They had a name for craftiness in trade, and wealth led to worse
than luxury,--to flagrant vice. Their religion was a kind of nature
worship closely related to that of the Babylonians. They adored the
sun and moon and five planets, the chief deities being the male
Baal, and the female Ashtoreth or Astarte. At Tyre a deity was
worshiped with the attributes of the Greek god Hercules. There was
also the worship of Adonis, under the name of Thammuz, in the coast
towns; and this included a commemoration of his death, a funeral
festival, at which the women gave way to extravagant lamentations.
It was Phœnician women that allured Solomon to their form of
religion; it was a princess of Phœnicia, Jezebel, that brought Ahab,
her husband, king of Israel, to ruin; that slew the prophets of God,
and left a name proverbial of infamy in life, and for ignominious
horror in her death. The work done by Phœnicia in the cause of human
progress was chiefly important and interesting in material or
practical things.