Byblos

BYBLOS. - One of the most ancient cities of Phoenicia, called in Greek Βόβλος, Assyrian Gubal (in the el-'Amārnah letters: Gubla), Egyptian Kbn (from the XII dynasty onward Kpn), Hebrew Gēbhāl (Ez. 27, 9), today Gebejl, situated on the coast of the Mediterranean, about 40 km north of Beirut. According to Philo of B., the city was given by Ba'al-Kronos himself to the goddess Ba'altis (Ba'ala). B. owes its importance chiefly to commerce with Egypt, attested by Egyptian texts from the IV dynasty onward (ca. 2600 B.C.), particularly lively in the times of the VI dynasty (ca. 2300 B.C.): in the archaeological excavations carried out at B. there were found gifts sent by the kings Pepi I and II of this dynasty to the temples of B.

From B. various kinds of wood were exported, while Egypt imported papyrus there. B. thus became the center of the trade in this material, and for this reason the Greeks called the book written on papyrus βόβλος or βίβλος. These commercial relations, interrupted for almost four centuries, were later resumed under the XII dynasty (ca. 2065-1788 B.C.); indeed for some time the city seems to have been subject to an Egyptian governor, whose tomb has been discovered in the royal necropolis not far from the sea. Suspended again during the period of the Hyksos (ca. 1750-1580 B.C.), commerce revived for a short time under the powerful XVIII dynasty (1580-1350 B.C.). But in the first half of the 14th century the city was taken by the Habiru and it seems that, from then on, dependence on Egypt almost ceased, except in the time of Ramses II (1292-26 B.C.). The statues of Šelonk I (945-24 B.C.) and of Osorkon I (924-895 B.C.), discovered in the excavations, prove nevertheless that commercial relations were still maintained.

Then made tributary to the Assyrians under Theglathphalasar IV (745-727 B.C.), B. passed in the 6th century to the Persians, in the 4th century to the Seleucids and, "liberated" under Pompey, from then on formed part of the Roman empire. After Constantine it became the seat of a bishop. Having passed in the 7th century under Muslim domination, in the period of the Crusaders it had a brief Christian revival (episcopal see, cathedral of St. John), only to pass definitively afterward into the hands of the Mohammedans. Today Ġebejl is a village of about 1500 inhabitants, the seat of a bishop, patriarchal vicar of the patriarch of the Maronites.

The Old Testament mentions B. only three times: Ios. 13, 5 (doubtful text) mentions it as the northern boundary of the Promised Land; in I Reg. 5, 18, the Gebalites appear as workmen (woodcutters and masons) in the building of Solomon's temple; in Ez. 27, 9, the elders and the experts of B. are called the caulkers who repair the leaks of the ship of Tyre.

B. was above all famous for its pagan cults. The divinity proper to B. was Ba'ālath Gēbhal ("lady of Gēbhal", Egyptian nbt hbnj, Akkadian bēlit tu gubla), of whom a large temple has been discovered (or two temples?).

The Ba'ālat was worshiped also in Egypt, where she was identified with the goddess Hathor. In an inscription of the 13th century B.C. King Jehimilk of B. implores the protection of "Ba'ālamēm and of Ba'āl of B. and of the totality of the holy gods of B." The Ba'ālamēm is probably the 'Eljōn mentioned by Philo of B.; of the Ba'āl of B. there is no other information; it seems that he was of secondary rank, inferior to the goddess Ba'ālat. B. was moreover, as Lucian relates (De dea Syria, 6-8), a center of the cult of Adonis (v.), who was said to have been killed by a boar in the very territory of B.

The archaeological excavations carried out by P. Montet (1921-1924) and by Dunand (from 1925 onward) have brought to light, besides the aforementioned temple, 9 tombs of the kings of B., belonging partly to the time of the XII dynasty (19th and 18th centuries B.C.), partly to the following centuries; the most recent is that of Ahiram, of the 13th century (according to others, of the end of the 12th century), important for the inscription on the sarcophagus.

Agostino Bea