• 2 Demetriou 2023; Cannavò 2024.
• 3 Panayotou-Triantaphyllopoulou 2006, p. 73.

1This paper, initially conceived before the publication of D. Demetriou’s Phoenicians among Others (2023) and A. Cannavò’s “The Other Phoenicians of Cyprus” (2024),2 was formulated in 2018 as the working title of my PhD thesis “The Phoenicians and the Other on the island of Cyprus: politico-cultural models of interaction” (in progress). It shares with these works a perspective on mobility, hybridity, and interaction. The aim of the present paper is not to revisit the “Phoenician question” through labels, but to consider the mechanisms through which Phoenician rulers constituted their position within a multicultural insular world, as reflected in political manifestations of the Cypriot kingdoms of Lapithos, Amathоus, and Marion, as inferred from certain ancient sources and onomastic data, which provide “evidence of origin or cultural affiliation”.3

• 4 Grosby 2023.

2First, a few considerations should be made on the terms “autochthons”, “Cypriot Greeks”, and “Phoenicians”. The term “autochthons” is used here in a broad cultural sense, referring to the island population from the Late Bronze Age onwards within the frame of the longue durée. The linguist term “Eteocypriot” is used in reference to the language. When Mycenaean Greeks migrated to Cyprus, they became part of the island culture and are referred to as Cypriot Greeks. The term “Phoenicians” is related to the question “who were the Phoenicians?”, which has already been addressed by many scholars. The question stems from the exonymic nature of the name and the lack of Phoenician political unity (cf. the name “Greeks”, given by the Romans, and the disunion of the Greek states except when Alexander the Great brought most of the Greek poleis into his empire). Near Eastern sources indicate that designations of the people from the region are usually derived from city, kin, or land (cf. Canaan and Canaanites). When a group of them migrated, the earlier territorial referent diminished, but markers such as language and religion persisted, forming what we may call an “ethnic” aspect or identity.4 The problem thus lies less in ancient self-definition than in the modern frameworks of the terms.

• 5 Iacovou 2006; Körner 2017; Körner 2019.
• 6 Fourrier 2021; a concept close to the recent study of Grosby 2023.
• 7 Brubaker, Cooper 2000; Kabakchieva 2018.

3In the context of Cypriot studies, “linguistic” and “regional” identities are adopted. The former is based on language, including script, without any ethnic character,5 while the latter is founded on a common “Cypro-Phoenician” identity, differentiating in some aspects – such as script, cults, or anthroponyms – from the “Levantine-Phoenician” one, and is integrated into the local Cypriot variability.6 As the concept of “identity” has been widely criticised as a categorisation imposed “from the outside” by academic or cultural institutions, or in historical studies to oversimplify and reduce the complexity of the “cultures” of distinct groups into a single narrative,7 the analytical notion of “models of interaction” is preferred here.

• 8 Hdt. VIII 144, 2.
• 9 Liverani 2014, p. 411: “During the Iron Age, ‘national’ identity was consolidated more through wars (...)
• 10 Isocr. 4.50: “the title Hellenes is applied rather to those who share our culture than to those who (...)
• 11 Fourrier 2021a, p. 126, stresses “the language and script are among the most notable markers of ide (...)
• 12 Fol 2009, pp. 26-27.

4The approach is based closely on the ancient understanding of Herodotus’ formulation of what Greekness (τὸ Ἑλληνικόν) means,8 which is a self-concept born at the time of the enormous clash with the Persian Empire.9 It was defined by common blood, language, cults, and customs, and, in Isocrates’ paideia, the concept reaches its highest intellectual and philosophical refinement: Ἕλληνας καλεῖσθαι τοὺς τῆς παιδεύσεως τῆς ἡμετέρας ἢ τοὺς τῆς κοινῆς φύσεως μετέχοντας.10 Thus, paideia, which is the closest concept to Cicero’s cultura, meaning to cultivate and train the soul, is a matter of mentality and educated behaviour. In this cultural model, language is only one marker among others, such as religion, education, political organization, and moral-political values,11 that shape the sense of belonging to a group and serving as the animating principle of human manifestation within the group or society.12

• 13 Cannavò 2021, p. 141.
• 14 Str. XIV 6, 3.
• 15 Ps. Scyl. 103.
• 16 St. Byz. s.v. Λάπηθος; Körner 2017, pp. 110-111 for discussion on the function and meaning of the m (...)
• 17 Masson, Sznycer 1972, pp. 97-100; Destrooper 2011, p. 410; Steele 2013, pp. 195, 223-225; Cannavò 2 (...)

