Carthage had a most curious religion. The Carthaginians had inherited it from the Phoenicians, of course—though, as with all the best stories, it had grown considerably in the telling. The supreme divine couple were the Phoenician Baal Hammon (it is from Baal that a great many Carthaginian names were formed, Hannibal among them) and Tanit. Greek cultural influence led to Baal Hammon being identified with Cronus; the Romans linked him to Saturn. Tanit—a virgin(!) mother goddess and patroness of war—was associated by the Greeks with Hera and by the Romans with Juno Caelestis (‘the heavenly’).
Around this pair of Phoenician deities, a Carthage multicultural in the truest sense assembled an equally diversified pantheon, in which there rubbed shoulders:
- the Phoenician gods of seafaring Melqart (identified with the Greek Heracles), of healing and fertility Eshmun (Asclepius), of fire, lightning and war Resheph (Apollo), of the sea Baal Zephon (Poseidon-Neptune), and the goddess of love and power Astarte (Aphrodite-Venus);
- the Greek Demeter and Persephone (Kore), who are also the Roman Ceres and Proserpina;
- the Egyptian Bes, Bastet, Isis, Osiris, and Ra
—and a good many others besides.
Images and Symbols: A Gallery of Deities
