Talk:Melqart
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I heard that the actual columns of the Melqart temple at Gadir were reinterpreted as the Columns of Hercules. If they are like those at Tyros, it's understandable that they made it into myth. Can somebody talk about the Gadir columns? --Error 01:42, 20 Feb 2004 (UTC)
I've changed Wetman's identification of Melqart as a dying and rising god from definite to maybe to be more NPOV. Secondary sources often agree with Wetman, but early specular is drenched in solar theory and later speculation in vegetation god theory. Primary sources are vague. It is possible that the "awakening" festival was really more an awakening of summer without indicating the Melqart himself was generally conceived as a dying and reviving god. Apollo also went away in the winter according to the Delphi cult and returned in the spring. Melqart's revival from death by smelling a roasted quail indicates a resurrection in one tale, but it is unlikely that in this story Melqart was dead for an entire season. The humorous tone of this story sounds more like what might be called mummer-play mythology, in which St. George dies and is almost immediately revived in a folky and humorous context. It might or might not have something to do with the "awakening" festival and might be central to the Melqart cult or simply a trivial motif in a tale. Religious motifs do get transformed into straightforward adventure story motifs. The truth is we don't really know anything much about Melqart and experience suggests that at least some of the Greek evidence would turn out to be very misleading if we did know the full truth. As an example, the first thing Diodorus Siculus tells us about Osiris is that Osiris is a sun god!!!
Wetman's addition about Melqart's cult largely superceding that of Eshmun indicated that the cult of Melqart originated in Tyre, I think unintentionally, since of course we hardly know where any particular god or goddess actually originated. Changed to indicate the cult is first known to us in Tyre. jallan 01:54, 19 Jun 2004 (UTC)
I was told to merge my article on Hannibal and Melqart with this article I tried my best to fit it appropriately, feel free people to rearrange its positioning. By the way this article on Melqart rocks I struggle to find information on the subject but this is superb, great job!!! user:king Alaric
- Can you cite any sources for the story of Hannibal's vision? Krunkers 00:47, 17 Jan 2008 (UTC)
