How were the Greeks influenced by the cultures of the east?

Answer 1

The Phoenicians were Semitic peoples who came from the Levant. Their main cities were Sidon, Tyre and Byblos2 In the first millennium, they lived along a 200 km3 stretch of coastline, backing onto the mountains of Lebanon. In the 8th and 7th centuries land constrictions imposed on their homeland by others forced them to venture overseas,4 a necessity which they turned to their advantage, becoming formidable traders dealing in dyes, wood, glass, metalwork and ivory. Their culture was heavily influenced by that of their neighbours, specifically the Assyrians, Hittites and Egyptians. The last of these great empires to fall, Assyria, was their eventual Levantine downfall, with the monarchy of the great naval empire of Tyre5 being the last Phoenicians to flee to the islands. The new Phoenician settlements were often little more than ports or enclaves and are found firstly on the Aegean islands6 and then around the southern shores of the Mediterranean, while some of the last were situated on Sicily7 and in Spain.

There was interaction between the Near East and many of the main islands in the second millennium, the Minoans and Mycenaeans both being strong naval powers. There was a subsequent loss of contact between the Aegean, Cyprus and the Syro-Palestine area because of the collapses caused by the Sea Peoples.8 However, archaeological finds, such as those found on some of the islands, indicate that communication was re-established quite quickly. Some of the first Greek sailors of whom we have knowledge are the Euboeans. This is confirmed by finds of Oriental wares in Euboeans graves of the 10th and 9th centuries, and in grave finds of their immediate neighbours.9 In the early first millennium, Phoenician merchants still dominated the markets in areas where otherwise their influence had declined, but they were forced into a mixture of co-operation and competition as local dynasts began to encourage others to their ports. The two main Near Eastern centres that the Greeks visited were Tell Sukas and Al Mina.10 This latter has a confirmed Greek presence from the second half of the 8th century, and here was a likely place for an early cross-fertilisation of ideas.11 In the 8th century there is also evidence of Phoenicians and Greeks intermixing in the West at the Euboean colony of Pithecusae. Crete was another main area of interaction as North Syrian craftsmen were resident here.12 Itanos was traditionally settled by Phoenicians13 and here is found the shrine of Kommos.14 The mixed population of Crete was known in the Greek world for its legal arbitrators both in the contemporary period and in myth. (Cretan Minos was a mythical son of Zeus and Europa,15 and also one of the judges of the dead.) The Cretans even had an office of rememberancer known as the poinkastos who, in exchange for privileges, was responsible for remembering all the city's laws, both sacral and secular.

To discover who influenced the Phoenicians, we must go back to the second millennium. The Aegean Mycenaeans had a minor influence,16 but the main influences came from the Hittites and Egyptians, both of whom were dominant in the Levant. It was mainly features from the surviving Egyptian empire that crept into Phoenician religion, with some identifications being made between Egyptian and Phoenician gods.17 Egyptian influences can be seen at Beth Shou, Lachish, in Crete at Kition where a Bes plaque was discovered in one of the temples, and also at Kommos, where statuettes were found of Sekhmet and Nefertum. The Egyptian influence eventually gave way to that of Assyria, a rising power in the region from the 8th century. Other Semitic cultures with which the Phoenicians intermixed and married - Jews, Assyrians, Egyptians and Babylonians - all added something to the Phoenician religion. Of these peoples, only the Jews kept a distance,18 retaining their own traditions while probably adding something to the religious practice of the Phoenicians.

Addressing the question of connections between the pantheons of Phoenicia, the Near East and Greece one must look at mythology and written documentation in use at the time. Greek evidence is harder to assess as a written language was only reintroduced during the Orientalising period. The decipherment of Linear B19 does give some clues as to the persona of earlier Greek gods, some of whom are identified in the works of Homer thus showing at least some continuity between Mycenaean and Archaic Greek religion. Cyprus, Crete, the islands, Anatolia and Greece were all accessible, and ideas and religious practices could well have flowed freely between these areas. Early myths may have been introduced, with the gods of one religion becoming the demons and legendary monsters of the other, particularly given the breakdown in contact between the various cultures at the end of the Bronze Age.

The cities of Phoenicia had their own local pantheons as can be seen from decipherment of the Ugaritic text. The gods mentioned, El, Dagon and Anat, seem to disappear in the first millennium, to be replaced by Melqart, Eshmun20 and Reshef, gods with whom the Greeks made identifications. The gods were now paired,21 though in areas where there was contact with Greeks, some shrines still show a triad of deities. The pairing of gods can be seen at Byblos with Baal Shamen and Baalat Gebal, �lady of the beasts," and at Sidon with the pairing of Astarte and Eshmun. Another god, Melqart the son of Astarte-Asteria, is also worshipped at Byblos as well as at his temple in Tyre.