"Ambrosian Rocks"--between which grew the olive
tree of Astarte, sheltered by a curtain of flame from external danger.
An eagle perched thereon watched over a viper coiled round the trunk:
the whole island would cease to float as soon as a mortal should succeed
in sacrificing the bird in honour of the gods. Usoos, the Herakles,
destroyer of monsters, taught the people of the coast how to build
boats, and how to manage them; he then made for the island and
disembarked: the bird offered himself spontaneously to his knife, and
as soon as its blood had moistened the earth, Tyre rooted itself fixedly
opposite the mainland. Coins of the Roman period represent the chief
elements in this legend; sometimes the eagle and olive tree, sometimes
the olive tree and the stelo, and sometimes the two stelae only. From
this time forward the gods never ceased to reside on the holy island;
Astarte herself was born there, and one of the temples there showed to
the admiration of the faithful a fallen star--an aerolite which she had
brought back from one of her journeys.

[Illustration: 269.jpg TYRE AND ITS SUBURBS ON THE MAINLAND]

Baal was called the Melkarth. king of the city, and the Greeks after"
wards identified him with their Herakles. His worship was of a severe
and exacting character: a fire burned perpetually in his sanctuary; his
priests, like those of the Egyptians, had their heads shaved; they wore
garments of spotless white linen, held pork in abomination, and refused
permission to married women to approach the altars.*

* The worship of Melkarth at Gados (Cadiz) and the functions
of his priests are described by Silius Italicus: as Gades
was a Tyrian colony, it has been naturally assumed that the
main features of the religion of Tyre were reproduced there,
and Silius's account of the Melkarth of Gades thus applies
to his namesake of the mother city.

Festivals, similar to those of Adonis at Byblos, were held in his honour
twice a year: in the summer, when the sun burnt up the earth with his
glowing heat, he offered himself as an expiatory victim to the solar
orb, giving himself to the flames in order to obtain some mitigation
of the severity of the sky;* once the winter had brought with it a
refreshing coolness, he came back to life again, and his return was
celebrated with great joy. His temple stood in a prominent place on the
largest of the islands furthest away from the mainland. It served to