Tanit- Canaanite GodDeity"Face of Baal"
Also known as: Tinnit, Tnt, and Tanith
Titles & Epithets
Domains
Symbols
Description
Across the Punic world, from Carthage to Spain, dedicatory stones opened with the same formula: 'To the Lady Tanit, Face of Baal.' She was named before her consort Baal Hammon, the goddess whose favor Carthaginians sought first and whose symbol — a figure with raised arms — they carved into everything they built.
Mythology & Lore
Face of Baal
At Carthage and across every Punic colony from Tunisia to Spain and Sardinia, the dedicatory formula was the same: "To the Lady Tanit, Face of Baal, and to the Lord Baal Hammon." She was always named first. Her title, pn bʿl ("Face of Baal"), bound her to her consort while granting her the superior role in devotional practice. She was his visible presence, the aspect through which worshippers could approach the great god. It was Tanit to whom Carthaginians turned first, Tanit whose name opened every prayer.
Her symbol appeared everywhere the Carthaginians went: a triangle topped by a horizontal line and a circle, like a figure with arms raised in blessing. Carved into stelae, painted on pottery, pressed into jewelry. Wherever that sign appeared, Carthage had been.
The Children of the Tophet
At the Tophet of Salambô in Carthage, thousands of urns containing the cremated remains of infants and young children were buried beneath stelae dedicated to Tanit and Baal Hammon. Greek and Roman writers accused the Carthaginians of burning children alive as offerings to their gods. Whether these children were sacrificed as the ancient sources insist, or received formal cremation burial after natural death, remains disputed. What is beyond dispute is that Tanit presided over whatever happened there. Her name and her sign mark the stelae that stood above the ashes.
After Carthage
When Rome burned Carthage in 146 BCE, Tanit's worship did not end. In Roman North Africa, she was reborn as Juno Caelestis, her temples rebuilt in Roman style, her festivals continuing under new names. Augustine of Hippo, writing in the early fifth century, still attested to the persistence of her worship. The city had been ashes for six hundred years. The goddess had not followed it into the ground.