SAKONYATON
Flavius Josephus writes in Contra Apionem (I,107) the following:
“The Tyrians have written during a very long time public documents and stored it with great care if it concerned memorable happenings that occurred with them and with others.”
Most of these giant literature has been lost because it was written on papyrus of leather.
So, if we want to learn more, we have to find it in other sources like the Assyrian annals, the el-Amarna tablets, Egyptian hieroglyphs, the Bible, Ugarit texts, Greek and Latin sources.
... But there is one exception:
HERENNIUS PHILON OF BYBLOS who lived in the period of emperor Nero. He could read Phoenician and translated in Greek a history of Sakonyaton (SKNYTN= gift of Sakon).
Sakonyaton lived perhaps in the 12th century BC and wrote in Phoenician this history on the basis of the work of Hirambaal, a priest, who lived in 14th/13th century BC. that he wrote down for the king of Beryt: Abibaal.
If this is all true, then we see a man at the end of the 1st century AD who still could read Phoenician and translated the story in Greek. He desperately tried to save something of the rich Phoenician history which shows for instance an incredibly modern view about the beginning of the world and how religion began.
As a miracle the texts of Philon of Byblos has survived antiquity and the Middle-ages
Philon of Byblos gets sometimes the addition Herennius to distinct him from other Philo’s in that time like Philon of Alexandria (jewish writer) and Philon of Larissa (platonic philosopher). The addition Herennius comes from a high Roman official Herennius Severus in the Lebanon, which was his patron. After Philo of Byblos others has copied his texts and maybe altered them. Those are for instance Porphyrius (c.233-304 AD) and Eusebius of Caesarea (260-340 AD). The real name of Porphyrius was Malchus (MLK!) of Tyre (surely a descendent of a Phoenician). Porphyrius used the texts of Philo in his book Adversus Christianos, which was burned by the barbarian emperor Theodosius II in 448 AD. Eusebius was a bishop who used the texts of Philo to promote Christianity. Flavius Josephus writes in Contra Apionem (I,107) the following:
“The Tyrians have written during a very long time public documents and stored it with great care if it concerned memorable happenings that occurred with them and with others.”
Most of these giant literature has been lost because it was written on papyrus of leather.
So, if we want to learn more, we have to find it in other sources like the Assyrian annals, the el-Amarna tablets, Egyptian hieroglyphs, the Bible, Ugarit texts, Greek and Latin sources.
... But there is one exception:
HERENNIUS PHILON OF BYBLOS who lived in the period of emperor Nero. He could read Phoenician and translated in Greek a history of Sakonyaton (SKNYTN= gift of Sakon).
Sakonyaton lived perhaps in the 12th century BC and wrote in Phoenician this history on the basis of the work of Hirambaal, a priest, who lived in 14th/13th century BC. that he wrote down for the king of Beryt: Abibaal.
If this is all true, then we see a man at the end of the 1st century AD who still could read Phoenician and translated the story in Greek. He desperately tried to save something of the rich Phoenician history which shows for instance an incredibly modern view about the beginning of the world and how religion began.
As a miracle the texts of Philon of Byblos has survived antiquity and the Middle-ages
Back to Sakonya...ton (or Sanchuniaton) with his COSMOLOGY, which our Philo translated in Greek: The translation in English is by Baumgartner:
“He [Sanchuniaton] posits at the beginning of all things dark and windy mist, or a blast of dark mist, and a turbid, watery chaos, dark as Erebos. These things were boundless, and throughout a long period of time had no bound. He says: And when the wind loved its own primary elements and a mixture resulted, that plexus was called Pothos (Desire). This [plexus] is the source of the creation of all things. But he [pothos] did not know his own creation. And from his connection [with the wind] Môt was born of the wind. Some say that [Môt] is slime, others the putrefaction of a watery mixture. And from this [putrefaction] was born every seed of creation and [the] origin of all [things]. And there were some living things which had no sense perception, from which living beings possessed of intellect were born. And they were called Zophasemin, that is observers of the heavens, and they were formed like the shape of an egg. And Môt blazed forth the sun and the moon, the stars and the great luminous bodies. And when the air burst into light, on account of the burning of both land and sea, there arose winds and clouds and great down-pourings of the waters of heaven and floods. And when [the waters] were set apart and separated from their original place on account of the sun, then all things met each other again in the air and clashed together, thunders and lightnings were produced. And as a consequence of the crashing of the thunders, the intellectual beings mentioned above were aroused, and as a consequence of the sound they frightened and male and female were set in motion in earth and sea.”
So here we are with a rudimentary form of the evolution-theory in the 14th century BC! No god in sight. Purely paganism and Darwinism. Mankind has not learned much more in this aspect since that time!
Philon of Byblos translated probably the Phoenician names by Sakonyaton into Greek versions. Many scholars have tried (mostly in vain) to find back the original Phoenician names, but I use here the names, that Philon produced. The English translation of the texts are from Baumgartner.
The first people:
... “that from the wind KOLPIA and his wife BAAU (and that he renders “Night”) there were born AION and PROTOGONOS, mortal men called by these names. AION discovered the food obtained from trees. The children born of them were called GENOS and GENEA and they settled Phoenicia. And when there were droughts, they stretched out their hands to heaven, towards the sun. For (he says) they considered hem the sole god, the ruler of heaven, calling him Beelsamen, which means to the Phoenicians “Ruler of Heaven”, but to the Greeks “Zeus”.
From GENOS, the son of AION and PROTOGONOS, there again were born mortal children whose names were PHOS, PYR and PHLOX. These (he says) by rubbing sticks together discovered fire, and they taught its use. And they begot sons who in size and eminence were greater [than their fathers] and whose names were given to the mountain ranges over which they ruled so that the KASIOS, the LEBANON, the ANTI-LEBANON and the BRATHYS were called after them. From these (he says) were born SAMEMROUMOS who is also [called] HYPSOURANIOS and OUSOOS. And (he says), they called themselves after their mothers, since the women of that time united freely with anyone upon whom they chanced.
[that] Hypsouranios settled Tyre and he invented huts made from reeds, and rushes and papyrus. And he quarrelled with his brother OUSOOS, who first contrived a covering for the body from skins of the animals he was able to capture. When there were furious rains and winds, the trees in Tyre, rubbing against each other, caught fire, and their wood burned. OUSOOS, having taken part of a tree and lopped off the branches, was the first to dare set out to sea. And he consecrated two stelai to Fire and Wind and poured as a libation to them the blood of the animals he caught. When HYPSOURANIOS and OUSOOS died, he says, their survivors consecrated staves to them, worshipped the stelai [of OUSOOS], and celebrated yearly festivals in their honor.”
Some names can easily traced back. Protogonos = firstborn, Pyr we find also in the mountainrange on the boundery of France and Spain, Ousoos = town Usju on the continent opposite to Tyre, the two stelai are coming back as the two colums in front of the later Phoenician temples, Beelsamen = Baalshamen (god of the heavens) and in the name of Hypsouranios is hidden the name of the town Tyre (Sour).
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