Uni-Ashtarte and Tanit-Iuno Caelestis : two Phoenician goddesses of fertility reconsidered from recent archaeological discoveries

Abstract

From the middle of the 2nd till the beginning of the 1 st millen. BC our acquaintance with the Canaanite-Phoenician religion is based on the text material from Ugarit. The most important deities are El and his consort Athirat, and Ba'al with the two goddesses Anat and Ashtarte attached to him - the role of the last mentioned, however, being rather modest. During the 1st millen. the position of El and Ba'al is in essentials unchanged, though the nature of Ba'al absorbs elements formerly being those of El, as is the case with Ba'al Hammon. In the 1st millen. BC the maritime aspect of Athirat is further assimilated to Anat and Ashtarte, and in the Hellenistic period the nature of the two last mentioned tends towards a contamination, in Phoenicia proper resulting in Atargatis. In the Punic religion the essential elements from Anat supplied with the maritime aspect of Athirat can be found in the goddess Tanit. In the Cypro-Greek culture we find the nature of the Semitic goddesses in Aphrodite Ourania. In the accident a syncretism between the Semitic goddesses and the local ones goes on: so at the Etruscan Pyrgi Uni-Ashtarte, at the South Italic Croton Hera-Tanit. On Mt. Eryx (Sicily) and at Tas-Silg (Malta) the Pre-Phoenician goddesses are succeeded by Ashtarte and Tanit; in the Hellenistic period the Eryx goddess is called Venus whereas the Semetic one at Tas-Silg is called Hera-Iuno. In Carthage Tanit exists as Iuno Caelestis in the Roman period. The Canaanite-Phoenician origin of Tanit is likely, even if the ivory inscription from Sarepta as a proof of this can be questioned. Open to discussion is further the origin of the so-called Sign of Tanit. Finally it is stated that a dedication to Milkashtarte (mainly identical with Melqart) from Malta may help us to explain the rather enigmatic name in the Punic inscription from Gozo: SDMB'L, which can be understood as the Phoenician-Punic Sid who in the accident stands side by side with Melqart-Herades, both of whom are well-known from the two bilingual inscriptions from Malta (CIS I, 122-122bis).