MELQART. - Phoenician deity (Gk. Μελκάθρος). The Phoenician melqart, from melek-Qart, according to the still most probable opinion today, means "the king of the city (= Tyre)". W. F. Albright, on the other hand, leans toward interpreting it as "the king of the city (= Hell)", but on too weak a basis of texts. This deity, so far not attested in the texts of Ugarit or in the el-'Amârnah letters, accompanied the entire rise, development and flourishing of the maritime and colonizing powers of Qart (= Tyre) and of Qart-badaît ("New Tyre", that is, Carthage), serving as the ἀρχηγέτης of their people and Empire: the chief god, founder and preserver of their State, and their divine representative. Hence his other name of Ba'al Şôr, "Baal of Tyre", is also understandable.
It is not easy to determine the nature of M. According to Albright he would be a solar and infernal god, similar to Nergal, Horon and others. But the opinion of R. Dussaud in his latest careful study seems better founded, even if only probable: M. was born from the syncretistic speculation of the theologians of Tyre, who, following the extension of the city's maritime power, succeeded in fusing into a single deity the two fiercest enemies of each other in the myths of Ugarit, namely Ba'al, agrarian god of the winter vegetation, dispenser of fertility and god of storm and lightning (like Hadad), and Jam, the powerful and cruel god of the Sea, and therefore of all maritime activities. M. would have taken on the characteristics and attributes of both, as indeed appears from the oldest coins of Tyre, where he is depicted riding a winged hippocampus, but with a bow in his hand (symbol of lightning). His feast is the 'Εγερσος, the awakening or resurrection, celebrated in the month of peritos, at the end of the winter rains, whose rite was meant to signify a true holocaust of the deity in fire, from which he would rise again each year rejuvenated.
M. was introduced into Samaria and the Kingdom of Israel, under the name hal-Ba'al, under Ahab and Jezebel; but he was opposed by the prophet Elijah, in the majestic assembly on Mount Carmel (I Kings 18:20-38). This account, ironically, alludes to certain of his properties, as god of lightning, god of the "awakening" and god of water.
M. is not to be identified with Milkom, Molk, Moloch and similar deities; nor (against O. Eissfeldt) is he Ba'al Şâmem in the scene on Mount Carmel. As for the pantheon of Tyre, M. would be the great male god of the Triad; his consort is the famous Astarte and his son Êmun. To this triad, under the form of the Βάημων Καρχηδωνών, Hannibal swore an oath in 215.
The first mention of M. is found in a stele recently published by M. Dunand, which according to Albright dates to ca. 850 B.C. It was erected by a Benadad (v.), Aramean king of Damascus, not yet fully identified. Later there are numerous temples, steles and inscriptions (even bilingual) throughout the Phoenician sphere of influence, from Syria, Phoenicia and Cyprus, across Libya, Africa, Sicily and Sardinia, as far as Spain. Even the famous "Pillars of Hercules" would go back to the two steles erected in front of his temple at Gades (Cadiz). Indeed M., interpreted by the Greeks as Heracles, survived the fall of Phoenician and Punic power.
Bibliography4 works
Pietro Nober