Introduction
Phoenicia consisted in several city-states; the official religion was a civic cult. Each city, jealous of its own autonomy established its god or gods and goddesses to whom they vowed a cult. Each pantheon was dominated by a divinity who had full dominion over the place and protected the city and more particularly the royal figure. Such a god was usually paired off with another divinity forming a divine couple. El[1] alone was a god shared by the whole people of Phoenicia. The role of water loomed large in those cults. Phoenician expansion, effected essentially through trade, lead to the spreading of such cults in the Middle-East and around the Mediterranean, notably in Carthage. Conversely, it contributed to the introduction back home of themes inspired by the Egyptians, the Greeks and the Romans. The Phoenicians did not build huge monuments. They did not fear their gods who were there to help them, hence their representation under human form. In some cases, the Phoenicians felt no urge to give their gods a visible form in order to pray them.
