P H CE N I C £. 
that the Jews confidered them as brethren. He fays alfo, 
that Efau was the fame with king Erythras, both names 
fignifying “ red and that he was one of the firft kings 
of this nation. But the reply of the abbe Mignot com¬ 
prehends the following propofitions j viz. i. That the 
principal towns of the country to which the Greeks gave 
the name of Phoenicia, had for their founders and firft 
inhabitants the children and defendants of Canaan. 2. 
That the inhabitants of Tyre and Sidon, whilft they were 
called Phoenicians by the Greeks, were named Canaan- 
ites in the original text of Scripture. 3. That the tranf- 
lators of the Bible, w'hicb, in the time Ptolemy Phila- 
delphus, had rendered the Pentateuch into Greek, were 
perfuaded that the Phoenicians were Canaanites, as they 
often exprefs the Hebrew word Kenaniby that of <pom>££j, 
or Phoenicians. 4. That the Phoenicians gave themfelves 
the name of Canaanites. 5. That fome profane authors, 
fuch as Sanchoniathon and Philo of Biblos his tranflator, 
aflure us, that Chna, or Canaan, was the father of the 
Phoenicians : and others have called Phoenicia the Land 
of Canaan. 
The Phoenicians were governed by kings; and their 
territory, fmall and narrow as it was, included feveral 
kingdoms, viz. thofe of Sidon, Tyre, Aradus, Berytus, 
and Byblos or Byblus. In this refpeCl they imitated and 
adhered to the primitive government of their forefathers, 
who, like the other Canaanites, were fubjeCt to many 
petty princes, to whom they allowed the fovereign dignity, 
referving to thetnfelves the natural rights and liberties of 
mankind. 
As to their religion, the Phoenicians, being originally 
Canaanites, were at firft worfhippers of the true God. In 
the time of Abraham, the worfhip of the Canaanites was 
not different from his own. But afterwards they com¬ 
bined with the worfliip of the fupreme fovereign, whom 
they acknowledged to be the firft caufe of all things, that 
of gods called by the ancients natural and immortal, 
that is, the fun, moon, ftars, and elements. Thus com¬ 
menced the idolatry of the Phoenicians. They proceeded 
to reverence as gods thofe who had rendered any import¬ 
ant fervice to mankind; they decreed to them divine 
honours; they appropriated temples to their worfhip; 
they adorned columns, on which their names were 
infcribed, and eftablifhed folemn feaftsin honour of them : 
and moreover, they gave to thefe new deities the names 
of the elements, and of thofe objects to which they had 
been accuftomed to attribute divinity. The firft mortal 
to whom the Phoenicians paid reverence was Chryfor, 
who had invented the method of founding metals, and 
applying them to the conftruCtion of inftruments for 
facilitating agriculture and fifhing; who had firft ven¬ 
tured himfelf on the fea, and who had furnifhed them 
with the principles of divination. The worfliip of this 
pretended divinity was eftablifhed wherever they had co¬ 
lonies; and a fimilarity has been obferved between the 
Chryfor of the Phoenicians and the P/ita, or Vulcan, of 
the Egyptians. With this deity they aifociated another, 
called Agroneros , or Agrotes, in honour of whom they 
ere&ed a ftatue and a temple, and whom they held in 
very high eftimation, as having invented, or at leaft per¬ 
fected, the art of tillage. 
The other gods of the Phoenicians, named by Sancho¬ 
niathon, were Elioun, called the Molt High, and his wife 
Berovth, and his defendants, who were regarded as the 
founders of the Phoenician nation. Elioun and Berouth 
had four fons, Ifus, called alfo Chronos, Bethylus, Dagon, 
and Atlas. The wife of Chronos was Ajlarte , fuppofed 
to be the fame divinity with Derceto, or Atergates, wor- 
fhipped at Afcalon. Chror.us had feven daughters, 
called Artemides and Titanides; and two male children, 
Pothus or Cupidas, and Eros or Love. Chronus had ano¬ 
ther wife, called Rhea, and a third called Dioni. To 
thefe chief deities they joined marine divinities, fuch as 
Nereus, the father of Pontus, from whom fprung Pofeidon, 
or Neptune. The Caliri, called alfo Diofcuri, Coryban- 
283 
tes, and Samothraces, received divine honours. To thefe 
gods we may join Adonis, a Phoenician prince, who had 
reigned overLibanus, and the dii pataici , or tutelary gods 
of vefiels. The Phoenicians had alfo Baal-Samen, figni- 
fying Lord of Honour, and denoting the Sun; Baal-Be- 
ritli, or the Chronus worlhipped at Berytus ; and feveral 
others of the name of Baal. 
