Sanchuniathon

Sanchuniathon
Born	DOB unknown Berytus (Beirut), Phoenicia
Died	DOD unknown Unknown
Occupation	Author
Language	Phoenician
Period	Hellenistic and Roman era
Genre	Historical and religious writings
Notable works	Phoenician History

Sanchuniathon (/ˌsæŋkjʊˈnaɪəθɒn/; Ancient Greek: Σαγχουνιάθων or Σαγχωνιάθων Sankho(u)niáthōn; probably from Phoenician: 𐤎𐤊𐤍𐤉𐤕𐤍, romanized: *Saḵūnyatān, "Sakkun has given"), also known as Sanchoniatho the Berytian, was a Phoenician author. His three works, originally written in the Phoenician language, survive only in partial paraphrase and a summary of a Greek translation by Philo of Byblos recorded by the Christian bishop Eusebius. These few fragments comprise the most extended literary source concerning Phoenician religion in either Greek or Latin: Phoenician sources, along with all of Phoenician literature, were lost with the parchment on which they were written.

The author

All knowledge of Sanchuniathon and his work comes from the Praeparatio Evangelica of Eusebius (I. chs ix-x), which contains some information about him, along with the only surviving excerpts from his writing, as summarized and quoted from his purported translator, Philo of Byblos.

Eusebius quotes neo-Platonist writer Porphyry as stating that Sanchuniathon of Berytus (Beirut) wrote the truest history because he obtained records from Hierombalus priest of Ieuo (Ancient Greek: Ἰευώ), that Sanchuniathon dedicated his history to Abibalus (Abibaal) king of Berytus, and that it was approved by the king and other investigators, the date of this writing being before the Trojan War (around 1200 BC) approaching close to the time of Moses, "when Semiramis was queen of the Assyrians." Thus Sanchuniathon is placed firmly in the mythic context of the pre-Homeric Greek Heroic Age, an antiquity from which no other Greek or Phoenician writings are known to have survived to the time of Philo.

Sanchuniathon claims to have based his work on "collections of secret writings of the Ammouneis discovered in the shrines", sacred lore deciphered from mystic inscriptions on the pillars which stood in the Phoenician temples, lore which exposed the truth—later covered up by allegories and myths—that the gods were originally human beings who came to be worshipped after their deaths and that the Phoenicians had taken what were originally names of their kings and applied them to elements of the cosmos (compare euhemerism), worshipping forces of nature and the sun, moon, and stars. Eusebius cites Sanchuniathon in his attempt to discredit pagan religion based on such foundations.

This rationalizing euhemeristic slant and the emphasis on Beirut, a city of great importance in the late classical period but apparently of little importance in ancient times, suggests that the work itself is not nearly as old as it claims to be. Some have suggested it was forged by Philo himself or assembled from various traditions and presented within an authenticating pseudepigraphical format to give the material a patina of believability. Philo may have translated genuine Phoenician works ascribed to an ancient writer known as Sanchuniathon but in fact written in more recent times. This judgment is echoed by the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, which described Sanchuniathon as "belong[ing] more to legend than to history."

Not all readers have taken such a critical view:

The Humour which prevail'd with several learned Men to reject Sanchoniatho as a counterfeit because they knew not what to make of him, his Lordship always blam'd. Philo Byblius, Porphyry, and Eusebius, who were better able to judge than any Moderns, never call in question his being genuine.

— Squier Payne, in a preface to Richard Cumberland's Sanchoniatho's Phoenician History (1720)

However that may be, much of what has been preserved in this writing, despite the euhemeristic interpretation given it, turned out to be supported by the Ugaritic mythological texts excavated at Ras Shamra (ancient Ugarit) in Syria since 1929; Otto Eissfeldt demonstrated in 1952 that it does incorporate genuine Phoenician elements that can now be related to the Ugaritic texts, some of which, as shown in extant versions of Sanchuniathon, remained unchanged since the second millennium BC. The modern consensus is that Philo's treatment of Sanchuniathon offered a Hellenistic view of Phoenician materials written between the time of Alexander the Great and the first century BC, if it was not a literary invention of Philo.

The work

In surviving fragments of the text, it can be difficult to ascertain whether Eusebius is citing Philo's translation of Sanchuniathon or speaking in his own voice. Another difficulty is the substitution of Greek proper names for Phoenician ones and the possible corruption of some Phoenician names that do appear.

Philosophical creation story

A philosophical creation story traced to "the cosmogony of Taautus, whom Philo explicitly identifies with the Egyptian Thoth—"the first who thought of the invention of letters, and began the writing of records"—which begins with Erebus and Wind, between which Eros 'Desire' came to be. From this was produced Môt 'Death' but which the account says may mean 'mud'. In a mixed confusion, the germs of life appear, and intelligent animals called Zophasemin (probably best translated 'observers of heaven') formed together as an egg. The account is not clear. Then Môt burst forth into light and the heavens were created and the various elements found their stations.

