Adonis, Attis, Osiris : studies in the history of oriental religion / by J.G. Frazer.

  • James George Frazer
Date:
1906
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Adonis, Attis, Osiris : studies in the history of oriental religion / by J.G. Frazer. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    32/368 (page 12)
    Kings named Adonis. doubt Melcarth, “ the king of the city,” as his name signifies, the great god whom the Greeks identified with Hercules ; for the equivalence of the Baal of Tyre both to Melcarth and to Hercules is placed beyond the reach of doubt by a bilingual inscription, in Phoenician and Greek, which was found in Malta.1 In like manner the kings of Byblus may have assumed the style of Adonis ; for Adonis was simply the divine Adon or “ lord ” of the city, a title which hardly differs in sense from Baal (“ master ”) and Melek (“ king ”). This conjecture would be confirmed if one of the kings of Byblus actually bore, as Renan believed, the name of Adom-melek, that is, Adonis Melek, the Lord King. But, unfortunately, the read¬ ing of the inscription in which the name occurs is doubtful.2 Some of the old Canaanite kings of Jerusalem appear to have played the part of Adonis in their lifetime, if we may judge from their names, Adoni-bezek and Adoni-zedek,3 which are divine rather than human titles. Adoni-zedek means “ lord of righteousness,” and is therefore equivalent to Melchizedek, that is, “ king of righteousness,” the title of that mysterious king of Salem and priest of God Most High, who seems to have been neither more nor less than one of these same Canaanitish kings of Jerusalem.4 Thus if the old priestly 1 G. A. Cooke, Text-book of North- Semitic Inscriptions, No. 36, p. 102. As to Melcarth, the Tyrian Hercules, see Ed. Meyer, in W. H. Roscher’s Lexikon d. griech. u.‘ rd?n. Mythologie, ii. 2650 sqq. One of the Tyrian kings seems to have been called Abi-milk (Abi-melech), that is, “father of a king” or “father of Moloch,” that is, of Melcarth. A letter of his to the king of Egypt is preserved in the Tel- el-Amarna correspondence. See R. F. Harper, Assyrian and Babylonian LiteraBire, p. 237. As to a title which implies that the bearer of it was the father of a god, see below, p. 32. 2 E. Renan, quoted by Ch. Vellay, Le culte et les fetes d’Adonis-Thammouz, p. 39. But Mr. Cooke reads ~]Scru\‘ (Uri-milk) instead of Adix (Adon- milk) (G. A. Cooke, Text-book of North- Se??iitic Inscriptions, No. 3, p. 18). However, little stress can be laid on this argument, since the title Adoni Melek, “my lord the king,” was often used in addressing Hebrew kings. See, for example, 1 Kings i. 2, 13, t8, 20, 21, 24, 27, etc. 3 Judges i. 4-7 ; Joshua x. I sqq. 4 Genesis xiv. 18-20, with Prof. S. R. Driver’s commentary; Encyclo¬ paedia Biblica, s.vv. “Adoni-bezek,” “Adoni-zedek,” “Melchizedek.” It is to be observed that names com¬ pounded with Adoni- were occasionally borne by private persons. Such names are Adoni-kam (Ezra ii. 13) and Adoni-ram (1 Kings iv. 6), not to mention Adoni-jah (1 Kings i. 5 sqq.), who was a prince and aspired to the throne of his father David. These names are commonly interpreted as sentences expressive of the nature of the god whom the bearer of the name worshipped. See Prof. Th. Noldeke, in Encyclopaedia Biblica, s .v. “Names,”