the two goddesses are
opposite. The Sidonian Astarte and the Canaanite Ashera represent two
opposing types of female deity, both of which may possibly have their
reflections in Greece--the latter in the lower forms of the worship
of Aphrodite, and the former in the figures of such strict maiden
goddesses as Artemis and Athene.

Another worship which prevailed in Phenicia should not be left
unnoticed--that of the Cabiri. There were temples of the Cabiri in
several of the towns; their worship, however, was secret, and little
was known of it even in antiquity. We know at all events that the
Cabiri were seven in number, and the number is thought to be
connected, not with the seven planets, but with the seven heavenly
spheres of early astronomy. They have a head called Eshmun, who is
the god of the eighth or highest sphere. The Cabiri are beings of a
moral character; they are not only mighty ones and creators, but they
are the children of Sydyk--that is, of Righteousness; and they give
counsel. It is here that the tendency to speculative exaltation of
the deity appears in Phenicia; but there is little of it, and neither
in this direction nor in that of morals was the religion destined to
have any remarkable growth. The service of the gods was so closely
identified with the service of the state,--for either the priest and
the king were one, as in Israel after the exile, or nothing could be
done without the priesthood,--that no independent religious
development was possible. In a theocracy religion cannot grow, at
least it cannot be openly acknowledged to do so; and the prophet and
reformer finds every influence arrayed against him.

How greatly Israel was indebted to Phenician art is known to all. It
was by artificers from Tyre that Solomon's royal buildings were
planned and executed, when he had married a daughter of Egypt and was
compelled to aim at some magnificence. A royal temple formed part of
these buildings, and was necessarily erected according to the ideas
which prevailed in the more advanced neighbouring kingdoms. It was
from the same source that the Greeks a century or two later drew
suggestions for their sacred architecture; and thus we find that the
ground-plan of Solomon's temple and that of the Greek temple are
closely similar. Both are to be traced ultimately to the model
derived by the Phenicians from Egypt. And those who borrowed from
Phenicia the form of their temple, borrowed many other things too. In