50 MYTHOLOGY AND RELIGIOUS RITES, 
man with a long beard, his head covered with a cap curiously ornamented 
with figures, his right hand lifted up, and his left as if buried in the folds 
of his dress. His garment as well as the background is covered with a 
number of hieroglyphics, probably in explanation of the statue. 
The Phenicians believed that the breath of the supreme god Colpiah 
united with that of Laau (chaos) and produced the primitive matter, Moth. 
This gave birth in its turn first to the lower animals, and afterwards to 
rational beings (Zophasemum). After the creation of the living world, 
Moth assumed the form of an egg, from which sprang the sun, the moon, 
and the stars. Colpiah and Baau now united again, and produced Proto- 
gonos the firstborn and Zon (time), from whom all the generations and 
species of beings have sprung. Life was then infused into the dormant world, 
and the air, the ocean, and the earth separated into distinct elements, the 
winds began to blow, and the clouds to move, pouring down rain upon the 
earth, while the thunder awaking the echoes in the mountains roused also 
the slumbering animals into life, who now came forth out of the Moth. 
The giants were afterwards called into existence, and were made of fire, 
light, and flame, the triad of the Egyptians. The first inhabitants of Byblos 
were said to have been the Hlwen (the oak) and the Beruth (the pine). 
They had two children, Uranos and Gea, who gave birth to four sons, Jos 
or Cronos, Baedylos, Dagon, and Atlas; and three daughters, Astarte, 
Rhea, and Dione. Uranos, alarmed by a prophecy which predicted that 
his son Cronos would dethrone him, sought to kill his eldest born, but 
Cronos by the aid of the Hlohim conquered his father, and then became 
himself the ruler of the universe. 
Among the idols of the Pheenicians we mention the following as the 
most prominent: DMisor, whose son Zaauth or Hermes was the inventor 
of writing, and first instructor in all sciences; Sydik, the father of the 
Cabires, famed for medical knowledge, and the founder of civilization among 
mer; and finally Baal, who is frequently spoken of in the Bible. 
The chief temple of Baal was at Tyre, where he was worshipped as the 
god of the sun, and also as Metcarth (the Tyrian Hercules). But he was 
also worshipped throughout Assyria and Babylonia and in Carthage as the 
chief god. Jezebel, a Tyrian princess, and wife of Ahab, king of Israel, 
introduced his worship even among the Hebrews, but Jehu, a pious monarch, 
afterwards abolished the abomination. 
The sacrifices offered up at the altar of this idol were generally oxen, but 
sometimes children were immolated at the shrine of his bull-headed image. 
This was done by first heating the hollow statue by a fire kindled in its 
interior, and then placing the infant in the extended arms of the monster. 
The altars were generally erected on high places; and the priests, dressed in 
crimson-colored garments, madly danced around the sacrifice, howling, and 
lacerating their bodies with sharp instruments. 
But there are also other idols known by the name of Baal; these are 
distinguished from the one spoken of, by having distinctive appellations 
added to their names, e. g. Baal-Zebub (the god of flies), an idol at Ekron, 
who was thought to prevent the pestilence and the plague of flies from 
270 

