Pygmalion of Tyre: Difference between revisions

| title = [[King of Tyre]]

| reign = 831 BCEBC – 785 BCEBC

| birth_date = 841 or 843 BCEBC

| death_date = 785 BCEBC

'''Pygmalion''' ([[Ancient Greek]]: {{lang|grc|{{script|Grek|ΠυγμαλιωνΠυγμαλίων}}}} {{transl|grc|Pugmaliōn}}; [[Latin]]: {{transl|la|{{script|Latn|Pygmalion}}}}), was king of [[Tyre, Lebanon|Tyre]]<ref>The traditional king-list of Tyre is derived from [[Josephus]], ''[[Against Apion]]'' i. 18, 21, and ''Jewish Antiquities'' viii. 5.3; 13.2. His list was based on [[Menander of Ephesus]], who drew his information from the chronicles of Tyre. ([http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=256&letter=P ''Jewish Encyclopedia'': "Phenicia"]).</ref> from 831 to 785 BCE and a son of King [[Mattan I]] (840–832 BCEBC).

The Latin spelling {{script|Latn|Pygmalion}} represents the [[Ancient Greek|Greek]] {{lang|grc|{{script|Grek|ΠυγμαλιωνΠυγμαλίων}}}} {{transl|grc|Pugmaliōn}}.

The Greek form of the name has been identified as representing the [[Phoenician language|Phoenician]] ''Pumayyaton'' (or {{transl|phn|Pūmayyātān}}). This name is recorded epigraphically, as {{lang|phn|{{script|Phnx|{{big|𐤐𐤌𐤉𐤉𐤕𐤍}}}}}}, {{transl|phn|[[Pe (Semitic letter)|pP]][[AyinMem|ʿM]][[MemYodh|mY]][[Yodh|yY]][[Taw|tT]][[Nun (letter)|nN]]}}, a theophoric name interpreted as meaning "[[Pummay]] has given". This historical ''Pumayyaton'' however, was a Cypriot "king of [[Kition]], [[Idalion]] and [[Tamassos]]", not of Tyre, and lived several centuries after Pygmalion of Tyre's supposed lifetime.<ref>Frank Moore Cross, ''Leaves from an Epigrapher's Notebook: Collected Papers in Hebrew and West Semitic Palaeography and Epigraphy'', Brill (2018 [1974]), p. 278.</ref>

There is also epigraphic attestation of aan apparent theonym {{transl|phn|{{sc|pgmlyn}}}} ({{lang|phn|{{script|Phnx|{{big|𐤐𐤂𐤌𐤋𐤉𐤍}}}}}}) found on inscriptions such as the [[Douïmès medallion]]. This may either suggest an alternative Phoenician etymology for the name, or

Pygmalion’sPygmalion's dates are derived from [[Josephus]]’s's ''[[Against Apion]]'' i.18, where Josephus quotes the Phoenician historian [[Menander of Ephesus|Menander]] as follows:

<blockquote>Pygmalion . . . lived fifty-six years,<ref>The copies of Josephus/Menander in the Codex Laurentianus, the old Latin version of Cassiodorus, and [[Theodotion]] give 56 years; copies of Eusebius’sEusebius's "Chronography" in Armenian, plus some Greek extracts of it, give 58 years. From Barnes, ''Studies'' 40, note n.</ref> and reigned forty-seven years. Now, in the seventh year of his reign, his sister fled away from him, and built the city of [[Carthage]] in Libya.</blockquote>

Pygmalion’sPygmalion's dates, if this citation is to be trusted, are thus dependent on the date of the founding of Carthage. Here ancient classical sources given two possibilities: 825 BCE or 814 BCE. The 814 date is derived from the Greek historian [[Timaeus (historian)|Timaeus]] (c. 345–260{{Circa|345}}–260 BCE), and is the more commonly accepted year. The 825 date is taken from the writings of [[Gnaeus Pompeius Trogus|Pompeius Trogus]] (1st century BCE), whose forty-four book ''Philippic History'' survives only in abridged form in the works of the Roman historian [[Justin (historian)|Justin]]. In a 1951 article, J. Liver argued that the 825 date has some credibility because, with it, the elapsed time between that date and the start of building of Solomon’sSolomon's Temple, given as 143 years and 8 months in Menander/Josephus, agrees very closely with the date of approximately 967 BCE for the start of Temple construction as derived from 1 Kings 6:1 (fourth year of [[Solomon]]) and the date given by most historians for the end of Solomon’sSolomon's forty-year reign, i.e. 932 or 931 BCE.<ref>J. Liver, "The Chronology of Tyre at the Beginning of the First Millennium B.C.", ''Israel Exploration Journal'' 3 (1953) 116–117.</ref> If, however, the starting place is 814 BCE, measuring back 143 or 144 years does not agree with this Biblical date.

