolite, formerly kept at Pessinus and then at Pergamum, which was supposed to be the abode of the Idæan Mother. The grateful Romans, at last rid of Hannibal, erected a temple to her on the Palatine, and ordained an annual holy week in her honour.

The Phrygian religion was wild and violent, as befitted a climate which produces extremes of heat and cold. It included such primitive elements as the worship of stones and trees, and at once horrified and fascinated the West by its wild orgies at the spring festival, which culminated in the self-mutilation of devotees. But it had also an ascetic order of mendicant friars, and ‘mysteries,’ of which little is known.

Till the beginning of the empire, the Phrygian worship was kept under strict control, and attracted little notice except on the festival days when the foreign priests marched in procession through the streets. But Claudius, according to a second-century authority, removed the restrictions on the worship of Cybele and Attis, and Roman citizens began to be chosen as archigalli. Henceforth the Phrygian worship received a measure of official support not extended to other Oriental religions. The festal processions were very imposing, and the death and resurrection of Attis was regarded as a sacrament and pledge of human immortality. The worshippers sang, ‘Take courage, ye initiated, because the god is saved: to you also will come salvation from your troubles.’

-- William Ralph Inge, The philosophy of Plotinus