Herodotus fuppofes thefe people to have praftifed cir- 
cumcifion : but Jofephus aflerts, that none of the nations 
included under the vague name of Paleftine and Syria 
ufed that rite, the Jews excepted ; fo that, if the Phoeni¬ 
cians had anciently that cuftom, they came in time to 
negleft it, and at length wholly laid it afide. They ab- 
llained, however, from the flefh of fwine. 
Much is faid of their arts, fciences, and manufactures; 
but, as what we find concerning them is couched in ge¬ 
neral terms only, we cannot defcant on particulars. 
The Sidonians, under which denomination we compre¬ 
hend the Phoenicians in general, were of a raoft happy 
genius. They were from the beginning addicted to phi— 
lofophical exercifes of the mind; infomuch that a Sido- 
nian, by name Mofchus, taught the doCtrine of atoms 
before the Trojan war; and Abomenus of Tyre puzzled 
Solomon by the fubtilty of his queftions. Phcenice con¬ 
tinued to be one of the feats of learning, and both Tyre 
and Sidon produced their philofophers of later ages; 
namely, Boethus and Diodatus of Sidon, Antipater of 
Tyre, and Apollonius of the fame place ; who gave an 
account of the writings and difciples of Zeno. For their 
Language, fee that article, vol. xii. p. 161, 176. 
As to their manufactures, the glafs of Sidon, the purple 
of Tyre, and the exceeding fine linen they w’ove, were 
the produCt of their own country, and their invention : 
and for their extraordinary fkill in working metals, in 
hewing timber and ftone; in a word, for their perfeCl 
knowledge of what was folid, great, and ornamental, in 
architecture, we need only put the reader in mind of the 
large fhare they had in ereCting and' decorating the 
temple at Jerufalem under the king Hiram. Their fame 
for tafte, defign, and ingenious invention, was fuch, that 
whatever was elegant, great, orpleafing, whether in appa¬ 
rel, vefiels, or toys, was diftinguilhed by way of excellence 
with the epithet of Sidonian. 
As merchants, they may be faid to have engrofied all 
the commerce of the weftern world ; as navigators, they 
were the boldeft, the mod experienced, and greateft dil- 
coverers, of the ancient times: they had for many ages 
no rivals. In planting colonies, they exerted themfelves 
fo much, that, confidering their habitation was little more 
than the flip of ground between Mount Libanus and the 
fea, it is furprifing how they could furnilh fuch fupplies 
of people, and not wholly depopulate their native country. 
It is generally fuppofed that the Phoenicians were 
induced to deal in foreign commodities by their neigh¬ 
bourhood with the Syrians, who were perhaps the molt 
ancient of thofe w'ho carried on a confiderable and regular 
trade with the more eaftern regions: and this conjeChire 
appears probable at leaft; for their own territory was 
but fmall, and little able to afford any confiderable ex¬ 
ports, if we except manufactures: but that their manu¬ 
factures were anyways confiderable till they began to 
turn all the channels of trade into their own country, it 
is hard to believe. In Syria, which was a large country, 
they found (tore of productions of the natural growth of 
that foil, and many choice and ufeful commodities 
brought from the eaft. Thus, having a fafe coaft, with 
convenient harbours on one fide, and excellent materials 
for fliip-buildingon the other; perceiving how acceptable 
many commodities that Syria furnifhed would be in 
foreign parts, and being at the fame time, perhaps, fhown 
the way by the Syrians themfelves, who may have naviga¬ 
ted the Mediterranean ; they turned all their thoughts to 
trade and navigation, and by an uncommon application 
foon eclipfed their mafters in that art. 
It were vain to talk of the Edomites, who fled hither in 
. David’s 
