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Strength of the religious sentiment among the Phoenicians Proofs First stage of the religion, monotheistic Second stage, a polytheism within narrow limits Worship of Baal of Ashtoreth of El or Kronos of Melkarth of Dagon of Hadad of Adonis of Sydyk of Esmun of the Cabeiri of Onca of Tanith of Beltis Third stage marked by introduction of foreign deities Character of the Phoenician worship Altars and sacrifice Hymns of praise, temples, and votive offerings Wide prevalence of human sacrifice and of licentious orgies Institution of the Galli Extreme corruption of the later religion Views held on the subject of a future life Piety of the great mass of the people earnest, though mistaken.
Sydyk, "Justice," or, the "Just One," whose name corresponds to the Hebrew Zadok or Zedek, appears in the Phoenician mythology especially as the father of Esmun and the Cabeiri. It is perhaps his name which forms the final element in Melchizedek, Adoni-zedek, and the like. We have no evidence that he was really worshipped by the Phoenicians.
He stabbed the sacred calf, believed to be incarnate Apis; he ordered the body of priests who had the animal in charge to be publicly scourged; he stopped the Apis festival by making participation in it a capital offence; he opened the receptacles of the dead, and curiously examined the bodies contained in them, he intruded himself into the chief sanctuary at Memphis, and publicly scoffed at the grotesque image of Phtha; finally, not content with outraging in the same way the inviolable temple of the Cabeiri, he wound up his insults by ordering that their images should be burnt.
Poor Mr. Casaubon himself was lost among small closets and winding stairs, and in an agitated dimness about the Cabeiri, or in an exposure of other mythologists' ill-considered parallels, easily lost sight of any purpose which had prompted him to these labors.
Pigmy and misshapen gods belong to that fetishism which has always had charms for the Hamitic nations; and it may be suspected that the Phoenicians adopted the Cabeiri from their Canaanite predecessors, who were of the race of Ham. The connection between these pigmy deities and the Egyptian Phthah, or rather Phthah-Sokari, is unmistakable, and was perceived by Herodotus.
The other principal Phoenician deities were El, Melkarth, Dagon, Hadad, Adonis, Sydyk, Eshmun, the Cabeiri, Onca, Tanith, Tanata, or Anaitis, and Baalith, Baaltis, or Beltis. El, or Il, originally a name of the Supreme God, became in the later Phoenician mythology a separate and subordinate divinity, whom the Greeks compared to their Kronos and the Romans to their Saturn.
Phoenician ships seem to have been placed under the protection of the Cabeiri, and to have had images of them at their stem or stern or both. These images were not exactly "figure-heads," as they are sometimes called. They were small, apparently, and inconspicuous, being little dwarf figures, regarded as amulets that would preserve the vessel in safety.
Clay pigmy figurines found on Phoenician sites very closely resemble the Egyptian images of that god; and the coins attributed to Cossura exhibit a similar dwarfish form, generally carrying a hammer in the right hand. An astral character has been attached by some writers to the Cabeiri, but chiefly on account of their number, which is scarcely a sufficient proof.
According to Damascius, he was the eighth son of Sydyk, whence his name, and the chief of the Cabeiri. Whereas they were dwarfish and misshapen, he was a youth of most beautiful appearance, truly worthy of admiration.
The seven other Cabeiri, or "Great Ones," equally with Esmun the sons of Sydyk, were dwarfish gods who presided over navigation, and were the patrons of sailors and ships. The special seat of their worship in Phoenicia Proper was Berytus, but they were recognised also in several of the Phoenician settlements, as especially in Lemnos, Imbrus, and Samothrace.
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