THE RELIGIONS OF THE AXCIEXT WORLD.
115
nection between the goddesses Neith and Tanata is perhaps open to question but the form of the name Tanith, 01 Tanath,* shows that the Phoenicians adopted their goddess, not from Egypt, but from Persia. With regard to the character and attributes of Tanath, it can only be said that, while in most respects she corresponded closely with Ashtoreth, whom she seems to have replaced at Carthage, she had to a certain extent a more elevated and a severer, aspect. The Greeks compared her not only to their Aphrodite but also to their Artemis,! the huntress-deity whose noble form It is known to us from many pure and exquisite statues. may be suspected that the Carthaginians, dwelling in the rough and warlike Africa, revolted against the softness and effeminacy of the old Phoenician cult, and substituted Tanath for Ashtoreth, to accentuate their protest against religious sensualism. J It seems to be certain that in Phoenicia itself, and in the adjacent parts of Syria, the worship of Ashtoreth was from the first accompanied with licentious rites. As at Babylon, so in Phoenicia and Syria at Byblus, at Ascalon, .at the cult of the great NatureAphaca, at Hierapolia " goddess tended to encourage dissoluteness in the relations \w\ \vecn the sexes, and even to sanctify impurities of the ;
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most abominable description." If Even in Africa, where an original severity of morals had prevailed, and Tanith had been worshipped " as a virgin with martial attributes," and with " severe, not licentious, rites," ** corruption gradually and by the time of Augustine ft the Carthaginian crept in ;
*" Tanath" is the natural rendering of the Phoenician word, her than " Tanith," and is preferred by some writers. (See Davis, "Carthage and her Remains." pp. 274-276.) t In a bilingual inscription given by Gesenius, the Phoenician Abed-Tanath becomes in the Greek " Artemidorous." Anaitis or Tanata is often called the Persian Artemis." (See Plutarch. " Vit. Lucull." p. 24; Bochart, '' Geographia Sacra," iv. 19; Pausan. iii.
nit
'
0, etc).
10,
{See Davis's Kartager,"
''Carthage,"
p.
204;
Miinter,
"Religion
dea
c. 0.
Herod, Herod,
190.
i.
"
ViU 105; Lucian, De Dea Syra," c. ix; Euseb. Constantin. Magni," iii. 55. * Twistleton, in Smith's "Dictionary of the Bible." vol. ii. !!
i.
p. 800. *
Kenrick,
" Phosnicia," p. 305. " De Civitate
t| Augustine,
Dei,"
ii.
4.