371 Ezekiel xxviii. 14, compare 16. _ 372 Balder the Beautiful_, ii. 1 _sqq._ But, as I have there pointed out, there are grounds for thinking that the custom of walking over fire is not a substitute for human sacrifice, but merely a stringent form of purification. On fire as a purificatory agent see below, pp. 179 _sqq._, 188 _sq._ 373 Strabo, xii. 2. 7, p. 537. In Greece itself accused persons used to prove their innocence by walking through fire (Sophocles, _Antigone_, 264 _sq._, with Jebb’s note). Possibly the fire-walk of the priestesses at Castabala was designed to test their chastity. For this purpose the priests and priestesses of the Tshi-speaking people of the Gold Coast submit to an ordeal, standing one by one in a narrow circle of fire. This “is supposed to show whether they have remained pure, and refrained from sexual intercourse, during the period of retirement, and so are worthy of inspiration by the gods. If they are pure they will receive no injury and suffer no pain from the fire” (A. B. Ellis, _The Tshi-speaking Peoples of the Gold Coast_, London, 1887, p. 138). These cases favour the purificatory explanation of the fire-walk. 374 Euripides, _Iphigenia in Tauris_, 621-626. Compare Diodorus Siculus, xx. 14. 6. 375 Herodotus, vii. 167. This was the Carthaginian version of the story. According to another account, Hamilcar was killed by the Greek cavalry (Diodorus Siculus, xi. 22. 1). His worship at Carthage is mentioned by Athenagoras (_Supplicatio pro Christianis_, p. 64, ed. J. C. T. Otto, Jena, 1857.) I have called Hamilcar a king in accordance with the usage of Greek writers (Herodotus, vii. 165 _sq._; Aristotle, _Politics_, ii. 11; Polybius, vi. 51; Diodorus Siculus, xiv. 54. 5). But the _suffetes_, or supreme magistrates, of Carthage were two in number; whether they were elected for a year or for life seems to be doubtful. Cornelius Nepos, who calls them kings, says that they were elected annually (_Hannibal_, vii. 4), and Livy (xxx. 7. 5) compares them to the consuls; but Cicero (_De re publica_, ii. 23. 42 _sq._) seems to imply that they held office for life. See G. A. Cooke, _Text-book of North-Semitic Inscriptions_, pp. 115 _sq._ M87 The death of Hercules a Greek version of the burning of Melcarth. 376 Lucian, _Amores_, 1 and 54. M88 The Tyrian Melcarth in Cyprus. The lion-slaying god. 377 See above, p. 32. 378 G. A. Cooke, _Text-book of North-Semitic Inscriptions_, Nos. 23 and 29, PP. 73, 83 _sq._, with the notes on pp. 81, 84.