The Phoenician solar theology : an investigation into the Phoenician opinion of the sun found in Julian's Hymn to King Helios (book review)

Abstract

Presumably this book is the publication of a Ph.D. thesis, something that the reader was not told by the author, but which the publishers made clear by pointing out that it forms part of the Gorgias Dissertations series, namely that is in fact 'Gorgias Dissertations 15, Near Eastern Studies 6. It would have been nice if Joseph Azize had told us that this book is actually the publication of his dissertation (a Ph.D. by the looks of it) making us also privy as to who his supervisor was and to which University he submitted it. Even a cursory glance at this book leaves no doubt about the fact that this is one of those many dissertations which are nowadays seeing the light of day without much effort being made to transform their literary genre into that of a book. This publication is well structured. There are first the usual preliminaries (Analytic Table of Contents, v-vi, a list of Abbreviations, vii-viii, a list of Figures, ix, and a Summary, xi), which are followed by the Introduction, 1-4 which is in turn followed by the main body of the book which is made up of eleven chapters (5-257) wherein Azize purports to examine the solar theology of the Phoenicians on the basis of both Classical and ancient Near Eastern sources. Finally, there is a Conclusion, 259-265, a Bibliography, which is divided into two groups, namely the Ancient Sources, 267-271, and Modern Authors, 271-301, as well as a very good and useful Index, 303-321, which is not mentioned in the list of Contents. At the very end there are six Figures (not all of which are that sharp) and one Plate, none of which are mentioned in the list of Contents and which carry no page numbers.