6The kingdom of Lapithos, located on the northern coast of Cyprus, is not mentioned in the prism of Esarhaddon (7th century BC); therefore, it is assumed to have emerged toward the end of the 6th century BC, although the name Lapithos is probably pre-Greek.13 According to Strabo,14 it was founded by Laconians and Praxandros, while Pseudo-Skylax15 claims it was Phoenician. Alexander of Ephesus adds that it was founded by Belos.16 To date, no inscriptions in the Cypriot syllabary have been found there.17

• 18 Panayotou-Triantaphyllopoulou 2009, p. 186.

7The coinage of Lapithos is amongst the earliest on the island, as can be inferred from hoard finds (e.g. IGCH 1789, 511-500 BC). The first attested king is dmnks/dmwnks (Demonikos), who ruled around 500 BC. The legends on his coins are written in Phoenician script, but his name is typical of Greek onomastics. It is from the group of compound names formed with particles expressing public life and institutions.18

• 19 Destrooper 2011, p. 415; Panayotou-Triantaphyllopoulou 2013, p. 134.
• 20 Panayotou-Triantaphyllopoulou 2013, p. 140.
• 21 Markou 2015.

8After his coins comes an anepigraphic series, which precedes the coinage of bʿlzkr (Baalzakor), whose name is typical of Phoenician onomastics and means “Baal remembers”. He ruled during the first half of the 5th century BC.19 The next attested king is ṣdqmlk (Sidqimilk, mid-5th century BC), whose name means “The King is Righteous”.20 His coin types differ from those of his predecessors (see below). He also introduced a new, quite long and very informative legend, consisting of the king’s name, the royal title, and the name of the kingdom.21

• 22 Destrooper-Georgiades 1984, pp. 144-148; Panayotou-Triantaphyllopoulou 2013, p. 138; Steele 2013, p (...)
• 23 Panayotou-Triantaphyllopoulou 2013, p. 136.
• 24 Masson, Sznycer 1972, pp. 98-100; Destrooper-Georgiades 1995, p. 163; Markou 2015.
• 25 Markou 2015.

9At the end of the century, on the throne is registered King ʿndr (ca 415-390 BC), whose name belongs to the Greek onomastic tradition, probably Andros.22 He was succeeded by dmnks II (Demonikos II, ca 390-365 BC). After him, the throne was occupied by brkšmš (Barikshamash, ca 350/340 BC), literally “Shamash has blessed”, mentioned in one inscription from Larnaka-tis-Lapithou (LL III).23 dmnks III (Demonikos III, ca 331-329 BC) succeeded Barikshamash, and most likely he was the first king of Lapithos who used the Greek alphabet. Along with this innovation, he adopted the lighter Rhodian or Chian weight standard.24 The last known king of Lapithos, Praxippos (ca 329-312 BC), also used the Greek alphabet for his legends and minted a bronze coinage.25

• 26 Gjerstad 1979, pp. 242, 247; Panayotou-Triantaphyllopoulou 2013; Steele 2013, pp. 216-218; Demetrio (...)
• 27 Cf. Panayotou-Triantaphyllopoulou 2009.
• 28 Steele 2013, pp. 189-195.
• 29 Fales 2017, p. 194.

10From this brief overview, it appears that the throne of the kingdom of Lapithos alternated between rulers with Greek and Phoenician names. Whether the bearers of Greek and Phoenician anthroponyms belonged to a single dynasty is unclear. The bilingual evidence shows that the Phoenicians on the island, when they were in the Greek milieu, often used Greek names, always inflected according to the rules of the Greek language.26 The reverse phenomenon – autochthons or Cypriot Greeks using Phoenician names – is not securely attested.27 Of course, one may argue that Phoenician language was used for political reasons, as in the Neo-Hittite kingdoms,28 where this language and script were used to demonstrate royal power. However, so far, Phoenician names are not attested among the rulers mentioned in these state inscriptions.29

• 30 Masson, Sznycer 1972, p. 100; Destrooper 2011, p. 413; Markou 2015; Cannavò 2021, p. 147.
• 31 Stieglitz 1985, p. 274; Kagan 1994, p. 46; Destrooper 2011, p. 413; Markou 2014, pp. 400-405; Marko (...)
• 32 Dimova 2025: part of the research and some of the conclusions presented in this article are the res (...)

11Yet the iconography remains consistent from the late 6th to the end of the 4th century BC, except for the coins of Praxippos, who introduced a new type with Apollo on the obverse and a krater on the reverse.30 The main types on the kingdom’s coins were Aphrodite, Athena, and Heracles-Melqart, with the additional signs of ankh and Tanit.31 Here, the focus is on Athena with a crested helmet and bovine features of horns and ears on the reverse of some ṣdqmlk coins.32

• 33 Destrooper 2011, p. 413.
• 34 Phoenicians are direct heirs of the LBA cultures from the region: Liverani 2014, p. 420; Hollis 200 (...)
• 35 https://collections.louvre.fr/ark:/53355/cl010144875. Accessed 24 October 2025.
• 36 Patai 1990, p. 57, pl. IX.
• 37 Eus. Prep. Ev. 1.10.

