RT Book, Section
T1 Melqart-Heracles and the Edge of the World: religious reactions to the threat of the ocean among the Phoenicians of Iberia.
A1 Álvarez-Martí-Aguilar, Manuel
K1 Maremotos - Edad Antigua - Península Ibérica
K1 Mediterráneo (Región) - Civilización
K1 Religión fenicia
K1 Océano y civilización
AB Recent geoarchaeological research has revealed that the Gulf of Cadiz was struck at least once by a large tsunami during the Phoenician period, roughly between the 8th and 3rd centuries BCE. In this contribution, at attempt is made to reconstruct the religious reactions of the Phoenician communities of Iberia and, specifically, those of Gadir, in the wake of cataclysms of this type, revolving around the city’s tutelary god Melqart. The Ugaritic tale of the conflict between Baal and Yam and the biblical tradition in the account of Yahweh’s struggle against the sea reveal a way of representing the containment of the forces of ocean chaos through the establishment of a cosmic boundary. After the catastrophic events unfolding in the Gulf of Cadiz, the Baalic attributes of the Melqart of Gadir must surely have been emphasised in an account in which he is attributed with the victory over the forces of ocean chaos and, by his divine command, the establishment of a cosmic boundary of containment and perpetual protection against the threat posed by the sea. This account, which is apparently echoed in Pindar, Strabo and Philostratus, may be at the root of the ancient and medieval notion of Gades as the edge of the world.
PB CNR Edizioni
YR 2021
FD 2021
LK https://hdl.handle.net/10630/31534
UL https://hdl.handle.net/10630/31534
LA eng
NO Álvarez-Martí-Aguilar, M. (2021): "Melqart-Heracles and the Edge of the World: religious reactions to the threat of the ocean among the Phoenicians of Iberia", in G. Garbati and T. Pedrazzi (eds), Transformations and crisis in the Mediterranean. “Identity” and Interculturality in the Levant and Phoenician West during the 5th-2nd Centuries BCE. CNR Edizioni, Roma, 279–300.
NO Autorización en correo RIUMA (07/06/24)
NO MINECO-FEDER: Proyecto HAR2015-66011-PMCI/AEI/FEDER, UE: Proyecto PGC2018-093752-B-I00
DS RIUMA. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Málaga
RD 19 ene 2026