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Wednesday, October 19, 2016

The Golden Tanit

PUNIC WATCH: Ahram's Osama Abdel-Fattah selected to jury at Carthage Film Festival. Osama Abdel-Fattah is the editor-in-chief of Al-Ahram's evening paper. Congratulations to Mr. Abdel-Fattah, but what caught my eye in this article is the modern use of a bit of ancient punic religious lore:
The festival's main prize is the Golden Tanit, which is named after the Phoenician goddess of the same name.
Tanit (or Tannit) is actually a Punic goddess — that is, she is known from ancient Carthage but not, as far as I know, from Phoenicia. Her name means roughly "dragon lady" and she was the consort of the chief god Baal and co-recipient with him of Carthaginian child sacrifices.

I have noted some Punic Tanit coins here and here.