Sanchuniathon

His three works, originally written in the Phoenician language, survive only in partial paraphrase and a summary of a Greek translation by Philo of Byblos recorded by the Christian bishop Eusebius.

All knowledge of Sanchuniathon and his work comes from the Praeparatio Evangelica of Eusebius (I. chs ix-x),[3] which contains some information about him, along with the only surviving excerpts from his writing, as summarized and quoted from his purported translator, Philo of Byblos.

[4] Eusebius quotes neo-Platonist writer Porphyry as stating that Sanchuniathon of Berytus (Beirut) wrote the truest history because he obtained records from Hierombalus priest of Ieuo (Ancient Greek: Ἰευώ), that Sanchuniathon dedicated his history to Abibalus (Abibaal) king of Berytus, and that it was approved by the king and other investigators, the date of this writing being before the Trojan War[5] (around 1200 BC) approaching close to the time of Moses, "when Semiramis was queen of the Assyrians.

Sanchuniathon claims to have based his work on "collections of secret writings of the Ammouneis[8] discovered in the shrines", sacred lore deciphered from mystic inscriptions on the pillars which stood in the Phoenician temples,[6] lore which exposed the truth—later covered up by allegories and myths—that the gods were originally human beings who came to be worshipped after their deaths and that the Phoenicians had taken what were originally names of their kings and applied them to elements of the cosmos (compare euhemerism), worshipping forces of nature and the sun, moon, and stars.

"[6] Not all readers have taken such a critical view: The Humour which prevail'd with several learned Men to reject Sanchoniatho as a counterfeit because they knew not what to make of him, his Lordship always blam'd.

[citation needed] Translations of Greek forms: arotrios, 'of husbandry, farming', autochthon (for autokhthon) 'produced from the ground', epigeius (for epigeios) 'from the earth', eros 'desire', ge 'earth', hypsistos 'most high', pluto (for plouton) 'wealthy', pontus (for pontos) 'sea', pothos 'longing', siton 'grain', thanatos 'death', uranus (for ouranos) 'sky'.

[14] According to the text, as in the Greek and Hittite theogonies, Sanchuniathon's El/Elus/Ilus/Cronus overthrows his father Sky or Uranus and castrates him, and surrounded his habitation with a wall, and founded Byblos, the first city of Phoenicia.

There Uranus was consecrated, and his spirit was separated, and the blood of his parts flowed into the fountains and the waters of the rivers; and the place, which was the scene of this transaction, is shewed even to this day.

It is also most long-lived, and its nature is to put off its old skin, and so not only to grow young again, but also to assume a larger growth; and after it has fulfilled its appointed measure of age, it is self-consumed, in like manner as Tauthus himself has set down in his sacred books: for which reason this animal has also been adopted in temples and in mystic rites.A further work of Sanchuniathon noted by Eusebius (P.E.