But I saughe in Byblos a gret temple of Venus of
Byblos, wherin thei perfourmen cerimonyes in mynde
of Adoon; and I lernede tho cerimonyes. To natives of Byblos their goddess was just Baalat (Mistress), and to other Semites Baalat Gebal (Mistress of Byblos) ; in Syriac and Greek Baltis or Beltis is used as if it were her name. So too Adonis to them was simply Adon (Lord); an early name, or perhaps epithet, was Kliun (Philo of Byblos; cf. Baudissin, p. 76, Meyer, Gesch., p. 395). It was only late, if at all, that fe was there identified with Tammuz, upon whom, as fourth king of Erech, see Clay, pp. 44 sgg. The temple, which contained a baetylic stone, is represented on coins (Babelon, Perses Achéménides, p. 200, and pl. xxvii, 1] and 12), Thei
seyn that the dede that was don to Adoon be the
bore befell in here londe, and for memorie of that
myschaunce everyche yeer thei beten here brestes
and sorwen and perfourmen tho cerimonyes, makynge gret doel thorgh that contree. And whan mournthe betynge and the wepynge is atte ende, first thei
maken offringes to Adoon, as though he were ded;
and than, on the morwe, thei fablen that he is quick,
and fecchen him forth in to the eyr, and lette air





 

schaven here hedes as don Egyptyens whan that
Apis is ded. Lucian abridges his account of the rites because they were familiar. I see no reason to suppose that they differed essentially from the Alexandrian rites as described by Theocritus (15 end). From him we learn that Adonis comes to life for but a day, during which he is couched with the goddess in the temple. Next morning the women carry him to the sea-shore, and (cf. scholion) commit him to the waves. Lucian’s phrase és tty hépa xéumovet, which has been curiously interpreted, is to my mind equivalent to #£w oloedues in Theocritus, and the usual éxxoulCovar. And alle wommen that wole not lette
schaven hem, thei payen this penance, that upon
o day thei profren hem for achat of here beautee ;
but the merkat is open to straungers alle only, and
the huyr becometh an offring to Venus. See Frazer i, 36 sqg., and the comment of How and Wells on Herodotus 1, 199. Note also the apocryphal Epistle of Jeremiah, 42; and on the “hire,” Deuteronomy 23, 18. 
 
Natheles, ther ben somme men of Byblos that
seyn Osiris of Egypte lyeth enterred amonges hem,
and the doel and the cerimonyes ben alle made in
mynde of Osiris in stede of Adoon. Byblos was known to the Egyptians from the time of the Old Kingdom, and her goddess impressed them deeply. She was identified with Hathor at least as early as the Middle Kingdom, and her story contributed to the shaping of the Isis-Osiris myth. When the coffin of Osiris was thrown into the Nile by Typhon, it drifted out to sea, and so to Byblos, where Isis sought and found it (Plutarch, Zsis and Osiris, c. 13 sgg.; cf. Frazer, ii. 9 sqg., 12, 127; Baudissin, pp. 193 sqq. ). And I schalle
seye you the cause whi this semeth hem trewe.
Eech yeer an heed cometh from Egypte to Byblos, heaa
that passeth the see betwene in seven iorneyes, and the
windes dryven it, be governaunce of the Goddes,
and it torneth not asyde in no wyse but cometh all
only to Byblos. And this is hoolyche merveylle. whoty
It befalleth everyche yere, and befel that tyme that
I was in Byblos, and I saughe the heed, that is of
Byblos. The pun signifies that the head was of papyrus, made, no doubt, of a sort of papier m4ché, as in a mummy-case. In the commentary of Cyril on Isaiah 18 (Migne 70, 441) we learn, instead, of an earthen pot that contained a letter from the women of Alexandria to those of Byblos, saying that Aphrodite had found Adonis. There may be something in the tale of its drift, for the Nile current sets over to the Phoenician shore, and it is Nile mud that silts up Phoenician harbours (cf. H. Guthe, Paldstina, p. 27). 






