Temple tariff Phoenician Inscription, Kition, Cyprus; 450 BC; Tablet A:

[Malkibaal]

a happy new year to you too my great friend Tony :)

[ahhc07]

@Malkibaal Happy New Year to you too. Thank you dear friend. We need to see more of your videos this coming year.

[Malkibaal]

great video Tony, I love your videos :) you really speak phoenician with heart :)

I also made a video but a short one of the relative pronouns in phoenician.

[TheAncientScribes]

It is thought that the cult of Astharte was initiated by King Ethbaal who reigned between 887B.C. and 856 B.C. Young worshippers who worshipped for the first time dedicate their hair to the goddess. Do you know more about that?

[ahhc07]

@TheAncientScribes This seems to be right as barbers were included in the list of the temple employees. Interestingly this practice is still alive in Hinduism. In my future videos I am going to talk about other temple practices including the so called "sacred prostitution". The Phoenician Astarte has its roots in the Mesopotamian Ishtar so I guess the cult of Astarte may be an old one dating back to the second or even third Millenium BC. Thank you for sharing your Knowledge.

[TheAncientScribes]

@ahhc07 As far as I am aware temple prostitution was expected once in the life of a woman. She would offer her services to passing merchants in costal areas and donate her payment to the temple. Some temples had slaves to act as permanent temple prostitutes. The idea being a commercial venture.

[ahhc07]

@TheAncientScribes This is a bit controversial some scholars say that sacred prostitution did not even exist. In line 15 of this inscription there is the mention of 'Kelbim' and 'Gurim' 'the men dogs' and 'the men lion's whelps' that some scholars translate as male prostitutes/ homosexual prostitues.Will talk about that in detail in my future videos.

[MrViTopol]

@ahhc07 Happy New Year. Gurim are cubs of any animal including dogs, not just lion's, while Kelbim were adult male prostitutes, Gurim were boy prostitutes. euphemisticaly they all were called Qdeshim ( see Job 36:14 ).

[ahhc07]

@MrViTopol You are perfectly right gurim is similar to arabic "garou"in singular. The issue of sacred prostitution is a bit debatable and I am going to comment on it in my future videos. Do you have any suggestions about the mysterious word "PRMN" in line 10? Happy New Year to you too!

[MrViTopol]

@ahhc07 ''PRMN'' in line 10, could be singular for an employee who cuts the clothing (of devotees ?). the Hebr. root 'PARAM' = to render clothes asander , see Leviticus 10:6, 13:45, and 21:10. but here, most likely it's some sort of a sacred Tailor. since the word ''PARAM'' can mean both unstitching and stitching at the same time, similar to the opposite meanings seen in the word ''paraq'' = to disassemble in modern Hebrew, while meaning 'to assemble' , to repair' in ancient Hebr.

[ahhc07]

@MrViTopol Thank you for your valuable expert input.

[MrViTopol]

@ahhc07 on second thought, in the word ''PRMN'' in line 10,

the last two letters were mistakenly identified as 'MEM' AND 'NUN' !!!

while in truth, those letters being simply letters ''KAF'' and ''MEM''...

thus the word is ''PRKM'' - the '' curtain attendants'', the same ''PRKM'' whom we already meet with in line 5 of this in this inscription. repeated mentioning of the cult personnel is expected in a tariff list.