rly architects
as we have confirm this inference, as, for example, the noble hymn to
the Sun-god written by Suti and Hor, two architects employed by
Amenhotep III, of Egypt.[55] Just when the builders began to form
orders of their own no one knows, but it was perhaps when the
Mystery-cults began to journey abroad into other lands. What we have
to keep in mind is that all the arts had their home in the temple,
from which, as time passed, they spread out fan-wise along all the
paths of culture.

Keeping in mind the secrecy of the laws of building, and the sanctity
with which all science and art were regarded, we have a key whereby to
interpret the legends woven about the building of the temple of
Solomon. Few realize how high that temple on Mount Moriah towered in
the history of the olden world, and how the story of its building
haunted the legends and traditions of the times following. Of these
legends there were many, some of them wildly improbable, but the
persistence of the tradition, and its consistency withal, despite many
variations, is a _fact of no small moment_. Nor is this tradition to
be wondered at, since time has shown that the building of the temple
at Jerusalem was an event of world-importance, not only to the
Hebrews, but to other nations, more especially the Phoenicians. The
histories of both peoples make much of the building of the Hebrew
temple, of the friendship of Solomon and Hiram I, of Tyre, and of the
harmony between the two peoples; and Phoenician tradition has it that
Solomon presented Hiram with a duplicate of the temple, which was
erected in Tyre.[56]

Clearly, the two nations were drawn closely together, and this fact
carried with it a mingling of religious influences and ideas, as was
true between the Hebrews and other nations, especially Egypt and
Phoenicia, during the reign of Solomon. Now the religion of the
Phoenicians at this time, as all agree, was the Egyptian religion in a
modified form, Dionysius having taken the role of Osiris in the drama
of faith in Greece, Syria, and Asia Minor. Thus we have the Mysteries
of Egypt, in which Moses was learned, brought to the very door of the
temple of Solomon, and that, too, at a time favorable to their
impress. The Hebrews were not architects, and it is plain from the
records that the temple--and, indeed, the palaces of Solomon--were
designed and erected by Phoenician builders, and for the most part by
Phoenician workmen and materials. Joseph