 
 
And in the londe of Byblos is arf other merveylle,
a Ryvere goynge out of the Mount Libanon in to the
See, the which is cleped Adoon. Everyche yeer it
is bebledde and leseth his kyndely hewe, and whan natural
it falleth in to the See, it maketh mochel therof
rede; and so it betokneth the doel to hem of
Byblos. The Adonis is the present Nahr Ibrahim, a short distance S. of Byblos, “I have crossed it on Easter day when it was turbid and ruddy with the rich red sandstone soil from Lebanon” (C. R. Conder, Palestine, p. 206; cf. Frazer i, 225). A similar discoloration of certain unnamed rivers and springs is implied in the tale of Philo of Byblos that Uranus was mutilated by Cronus at a certain place in the interior near springs and rivers, that his blood flowed into them, and that the place was still pointed out (Miiller, Fr. Hist. Graec., iii, p. 568). Epiphanius (adv. Haeres. 51, 30) bears personal witness that at the exact day and hour of the miracle of Cana the water of a spring at Cibyra in Caria used to turn into wine, and on the word of his brothers that the same was true of the river of Gerasa in Arabia. He does not tell us who is his warrant in the case of the Nile, but observes that that is why the natives bottle and set away Nile-water on a certain date. See also Pausanias 4, 35, 9, and Frazer’s note. For they seyn that in tho dayes Adoon
is ywounded up Libanon, and his blod that cometh
into the water chaungeth the ryvere and yeveth the
streme his name. Thus seyn lewed folk. But I
trowe that a man of Byblos spak sothe that devysed
me an other cause of the chaunge, seyinge: “The
Flom Adoon, o straunger, renneth thorgh Libanon,
and erthe of Libanon is right broun. Therfore whan
roughe windes that arysen in tho dayes beren the
erthe to the ryvere, the erthe, that is ful rody,
maketh him blody. So of this chaunge nys not the
blod, as they seyn, the resoun, but the lond.” He
of Byblos devysed me thus; but and al it so be that
he spak trewely, yit to me it semeth passing
merveyllous that the wind aryseth at the righte
tyme.
 
Also, I went up on Libanon fro Byblos, oon
iorneye, be cause I lernede that ther was an old



 

seyntuarye of Venus that Cinyras founded; and I
saughe the temple, and it was old. At Aphaea, between Byblos and Baalbek, at the head of the Adonis, where Adon was buried and Baalat died of grief. Down to the fifth century a bright light appearing in the sky near the temple summoned the worshippers at set times, and an artificial pond gave omens; offerings were thrown into it, which sank if the goddess was favourable or floated if she was adverse (Zosimus i, 58; cf. Socrates 1, 18). The site is eloquently described by Frazer, i, 28, and pictured in Perrot-Chipiez, Hist. de l’Art iii, fig. 18, opposite p. 56 ; for the rock-sculptures in the neighbourhood, to one of which the description of the goddess in Macrobius (Saturn. 1, 21, 5) refers, see Baudissin, p. 78 and pls. i-iii, and for the ruins of the temple, destroyed under Constantine but possibly rebuilt under Talia Rouvier, Bulletin Archéologique, 1900, 169 sqq. Lucian’s amusing reticence is by way of parody on Herodotus, |’ and derives its point from the fact that his reader, knowing: the reputation of the place (Euseb. Vit. Constant. 3, 55), is’ all agog to hear about it. 
Thise ben the olde and grete seyntuaryes in
Surrye.
 
But of hem alle, as I wene, is non gretter
than tho in the Holy Cytee, ne non other temple
mo blessed, ne non other lond holier. Costevouse costly
werkes ben therinne, and aunciene offringes, and
manye merveylles, and symulacres in lyknesse of
goddes. Also, the goddes ben apertely reveled unto
hem; for here symulacres sweten and meven and
prophecyen, and ofte tymes hath ben schowtynge
in the temple whan the holy place was under lokke,
and many han herde. Certes, in richesse it is first
amonges alle that I knowe; for thider cometh moche
tresor from Arabye and Phenicye and Babiloyne,
and moche fro Cappadocye, and som Cilicyens
bryngen, and som Assuryens. And I saughe what
hath ben prively put up in the temple, many robes
and other thinges that have ben chosen out as
silver outher gold. And of festes and solempnytees
noon other folk in the world hath apoynted so
many.