La Égersis de Melqart. Hipótesis sobre una teología solar cananea

Abstract

In the 19th century, J.G. Frazer explained the oriental theme of the god that dies and resuscitates through a comparison with the cycles of nature. Thus, this belief would have been linked to an agriculture and a series of festivities in accord with the annual calendar of the Mediterranean vegetation. Later, the discovery of the library of Ugarit provided very precise texts on this mythical story, and so these divine matters are now better understood. The new documents, along with the helioscopic orientation of some of the Phoenician altars and temples of the colonial diasporas, suggest a different hypothesis which links this myth to the apparent solstitial pause of our star. The astronomic interpretation seems more solid than the naturalist view since it better justifies the mysteries of this sacred story.