Elioun

Elioun is 'Most High' in the only Phoenician cosmogony that survives, and the word is one the Hebrew Bible knows very well: El Elyon, God Most High, is what Melchizedek is priest of, and Deuteronomy 32:8 has Elyon apportioning the nations in a way that has kept commentators busy for a long time. Philo has him as a man — he is euhemeristic throughout, turning gods into early kings — and has him settle the Byblos country with a woman called Berouth. Whether that reflects real Phoenician theology or Philo's Hellenistic reworking of it is the standing question about this whole text.

Domains

• sovereignty

Relations

• spouse: Berouth

Sources

• Philo of Byblos, Phoenician History, preserved in Eusebius, Praeparatio Evangelica.
• Reference treatment of Philo of Byblos and Sanchuniathon.