King of the City
Also known as: Melquart; Tyrian Heracles; Ba’al Melqart
Origin: Phoenician; Canaanite
Melkart, chief deity of the city-state Tyre, now in modern Lebanon, was venerated across the Mediterranean coast of Europe and North Africa, especially in Carthage. He is lord of the sea and sky, credited with discovering the Tyrian purple dye extracted from mollusks, from which Phoenicia made her fortune. (Alternatively the dye was discovered by Melkart’s lover, the Nymph Tyros, or his dog.) The earliest known written reference to Melkart derives from the ninth century BCE. Hannibal is Melkart’s most famous devotee.
Ba’al Melkart may or may not be the same Ba’al that the prophets railed against in the Old Testament. His great temple in Tyre served as the architectural prototype for Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem. The Greeks and Romans identified him with Heracles. Heracles was also widely venerated—references to him in Phoenician areas or formerly Phoenician areas may refer to the Greek deity or to Melkart.
Manifestation: He resembles classical images of Heracles—a huge, powerful man.
Consort: Astarte, Astronoë, and Tyros are among the goddesses with whom he is linked
Planet: Sun
Element: Water
Color: Purple
Animal: Dog
Mount: Seahorse
Sacred sites: In addition to Tyre and Carthage, Melkart had temples in Cadiz, Ibiza, Cartagena, and what is now Cape Saint Vincent, the southwestern-most point in Europe.
See also: Astarte; Ba’al; Heracles; Nymph; Solomon