Page:History of Art in Phœnicia and Its Dependencies Vol 1.djvu/279

THE TEMPLE IN PIKENKIA. 259 flight of steps ending in a pillared propykeum. The lateral temple must date from the Seleucid epoch, or even later ; the really old and primitive part of the whole structure, the part which justifies the words of the Pseudo-Lucian, is the cloister with its cone. It will be seen that the general arrangement is similar to that at Amrit. The chief difference lies in the fact that the arcade is backed by a wall and not by rock ; the massive chapel of Amrit is replaced by the symbolic cone ; the principle is the same, but at By bios the sacred emblem is set in the open air, while at Amrit it is protected by a shrine. The Pseudo-Lucian speaks also of a building which he reached " after a day's journey into the Lebanon from Byblos," as one of the oldest of Phoenician temples. 1 This excursion its chronicler was only able to make by following the waters of the River Adonis, now the Nahr-IbraJiim, up their valley, which was then "a sort of territory sacred to Adonis, filled with shrines and temples devoted to his worship." 2 At many points between Byblos and Aphaca " tombs of Adonis " were pointed out, cenotaphs analogous to those " holy sepulchres," which were so common in Catholic cities in the middle ages. But in spite of what this intelligent and attentive traveller tells us, it is doubtful whether any of these buildings date back to a really very distant age. The upper valleys of the Lebanon do not appear to have been opened to Phoenician civilization till very late. M. Renan, indeed, found some interesting ruins in the gorge of the Nalir- Ibrahim, but they all date from the Roman period. 3 At MacJmaka, at Gineh, at Afka, the ancient Apkaca (Fig. 18), at Sanou/i, both sculpture and architecture bear unmistakable marks of the decadence. Perhaps some of these buildings were copied in their plan and general arrangements from some of the oldest temples on the coast, a proceeding which would, of course, be likely to lead a foreign traveller to wrong conclusions. 4 Among the great temples which he calls ancient and thinks to 1 Upon the Syrian Goddess, 9. 2 RENAN, Mission, p. 295. 3 Mission, 1. ii. ch. iii. 4 After declaring that the Egyptians were the inventors both of the religion and of the temples, the writer adds : Kcu eo-riv Ipa KOL ev 2,vpir) ov Trapa TTO.V TOIS AtyvTTTtoicri wroxpoj/eovra, ran/ e'yw TrActora oTrwTra. He then enumerates the buildings which appeared to him to belong to that category, and he concludes with these words : TaSc /AO/ earl TO, ey TTJ ^vpi-y ap^aia KCU /u,eydAa ipa ( 2-9).