the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Bible Encyclopedias
Ashmun
The 1901 Jewish Encyclopedia
or The name of a Phenician god worshiped at Sidon and Carthage, in Cyprus and in Sardinia. A trilingual inscription from the latter island ("C. I. S." 143) identifies him with Æsculapius, the Greek god of healing. Near Sidon, Eshmunazer built for him a temple on a mountain, and consecrated to him a spring and a grove ("C. I. S." 3). This is the Æsculapius grove of Strabo (16:2,22). The large number of proper names in the inscriptions from Citium and Idalium in Cyprus into which Ashmun enters prove the popularity of his worship there. At Carthage, Tanith (Ashtarte) and Baal were worshiped in his temple ("C. I. S." p. 252); and the inscriptions from North Africa contain many names compounded of his, which also prove how extensively he was worshiped. His close connection at Sidon and Carthage with Baal and Ashtarte, his importance where worshiped, and the fact that in many proper names, especially in Cyprus, he is designated "Adonis" (compare "C. I. S." 10, 42, and 44), indicate that Ashmun may have been a local name for Tammuz, who, from the epithet "Adon," "Lord," was called by the Greeks "Adonis." See TAMMUZ (2) and Æshma.
- Baethgen, Beiträge zur Sem. Religionsgesch. pp. 44 et seq.
These files are public domain.
Singer, Isidore, Ph.D, Projector and Managing Editor. Entry for 'Ashmun'. 1901 The Jewish Encyclopedia. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/tje/a/ashmun.html. 1901.
