One basic form of the Tanit symbol

Tanit^[1] was a Phoenician lunar goddess, worshiped as the patron goddess at Carthage^[2] where from the fifth century BCE onwards her name is associated with that of Baal Hammon and she is given the epithet pene baal (face of Baal) and the title rabat, the female form of 'rab' (chief) (Markoe 2000:130). Tanit and Baal Hammon were worshiped in Punic contexts in the Western Mediterranean, from Malta to Gades into Hellenistic times. In North Africa, where the inscriptions and material remains are more plentiful, she was also a heavenly goddess of war, a virginal mother goddess and nurse, a consort of Baal and, less specifically, a symbol of fertility. Several of the major Greek goddesses were identified with Tanit by the syncretic interpretatio graeca, which recognized as Greek deities in foreign guise the gods of most of the surrounding non-Hellene cultures.

Her shrine excavated at Sarepta in southern Phoenicia revealed an inscription that identified her for the first time in her homeland and related her securely to the Phoenician goddess Astarte (Ishtar).^[3] One site where Tanit was uncovered is at Kerkouan, in the Cap Bon peninsula in Tunisia.

The origins of Tanit are to be found in the pantheon of Ugarit, especially in the Ugaritic goddess Anat (Hvidberg-Hanson 1982), a consumer of blood and flesh. There is significant, albeit disputed, evidence, both archaeological and within ancient written sources (Markoe 2000:136), pointing towards child sacrifice forming part of the worship of Tanit and Baal Hammon.

Tanit was also a goddess to the ancient Berber people. Her symbol, found on many ancient stonecarvings, appears as a trapezoid/trapezium closed by a horizontal line at the top and surmounted in the middle by a circle (the horizontal arm was often terminated either by two short upright lines at right angles to it or by hooks.) Later, the trapezoid/trapezium was frequently replaced by an isosceles triangle.The symbol is seen by Hvidberg-Hansen as a woman raising her hands.

In Egyptian, her name means Land of Neith, Neith being a war goddess.

Notes

References

External links

• Limestone stela with images of the goddess Tanit

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