Originally, Melkarth would seem to have been a mere epithet, representing one aspect of Baal. The word is formed from the two roots _melek_ and _kartha_[1141] (= Heb. _kiriath_, “city”), and means “King of the City,” or “City King,” which Baal was considered to be. But the two names in course of time drifted apart, and Melicertes, in Philo Byblius, has no connection at all with Baal-samin.[1142] The Greeks, who identified Baal with their Zeus, viewed Melkarth as corresponding to their Heracles, or Hercules; and the later Phoenicians, catching at this identification, represented Melkarth under the form of a huge muscular man, with a lion’s skin and sometimes with a club.[1143] Melkarth was especially worshipped at Tyre, of which city he was the tutelary deity, at Thasos, and at Gades. Herodotus describes the temple of Hercules at Tyre, and attributes to it an antiquity of 2,300 years before his own time.[1144] He also visited a temple dedicated to the same god at Thasos.[1145] With Gades were connected the myths of Hercules’ expedition to the west, of his erection of the pillars, his defeat of Chrysaor of the golden sword, and his successful foray upon the flocks and herds of the triple Geryon.[1146] Whether these legends were Greek or Phoenician in origin is uncertain; but the Phoenicians, at any rate, adopted them, and here have been lately found on Phoenician sites representations both of Geryon himself,[1147] and the carrying off by Hercules of his cattle.[1148] The temple of Heracles at Gades is mentioned by Strabo[1149] and others. It was on the eastern side of the island, where the strait between the island and the continent was narrowest. Founded about B.C. 1100, it continued to stand to the time of Silius Italicus, and, according to the tradition, had never needed repair.[1150] An unextinguished fire had burnt upon its altar for thirteen hundred years; and the worship had remained unchanged--no image profaned the Holy of Holies, where the god dwelt, waited on by bare-footed priests with heads shaved, clothed in white linen robes, and vowed to celibacy.[1151] The name of the god occurs as an element in a certain small number of Phoenician names of men--e.g. Bomilcar, Himilcar, Abd-Melkarth, and the like.