Again, “From the wind, Colpia, and his wife Bahu (Heb. {...}), which is
by interpretation ‘Night,’ were born Æon and Protogonus, mortal men so
named; of whom one, viz. Æon, discovered that life might be sustained by
the fruits of trees. Their immediate descendants were called Genos and
Genea, who lived in Phoenicia, and in time of drought stretched forth
their hands to heaven towards the sun; for him they regarded as the sole
Lord of Heaven, and called him Baal-samin, which means ‘Lord of Heaven’
in the Phoenician tongue, and is equivalent to Zeus in Greek. And from
Genos, son of Æon and Protogonus, were begotten mortal children, called
Phôs, and Pyr, and Phlox (i.e. Light, Fire, and Flame). These persons
invented the method of producing fire by rubbing two pieces of wood
together, and taught men to employ it. They begat sons of surprising
size and stature, whose names were given to the mountains whereof they
had obtained possession, viz. Casius, and Libanus, and Antilibanus, and
Brathy. From them were produced Memrumus and Hypsuranius, who took
their names from their mothers, women in those days yielding themselves
without shame to any man whom they happened to meet. Hypsuranius lived
at Tyre, and invented the art of building huts with reeds and rushes and
the papyrus plant. He quarrelled with his brother, Usôus, who was the
first to make clothing for the body out of the skins of the wild beasts
which he slew. On one occasion, when there was a great storm of rain
and wind, the trees in the neighbourhood of Tyre so rubbed against each
other that they took fire, and the whole forest was burnt; whereupon
Usôus took a tree, and having cleared it of its boughs, was the first
to venture on the sea in a boat. He also consecrated two pillars to Fire
and Wind, and worshipped them, and poured upon them the blood of the
animals which he took by hunting. And when the two brothers were dead,
those who remained alive consecrated rods to their memory, and continued
to worship the pillars, and to hold a festival in their honour year by
year.”[1314]
Once more--“It was the custom among the ancients, in times of great
calamity and danger, for the rulers of the city or nation to avert the
ruin of all by sacrificing to the avenging deities the best beloved of
their children as the price of redemption; and such as were thus devoted
were offered with mystic ceremonies. Kronus, therefore, who was called
El by the Phoenicians, and who, after his death, was deified and
attached to the planet which bears his name, having an only son by a
nymph of the country, who was called Anobret, took his son, whose name
was Ieoud, which means ‘only son’ in Phoenician, and when a great
danger from war impended over the land, adorned him with the ensigns
of royalty, and, having prepared an altar for the purpose, voluntarily
sacrificed him.”[1315]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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