Alexander the Great was finally able to conquer Tyre before he went on to conquer much of West Asia by building a bridge from the land to the fortified island. Even as the Hellenes replaced the Phoenicians as the kings of trade and of the sea, they did so using the alphabet invented by their rivals. Even the name Europe was derived from the name of a mythic daughter of a Phoenician king who was kidnapped and ravished by Zeus. Semitic gods and goddesses made their way east and were incorporated into the Greek pantheon: Aphrodite, Heracles, Adonis, Dionysus. Subsequently King Hiram of Tyre, one of the main Phoenician city-states, provided cedar and craftsmen for King Solomon's temple, and the two groups of Semitic peoples lived in relative peace under one or another empire. ![]() Later they had many of their coastal lands invaded by another upstart band of Semites called "Israelites" (who knew the Phoenicians as "Canaanites," the name Phoenicians used for themselves). ![]() This loosely affiliated band of nomadic Semites provided cedarwood for the pharaohs of Egypt and learned mastery of the Mediterranean Sea, and with it, international trade. ![]() The Phoenicians we learned about in grade school are a larger part of history than I would have first believed, and this approachable account attempts to set the record straight.
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