Pygmalion of Tyre

During Pygmalion's reign, Tyre seems to have shifted the heart of its trading empire from the Middle East to the Mediterranean, as can be judged from the building of new colonies including Kition on Cyprus, Sardinia (see Nora Stone discussion below), and, according to tradition, Carthage.

[3][4][5][6] The Nora Stone, discovered in 1773, has also been read as containing the name Pum(m)ay (PMY) by Frank Moore Cross in 1972.

The 825 date is taken from the writings of Pompeius Trogus (1st century BCE), whose forty-four book Philippic History survives only in abridged form in the works of the Roman historian Justin.

Josephus, citing Menander, says that "in the seventh year of [Pygmalion's] reign, his sister fled away from him, and built the city of Carthage in Libya" (Against Apion i:18).

"[13] Justin (18:5 10–17) also mentions the time on this island, which he names as Cothon, and says that Dido and her company built a circle of houses there.

H. Barnes:[14] A possible reference to Pygmalion is an interpretation of the Nora Stone, found on Sardinia in 1773 and, though its precise finding place has been forgotten, dated by paleographic methods to the 9th century BCE.

Cross conjectured that Tarshish here "is most easily understood as the name of a refinery town in Sardinia, presumably Nora or an ancient site nearby.

[17] Since there was only one king of Tyre with this hypocoristicon in the 9th century BCE, Cross restores the name to pmy(y)tn or pʿmytn, which is rendered in the Greek tradition as Pygmalion.

One alternative interpretation suggests an entirely different meaning: "the text honours a god, most probably in thanks for the traveller's safe arrival after a storm".

[18] In 1951, Fuad Safar published a record of tribute from Baaʿli-maanzer, king of Tyre, to Shalmaneser III of Assyria in 841 BCE.

[20][21][5][22] The first Balazeros was a son of Hiram I, contemporary of David and Solomon, so this was too early, but the second name referred to the grandfather of Pygmalion and was therefore in the right date range.

Drawing of the Nora stele.