North Africa
The Carthaginians were notorious in antiquity for the intensity of their religious beliefs, which they retained to the end of their independence and which in turn influenced the religion of the Libyans. The chief deity was Baal Hammon, the community’s divine lord and protector, who was identified by the Greeks with Cronus and by the Romans with Saturn. During the 5th century bc a goddess named Tanit came to be widely worshiped and represented in art. It is possible that her name is Libyan and that her popularity was connected with land acquisition in the interior, as she is associated with symbols of fertility. These two overshadow other deities such as Melqart, principal deity of Tyre, identified with Heracles, and Eshmoun, identified with Asclepius. Human sacrifice was the element in Carthaginian religion most criticized; it persisted in Africa much longer than in Phoenicia, probably into the 3rd century bc. The child victims were sacrificed to Baal (not to Moloch, an interpretation based on a misunderstanding of the texts) and the burned bones buried in urns under stone markers, or stelae. At Carthage thousands of such urns have been found in the Sanctuary of Tanit, ... (200 of 24,330 words)Religion and culture