Eshmun

Eshmun ( Esmun ) is a Phoenician and Carthaginian god of healing. He was the city god of Sidon, but was also worshiped in Cyprus and Sardinia. He is considered a handsome youth and as such was associated with Melkarth. They called him adon, like many other deities.

According to legend, Eshmoun was a young man from Beirut. The goddess Astarte even fell in love with him. Eshmun mutilated thereupon themselves to escape their courtship and died of his injuries. Then Astarte raised him back to life - as God. Like Adonis, he was also worshiped as a fertility god who dies every year anew, to be born again. He was regarded as a god of healing and thus equated with the Greek god of healing, Asclepius. Eshmun was - as Asklepios also - equipped with the attribute of a rod around which winds a snake. This testifies to a golden tablet, which was found near the Eshmun temple at Sidon.

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