12A. Destrooper-Georgiades already suggested that the image of Athena represents a “local goddess with bovine nature”.33 But the bovine features and the military character of the goddess also correspond to some Near Eastern deities and artistic traditions. Such elements are typical of the Egyptian goddess Hathor, who, in the late 3rd and 2nd millennia BC, was worshipped in Byblos as “Mistress of Gebal (Byblos)”, and later transmitted into Phoenician culture during the 1st millennium BC.34 Syrian and Canaanite figurines from the 2nd millennium BC also display such features, like a female statuette of “Anat” type with horns on the hedjet of Upper Egypt and full battle gear,35 or a mould for figurines called “Astarte of the Horns” (Nahariya, Israel).36 Later, Philo of Byblos notes that “Phoenician” Astarte wore a bull’s head as a royal emblem: “ἡ δὲ Ἀστάρτη ἐπέθηκε τῇ ἰδίᾳ κεφαλῇ βασιλείας παράσημον κεφαλὴν ταύρου”,37 which almost certainly shows that the image of Athena on ṣdqmlk coins is a hybrid image of the local goddess and Phoenician Astarte, already syncretised with Hathor and Anat.

• 38 Thorough discussion in Dimova 2025.

13Typologically comparable to the representation of “Athena with bull horns” is the image of Minerva on the cuirass from the tomb at Ksour Essef, near Tunis (3rd-2nd c. BC, Musée du Bardo, Tunis), despite the Hellenistic-Italiote style of the depiction: the figure is facing frontally with a three-crested helmet with avian features. It shows that such hybrid divine images are characteristic of the Phoenician-Punic world, where local religious symbols were combined with elements of Phoenician culture (cf. the “Lady of Elche”).38

• 39 Dimova 2025, pp. 23-24.

14Phoenicians are well known for their religious and artistic syncretism, sometimes referred to as eclecticism, manifested in their ability to adapt and combine images, attributes, and characteristics of deities from different cultural and artistic traditions. The image of Athena with bull characteristics is such a hybrid iconographic type, a deliberately meaningful expression of religious-political syncretism. This symbol articulated the relationship between royal ideology and the link between divine protection and royal power, typical of the Cypriot kings.39

• 40 Ps. Scyl. 103.
• 41 FGrHist 115 F 103.
• 42 St. Byz. s.v. Ἀμαθοῦς.

17According to Pseudo-Skylax,40 the kingdom of Amathous was inhabited by autochthonous people, while Theopompus added that, with the arrival of the Achaeans, Kinyras was expelled from the rest of the island, and the Amathоusians were his descendants.41 Stephanus of Byzantius noted that Kinyras might have named it either after his mother, Amathousa, or after Amathous, the son of Heracles.42

• 43 Körner 2017, p. 62.
• 44 As the Eteocypriot corpus is small, the autochthonous anthroponymy is not well known: Panayotou-Tri (...)
• 45 Karnava, Markou 2020, pp. 119, 121.
• 46 The Phoenician presence in the kingdom is well attested in the epigraphic record (Fourrier 2008) an (...)

18Coin legends and some inscriptions demonstrate that Amathousian kings bore Greek names, despite the kingdom being autochthonous.43 As the names most likely mirror their Cypriot Greek origin,44 the appearance of a ruler with a name related to Phoenician onomastics, Apipalos, a Hellenised form of the Phoenician ’bb‘l (Abibal), written in Cypro-Syllabic on the coins (ca 360 BC),45 raises the question of his Phoenician ancestry or of his relation to Phoenician culture.46

• 47 Cf. the names of some Phoenician kings in the Greek corpus (IG II² 141; IG XII.4 2 546; IG II³ 1 86 (...)

19Several possible scenarios exist. His appearance may reflect intermarriage, an explanation that is often dismissed but remains valid as a plausible instrument of royal politics. Of course, the Phoenician name could be adopted for prestige or for political purposes, since a well-attested Phoenician community lived there; but, so far, cases of transliterating or adapting foreign names are securely attested among Phoenician kings and not among the autochthons or Cypriot Greek rulers.47

• 48 Markou 2015.

20Apipalos’ coins follow the local coinage tradition in terms of use of the Cypro-syllabic script and iconography, as the lion is the main iconographic type,48 most likely demonstrating continuity with his predecessors.