Liver advanced a second reason to favor the 825 date, related to the inscription of [[Shalmaneser III]], king of Assyria, mentioned above[[#Tribute of Balazeros (Baalimanzer) to Shalmaneser III|below]], where it was mentioned that philological studies have equated this Ba’liBa'li-manzer with Balazeros ([[Baal-Eser II]]), grandfather of Pygmalion. The best texts of Menander/Josephus give six years for Balazeros, followed by nine years for his son and successor Mattenos ([[Mattan I]]), making 22 years between the start of Balazeros’sBalazeros's reign and the seventh year of Pygmalion. If these 22 years are measured back from 814 BCE, they fall short of the 841 date required for Balazeros’sBalazeros's tribute to Shalmaneser. With the 825 date, however, Balazeros’sBalazeros's last year would be approximately 841 BCE, the time of the tribute to Shalmaneser.

These two agreements, one with an Assyrian inscription and the other with a Biblical datum, have proved quite convincing to scholars such as J. M. Peñuela,<ref>Peñuela, "La Inscripción Asiria", (Part 1), 217–37 and (Part 2) ''Sefarad'' 14 (1954) 1–39.</ref> [[Frank Moore Cross|F. M. Cross]].,<ref name="Cross, Nora Stone, 17, n. 11">Cross, "Nora Stone" 17, n. 11.</ref> and William H. Barnes.<ref>Barnes, ''Studies'' 51–53.</ref> Peñuela points out that the following consideration reconciles the two dates for Carthage derived from classical authors: 825 BCE was the year that Dido fled Tyre, and she did not found Carthage until 11 years later, in 814 BCE. Josephus, citing Menander, says that "in the seventh year of [Pygmalion’sPygmalion's] reign, his sister fled away from him, and built the city of Carthage in Libya" (''Against Apion'' i:18). There are two events mentioned here: the flight from Tyre and the founding of Carthage. The language used would suggest that it was the first of these events, Dido's flight, that took place in Pygmalion's seventh year. Between the two events the following took place: Dido and her ships sailed to Cyprus, where about 80 of the men with her took wives. Eventually the Tyrians arrived on the north coast of Africa, where they received permission to build on an island in the harbor of the place where Carthage was eventually to be built. Peñuela quotes Strabo to show that some time then elapsed before the founding of Carthage: "Carthage was not founded immediately. Indeed, a small island having been captured previously in the Carthaginian harbor, Dido settled there. She fortified the place, which she used as a citadel of war against the Africans, who kept her from the shore."<ref name="Strabo">Strabo (17:3 14–15), cited in Peñuela, "La Inscripción Asiria" Part 2, p. 29, note 167.</ref> Justin (18:5 10–17) also mentions the time on this island, which he names as Cothon, and says that Dido and her company built a circle of houses there.<ref name="Strabo" /> Eventually peace was made with the inhabitants on the mainland, and the Tyrians were given permission to build a city. Peñuela maintained that these various events between the departure from Tyre and the eventual rapprochement with the inhabitants on the mainland explain the eleven-year difference between Pompeius Trogus's date of 825 BCE and the 814 date derived from other classical authors for Carthage's founding.

This understanding of the chronology related to Dido and her company resulted in the following dates for Pygmalion, Dido, and their immediate relations, as derived from [[Frank Moore Cross|F. M. Cross]]<ref name="Cross, Nora Stone, 17, n. 11"/> and Wm. H. Barnes:<ref>Barnes, ''Studies'' 53.</ref>

A possible reference to Pygmalion is an interpretation of the [[Nora Stone]], found on Sardinia in 1773 and, though its precise finding place has been forgotten, dated by paleographic methods to the 9th century BCE.<ref>C. 825–780{{Circa|825}}–780 according to Robin Lane Fox, ''Travelling Heroes in the Epic Age of Homer'', 2008:120f and note p. 382.</ref>

In 1951, Fuad Safar published a record of tribute from Baaʿli-maanzer, king of Tyre, to [[Shalmaneser III]] of Assyria in 841 BCE.<ref>Fuad Safar, "A Further Text of Shalmaneser III from Assur", ''Sumer'' 7 (1951) 3–21.</ref> There followed several studies that attempted to relate this Baaʿli-maanzer to the list of kings given in Menander/Josephus. It was argued, based on philological considerations, that the name as given in the Assyrian text could be matched to a Phoenician {{transl|phn|Baʿal-ʿazor}} and the Greek {{transl|grc|Baal-Eser}}/{{transl|grc|Balazeros}}, a name corresponding to two kings in Menander’sMenander's list.<ref>J. Liver, "The Chronology of Tyre at the Beginning of the First Millennium B.C." ''Israel Exploration Journal'' 3 (1953) 119–120.</ref><ref>J. M. Peñuela, "La Inscripción Asiria IM 55644 y la Cronología de los Reyes de Tiro", ''Sefarad'' 13 (1953, Part 1) 219–28.</ref><ref> name="Cross, "Nora Stone", 17, n. 11.<"/ref><ref>William H. Barnes, ''Studies in the Chronology of the Divided Monarchy of Israel'' (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1991) 29–55.</ref> The first {{transl|grc|Balazeros}} was a son of [[Hiram I]], contemporary of David and Solomon, so this was too early, but the second name referred to the grandfather of Pygmalion and was therefore in the right date range.

[[Category:Kings9th-century BC kings of Tyre]]

[[Category:9th8th-century BC Phoeniciankings peopleof Tyre]]