Allegorical culture heroes

Various descendants are listed, many of whom have allegorical names but are described in the quotations from Philo as mortals who first made particular discoveries or who established particular customs.

According to the text, the wind Colpias and his wife Baau (translated as Nyx 'Night') give birth to mortals Aeon, who discovered food from trees, and Protogonus 'firstborn'); The immediate descendants of these were Genus and Genea, who dwelt in Phoenicia; "and ... when droughts occurred, they (Genus and Genea) stretched out their hands to heaven towards the sun; for him alone (he says) they regarded as god the Lord of Heaven, calling him Beelsamen, which is in the Phoenician language 'lord of heaven', and in Greek 'Zeus.'" (Eusebius, I, x). Genus and Genea give birth to hôs, Pûr, and Phlox. They found out the method of producing fire by rubbing pieces of wood against each other, and taught men the use thereof. They begat sons of vast bulk and height, a race of Titan-like mountain beings, whose names were conferred upon the mountains which they occupied: thus from them Cassius, and Libanus, and Antilibanus, and Brathu received their names. Memrumus and Hypsuranius, who inhabited Tyre and invented huts constructed of reeds and rushes, and the papyrus, were the issue of these men by connexion with their mothers. Hypsuranius fell into enmity with his brother Usous, who was the inventor of clothing for the body which he made of the skins of the wild beasts which he could catch. And when there were violent storms of rain and wind, the trees about Tyre being rubbed against each other, took fire, and all the forest in the neighbourhood was consumed. And Usous having taken a tree, and broken off its boughs, was the first who dared to venture on the sea. And he consecrated two pillars to Fire and Wind, and worshipped them, and poured out upon them the blood of the wild beasts he took in hunting: and when these men were dead, those that remained consecrated to them rods, and worshipped the pillars, and held anniversary feasts in honour of them. And in times long subsequent to these; were born of the race of Hypsuranius, Agreus and Halieus, the inventors of the arts of hunting and fishing, from whom huntsmen and fishermen derive their names. Of these were begotten two brothers who discovered iron, and the forging thereof. One of these called Chrysor, who is the same with Hephæstus, exercised himself in words, and charms and divinations; and he invented the hook, and the bait, and the fishing-line, and boats of a light construction; he was the first of all men that sailed. Wherefore he was worshipped after his death as a God, under the name of Diamichius. And it is said that his brothers invented the art of building walls with bricks. Afterwards, of this race were born two youths, one of whom was called Technites, and the other was called Geïnus Autochthôn. These discovered the method of mingling stubble with the loam of bricks, and of baking them in the sun; they were also the inventors of tiling. By these were begotten others, of whom one was named Agrus, the other Agrouerus or Agrotes, of whom in Phoenicia there was a statue held in the highest veneration, and a temple drawn by yokes of oxen: and at Byblos he is called, by way of eminence, the greatest of the Gods. These added to the houses, courts and porticos and crypts: husbandmen, and such as hunt with dogs, derive their origin from these: they are called also Aletæ, and Titans. From these were descended Amynus and Magus. Amynus and Magus, who taught men to construct villages and tend flocks, give birth to Misor and Sydyc (Well-freed and Just), who found out the use of salt. From Misor descended Taautus, who invented the writing of the first letters: him the Egyptians called Thoth, and the Greeks Hermes. From Sydyk descended the Dioscuri, or Cabeiri, or Corybantes, or Samothraces: these (he says) first built a ship complete. From these descended the discoverers of medicinal herbs, and of the cure of poisons and of charms. Contemporary with these were Elyon (the most high), called Hypsistus and his wife named Beruth, and they dwelt about Byblos. By these was begotten Epigeus or Autochthon, whom they afterwards called Uranus (Heaven); so that from him that element, which is over us, by reason of its excellent beauty is named heaven: and he had a sister of the same parents, and she was called Ge (Earth), and by reason of her beauty the earth was called by the same name. Hypsistus, the father of these, having been killed in a conflict with wild beasts, was consecrated, and his children offered libations and sacrifices unto him. Uranus, succeeding to the kingdom of his father, contracted a marriage with his sister Ge, and had by her four sons, El/Ilus who is called Cronus, and Bethel/Betylus/Baetyl, and Dagon, which signifies Siton (Bread-corn,) and Atlas.

The history of the gods

The work includes a genealogy and history of various northwest Semitic deities who were widely worshipped. Many are listed in the genealogy under the names of their counterparts in the Greek pantheon, Hellenized forms of their Semitic names, or both. The additional names given for some of these deities appear usually in parentheses in the table below. Only equations made in the text appear here, but many of the hyperlinks point to the northwest Semitic deities that are probably intended. See the notes below the table for translations of the unlinked and several other names.

