Sanchuniathon (
Greek: Σαγχουνιάθων;
gen.: Σαγχουνιάθωνος) is the purported
Phoenician author of three lost works originally in the
Phoenician language, surviving only in partial paraphrase and summary of a
Greek translation by
Philo of Byblos, according to the Christian bishop
Eusebius of Caesarea. 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 habitually written. He is also known as
Sancuniates.
The author[edit]
All our knowledge of Sanchuniathon and his work comes from Eusebius's
Praeparatio Evangelica, (I. chs ix-x)
[1] which contains some information about him along with the only surviving excerpts from his writing, as summarized and quoted from his supposed translator,
Philo of Byblos.
Eusebius also quotes the
neo-Platonist writer
Porphyry as stating that Sanchuniathon of Berytus (
Beirut) wrote the truest history about the Jews because he obtained records from "Hierombalus" ("
Jerubbaal"? or "Hiram'baal" ?) priest of the god Ieuo (
Yahweh), that Sanchuniathon dedicated his history to Abibalus king of Berytus, and that it was approved by the king and other investigators, the date of this writing being before the
Trojan war[2] (around 1200 BC) approaching close to the time of
Moses, "when
Semiramis was queen of the
Assyrians."
[3] Thus Sanchuniathon is placed firmly in the mythic context of the pre-
Homeric heroic age, an antiquity from which no other Greek or Phoenician writings are known to have survived to the time of Philo. Curiously, however, he is made to refer disparagingly to
Hesiod at one point, who lived in
Greece ca. 700 BC.
The supposed Sanchuniathon claimed to have based his work on "collections of secret writings of the
Ammouneis[4] 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 invented 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) as well as also worshipping forces of nature and the sun, moon, and stars. Eusebius' intent in mentioning Sanchuniathon is 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 of Byblos himself, or assembled from various traditions and presented within an authenticating
pseudepigraphical format, in order to give the material more believable weight. Or Philo may have translated genuine Phoenician works ascribed to an ancient writer known as Sanchuniathon, but in fact written in more recent times. This judgement is echoed by the 1911
Encyclopædia Britannica, which wrote that Sanchuniathon "belongs more to legend than to history."
[citation needed]
The Humour which prevail'd with several learned Men to reject Sanchuniatho 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.
[5]
However that may be,
[6] 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
[7] that it does incorporate genuine Semitic elements that can now be related to the Ugaritic texts, some of which is shown in our 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
[8] written between the time of Alexander the Great and the first century BC, if it was not a literary invention of Philo.
[9]
In what follows, it is sometimes difficult to tell whether Eusebius is citing Philo's translation of Sanchuniathon or speaking in his own voice. Another difficulty is the use of Greek proper names instead of Phoenician ones and the possible corruption of some of the Phoenician names that do appear. There may be other garblings.
The work[edit]
The fragments that come down to us contain:
Philosophical creation story[edit]
A philosophical creation story traced to "the cosmogony of
Taautus, whom Philo explicitly identified 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 which seems to be the Phoenician/Ge'ez/Hebrew/Arabic/Ancient Egyptian word for 'Death' but which the account says may mean 'mud'. In a mixed confusion, the germs of life appear, and intelligent animals called
Zophasemin (explained probably correctly as 'observers of heaven') formed together as an egg, perhaps. The account is not clear. Then Môt burst forth into light and the heavens were created and the various elements found their stations.
Following the etymological line of
Jacob Bryant one might also consider with regard to the meaning of
Môt, that according to the Ancient Egyptians
Ma'at was the personification of the fundamental order of the universe, without which all of creation would perish. She was also considered the wife of
Thoth.
Allegorical culture heroes[edit]
Copias and his wife Baau (translated as
Nyx 'Night') give birth to Aeon and Protogonus ("first-born"), who are mortal men; "and that when droughts occurred, they 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). A race of
Titan-like mountain beings arose, "sons of surpassing size and stature, whose names were applied to the mountains which they occupied... and they got their names, he says, from their mothers, as the women in those days had free intercourse with any whom they met." 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.
The history of the gods[edit]
The work includes a genealogy and history of various northwest Semitic deities who were widely worshipped. Many were listed in the genealogy under the names of their counterparts in the Greek pantheon (see
interpretatio graeca), or in 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.
Elioun = Beruth
(Hypsistus)|
|
+------+-----+
| |
| |
Uranus = Ge
(Epigeius) |
(Autochthon) |
+-----------+------------------------------+-----------+---------+--------------+--------+
| | | | | | |
| | | | | | |
Anobret = Elus/Cronus Baetylus Uranus = (concubine) = Dagon Atlas Astarte = Elus = Rhea Baaltis = Elus
| | | (Siton) (Aphrodite)| | (Dione) |
| | | (Zeus Arotrios) | | |
+-----+ +---------+--------+ | +++++++-------+------+ +++++++----+ |
| | | | | ||||||| | | ||||||| | |
| | | | | ||||||| | | ||||||| | |
Iedud/Ieoud Persephone Athena Sadidus Demarûs Sydyc = Titanides Pothos Eros 7 sons Muth daughters
(Adodus/Zeus) | |(Artemides) (Thanatos)
| | | (Pluto)
+-----+ +++++++ +----+
| ||||||| |
| ||||||| |
Melcarthus Cabeiri Asclepius
(Heracles) (Corybantes)
(Samothraces)
(Dioscuri)
Elus Nereus
(in Peraea) |
| |
+---------------+---------------+ |
| | | |
| | | |
Cronus (II) Zeus Belus Apollo Pontus
|
|
|
|
|
Sidon, Poseidon
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 (forpontos) '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);[10] Ieoud/Iedud: perhaps from a Phoenician cognate of Hebrew yḥyd = "only" or of Hebrew ydyd = "beloved".[10]
