Tanit

Tanit ( tnt, also Tannit, Thanit, Tinnit ) is the Punic goddess of fertility, an apotheosis of the Phoenician goddess Astarte and patron goddess of Carthage. My nickname is " Wailing in the face of Baal ". She was the female deity of Carthage and solved in this role from Astarte. It is considered a virgin, but also as the mother of Baal. As a giver of fertility, it has the name " Nutrix " ( = nurse, nurturer ). It gives the fertility god Baal every year to new life. Their attributes are pomegranate, fig, ear and the dove. Her symbol is the Tanit symbol: a triangle with horizontal bar above on which a disc is. It should be the woman depicted on the Carthaginian coins from the 3rd century BC. The etymology of the name is disputed.

Originally a low earth deity, Tanit and Baal Hammon - solved in the 5th century BC and Astarte Melkarth as the main gods of the Carthaginians from.

Human sacrifice

Tanit said to have been sacrificed children in the fire (see also Juggernaut and human sacrifice ). According to recent findings, however, this could also be Roman war propaganda. Under stone steles actually found urns with charred children's bones, for many researchers evidence of child sacrifice. The archaeologist Fethi Chelbi sees it differently: "Today, we believe that it is rather a kind of graveyard for children at Tophet The analysis of the ash from the polls showed that they originated mainly from fetuses and stillbirths There was then a high. . infant mortality - yet are children's graves in the cemeteries of Carthage very rare Thus, we conclude that there is a very special cemetery at Tophet in this place they gave the deceased children back to the gods Baal Hammon and Tanit ". ..

Equating

Tanit was worshiped until the fall of the Phoenician culture. As Dea Caelestis lunar it is depicted on votive stelae. In an in Carthage found in 1916 by Carton small sanctuary, a cella, the God Hermes is immortalized in a statue, leaning back against the throne of Tanit / Caelestis. This cella was uncovered during the construction of Salammbô Station, fell after salvage some artifacts but the railway was built to the victim. The Romans continued with Ops and Nutrix, the nourisher of Saturn, like the Greeks with the hunt and fertility goddess Artemis. In some representations she also corresponds to the Venus lugens.

Cult

In the Phoenician homeland of the name Tanit is not detectable. Their worship was also detected in Malta. Especially long held to the Tanit cult on the Balearic island of Ibiza, where the goddess was worshiped long in the 2nd century AD after the Christianization of the island's population. In Ibiza, several places of worship have been excavated. Best known is the cave Culleram at San Vicente de sa Cala.