He was seen by the goddess Astronoë (thought by many scholars to be a version of Astarte) who so harassed him with amorous pursuit that in desperation he castrated himself and died.

Pausanias quotes a Sidonian as saying that the Phoenicians claim Apollo as the father of Asclepius, as do the Greeks, but unlike them do not make his mother a mortal woman.

[6] The Sidonian then continued with an allegory which explained that Apollo represented the sun, whose changing path imparts to the air its healthiness which is to be understood as Asclepius.

Building was begun at the end of the sixth century BCE during the reign of Eshmunazar II, King of Sidon, and later additions were made up into the Roman period.

Many votive offerings were found in the form of statues of persons healed by the god, especially babies and young children.