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: BerouthPaired with Berouth in Philo's genealogy; their son is Heaven, and Heaven's son is the god Philo calls Kronos and identifies with El.Philo of Byblos, naming Elioun and Berouth together as the settlers of the country around Byblos and the parents of Ouranos. (primary)

Sources

• Elioun, 'Most High', is a figure in Philo of Byblos's Phoenician History who with Berouth settles the country around Byblos and fathers the figure Philo calls Ouranos.: Philo of Byblos, Phoenician History, preserved in Eusebius, Praeparatio Evangelica. (primary); Reference treatment of Philo of Byblos and Sanchuniathon. (secondary)