36 REV. J. LESLIE PORTER, D.D. 
Phoenicians occupied that island in prehistoric times, and I 
have seen there numerous traces of their language, art, and 
manufacturing skill in monuments, vases, cups, and personal 
ornaments. The names of their deities—Baal, Astaroth, 
and Melkart,—are found everywhere inscribed on tablets 
and vases. Astaroth is not unfrequently named Melketh 
Hash-Shamayim, “ Queen of Heaven,” as in the writings of 
Jeremiah (vil. 18; xliv. 17, 18); and she was accepted by the 
Greeks as Aphrodite, the goddess of love. Her symbol was a 
cone, “ such as stood in the adytum of her temple at Paphos ” 
(Di Cesnola, Cyprus, p. 19). The oldest cities m Cyprus— 
Paphos, Amathus, and Citium—were founded by Pheenicians. 
The most ancient traditions affirm that Greek colonisation 
began with the return of the heroes from Troy. Salamis, it 
is said, was built by Teucer, and named after his native 
island. These traditions cannot be fully relied upon, for 
Homer mentions Cyprus as well known in his day. Ulysses 
celebrates the hospitality of Dmetor, ‘ Cyprus’s haughty lord” 
(Odyssey, xvil. 525), and Menelaos says :— 
For eight slow circling years by tempest toss’d, 
From Cyprus to the fair Phoenician coast 
(Sidon the capital), I stretch’d my toil 
Through regions fatten’d with the flows of Nile—0Od. iv. 83. 
It would seem, in fact, that so soon as the Greeks had 
settled in Asia Minor they crossed over to Cyprus, and 
established themselves along the whole northern and western 
coasts, founding Soli, and Cythrea, and Lapethus, and 
Curium, and other towns. It is evident that Phoenician and 
Greek dwelt together, and their artists and goldsmiths worked 
together in the manufacture of those ornaments of gold, 
silver, bronze, and terra-cotta, such large numbers of which 
have recently been brought to light by the researches of 
Di Cesnola and others (Cyprus). 
It is interesting to note that Citiwm, the old Phoenician 
capital of Cyprus, whose remains now lie beneath and around 
the modern Larnaca, was the Kittim mentioned by Moses in 
Genesis x. 4, and the Chittim of Isaiah and the other 
Prophets (Isaiah xxiii. 1 ; Jeremiah ii. 10; Ezekiel xxvii. 6 ; 
Daniel xi. 30), with which the ships of Tyre were wont to 
trade. This mention of the close commercial relations 
between those two cities is strikingly illustrated by a coin of 
the fifth century B.c., on which is a Phoenician inscription to 
the following effect :—‘‘ Of the King of Kition and Tyre.” It 
thus appears that the two cities were then ruled by one 
monarch (De Luynes, Numismatique des Satrapies, 72). 