Translations of Greek forms: arotrios, 'of husbandry, farming', autochthon (for autokhthon) 'produced from the ground', epigeius (for epigeios) 'from the earth', eros 'desire', ge 'earth', hypsistos 'most high', pluto (for plouton) 'wealthy', pontus (for pontos) 'sea', pothos 'longing', siton 'grain', thanatos 'death', uranus (for ouranos) 'sky'. Notes on etymologies: Anobret: proposed connections include ʿyn = "spring", by Renan ("Memoire", 281), and to ʿAnat rabbat = "Lady ʿAnat" by Clemen (Die phönikische Religion, 69–71); Ieoud/Iedud: perhaps from a Phoenician cognate of Hebrew yḥyd = "only" or of Hebrew ydyd = "beloved".

According to the text, as in the Greek and Hittite theogonies, Sanchuniathon's El/Elus/Ilus/Cronus overthrows his father Sky or Uranus and castrates him, and surrounded his habitation with a wall, and founded Byblos, the first city of Phoenicia. However, Zeus Demarûs (that is, Hadad Ramman), who is the father of Melqart/Melicarthus (Heracles), purported son of Dagon but actually son of Uranus. When Uranus made war against Pontus, Zeus Demarûs invaded Pontus and joins with Uranus, although he (Zeus Demarûs) later vowed a sacrifice for his escape and Pontus put him to flight.

To El/Cronus is attributed the practice of circumcision. Twice we are told that El/Cronus sacrificed his own son: called Ieoud, Idoud, or Iedod in variant manuscripts. (Olyan says they reflect *yahid, "only son" or *yadid, "beloved.")

According to the text, El/Cronus, having laid an ambuscade for his father Uranus in a certain place situated in the middle of the earth, when he had got him into his hands dismembered him over against the fountains and rivers. There Uranus was consecrated, and his spirit was separated, and the blood of his parts flowed into the fountains and the waters of the rivers; and the place, which was the scene of this transaction, is shewed even to this day.

At some point, peace is made, and Zeus Adados (Hadad) and Astarte reign over the land with Cronus' permission. An account of the events is written by the Cabeiri and by Asclepius (Eshmun), under Thoth's direction.

About serpents

A passage about serpent worship follows in which it is not clear what part is from Sanchuniathon and what part from Philo of Byblus:

The nature then of the dragon and of serpents Tauthus himself regarded as divine, and so again after him did the Phoenicians and Egyptians: for this animal was declared by him to be of all reptiles most full of breath, and fiery. In consequence of which it also exerts an unsurpassable swiftness by means of its breath, without feet and hands or any other of the external members by which the other animals make their movements. It also exhibits forms of various shapes, and in its progress makes spiral leaps as swift as it chooses. It is also most long-lived, and its nature is to put off its old skin, and so not only to grow young again, but also to assume a larger growth; and after it has fulfilled its appointed measure of age, it is self-consumed, in like manner as Tauthus himself has set down in his sacred books: for which reason this animal has also been adopted in temples and in mystic rites.

On the Phoenician Alphabet

A further work of Sanchuniathon noted by Eusebius (P.E. 1.10.45) is a treatise On the Phoenician Alphabet.

See also

• Ancient Canaanite religion
• Phoenician religion

Bibliography

• Renan, Ernest (1858). Mémoire sur l'origine et le caractère véritable de l'histoire phénicienne qui porte le nom de Sanchoniathon. Mémoires de l'Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres (in French). Imprimerie impériale. Retrieved 2023-02-12.
• Attridge, H. W.; Oden, Jr., R. A. (1981). Philo of Byblos: The Phoenician History: Introduction, Critical Text, Translation, Notes. CBQMS. Vol. 9. Washington: D. C.: The Catholic Biblical Association of America.
• Baumgarten, Albert Irwin (1981). The Phoenician History of Philo of Byblos: a Commentary. EPRO. Vol. 89. Leiden: E. J. Brill.
• Ebach, Jürgen (1978). Weltentstehung und Kulturentwicklung bei Philo von Byblos. Beiträge zur Wissenschaft vom Alten und Neuen Testament (in German). Vol. 108. Stuttgart, Berlin, Köln, Mainz: Kohlhammer Verlag.
• Lipiński, E. (1983). "The 'Phoenician History,' of Philo of Byblos". Bibliotheca Orientalis. 40: 305–310.

External links

English translations

• Tertullian.org: Eusebius Praeparatio, Book 1, chapters ix-x (Search on Sanchuniathon).
• Sacred Texts: Ancient Fragments, ed. and trans. I. P. Cory, 1832: "The Theology of the Phœnicians from Sanchoniatho"

Other links

• "Sanchuniathon" . Encyclopedia Americana. 1920.
• "Sanchuniathon" . Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). 1911.