• 49 Ps. Scyl. 103.
• 50 St. Byz. s.v. Μάριον.
• 51 So far, only one short inscription consisting of two Phoenician letters has been found (IG XV 1, 28 (...)
• 52 Masson, Sznycer 1972, pp. 79-80; Panayotou-Triantaphyllopoulou 2004, p. 9, note 30.
• 53 CIS I 46, 49, 53, 93, 95, 216; RÉS 1309, 1336; KAI 27.

23According to Pseudo-Scylax, the kingdom of Marion is Greek,49 and Stephanus of Byzantius adds, Μάριον, πόλις Κύπρου… ὁ πολίτης Μαριεύς. ὅθεν καὶ τὸ κύριον «ὁ Κινύρου Μαριεύς».50 Most of the inscriptions found there are in the Cypriot syllabary.51 Thus, the appearance of King Sasmas, whose name, though Hellenised, is Phoenician in origin, integrated into Greek and connected to the Cypriot athematic inflection, is notable.52 The name is attested among the epigraphic corpus of the island, as well as in Phoenician and Near Eastern inscriptions and texts.53

• 54 Masson, Amandry 1988, p. 32; Cannavò 2024, pp. 80-81.
• 55 Karnava, Markou 2020, pp. 127-128.

24The Sasmas coins have a digraph legend on the obverse: sa-sa-ma-o-se / to-lu-sa-to-ro, “(of king) Sasmas (son of) Lysandros”. Two Phoenician letters ml appear on the reverse, most likely standing for ml(k), “(belonging) to king”.54 The presence of the name and the patronym on the same issue is unique in Cypriot coinage,55 but it may be an instance meant to manifest his relation to Cypriot culture, as the father’s name is Greek.

• 56 Gjerstad 1979, p. 248.
• 57 Cf. IG II² 8440.
• 58 See the epigraphic testimonia from Paphos in Cannavò 2024, pp. 73-77.

25The presence of Sasmas on the throne of Marion is considered as a sign of Persian inference,56 although a royal intermarriage is also possible, as the patronym suggests.57 The combination of a Cypriot syllabic text with one or two Phoenician letters is also rare in Cyprus, but has a parallel in the case of the Paphian king Timo-, on whose coins is attested a Phoenician aleph. However, the case is quite different since the name of the king is Greek, and a small Phoenician community is attested epigraphically in the kingdom of Paphos,58 whereas the name of the king of Marion belongs to the Phoenician onomastic tradition, and no Phoenician population is attested there.

• 59 Markou 2015.
• 60 Ibid.

26On Sasmas’ coins a crouching lion, sometimes with a Boeotian shield above it, is represented on the obverse, and Phrixos holding a ram running to the left is on the reverse.59 The iconographic scene on the reverse is related to the myth of the Golden Fleece.60

• 61 Hermary 2002, pp. 279-282.
• 62 Karnava, Markou 2020, pp. 127-128.

27According to Hermary,61 the scene recalls a sculptural group from Amathous, and constitutes a deliberate dynastic iconography expressing an indigenous, pre-Greek legitimacy of royal power. He further argues that the absence of a deity named ssm in the record implies that neither Sasmas nor Doxandros (now corrected to Lysandros)62 were Greeks or Phoenicians, but autochthonous, like the royal family of Amathous, who used the Cypriot syllabary and bore Greek names.

• 63 Humboldt 1849, p. 140.

28Since the name of the king is most likely Phoenician, as it is attested in Phoenician onomastic tradition, another explanation is possible. One may apply von Humboldt’s earlier interpretation,63 who argued that the myth of Phrixos represents the path on which Phoenician navigators had previously travelled, namely the Egyptian route towards Colchis: an interpretation originally unrelated to the Marion material and to the iconography of Sasmas, which viewed in the myth of Phrixos a reference to Phoenician maritime routes towards the Black Sea.

• 64 Fourrier 2021a, p. 128.
• 65 Panayotou-Triantaphyllopoulou 2009, pp. 182, 188; Panayotou-Triantaphyllopoulou 2013, pp. 129-130, (...)

30Phoenician anthroponymy has its own personal onomastic traditions developed within a specific historical and institutional framework. On the island, it shows local peculiarities and even “some regional features”.64 Unlike Cypriot Greek onomastics, where compound names with Κυπρο- / -κυπρος particles were typical, such formations were never used by Phoenician-speaking people attested on the island. The Phoenician onomastic tradition has significant differences from the Greek one. The names were theophoric, indicating actions of the deity, praising the deity’s greatness, or indicating the devotee’s relationship to a particular deity.65

• 66 Gjerstad 1979, pp. 242, 247; Steele 2013, pp. 214-225; cf. Demetriou 2023, pp. 24-29, 121.

31When Phoenicians were within a Cypriot or Greek community, they often adapted their names. The original Phoenician anthroponyms were Hellenised, or translated into Greek, or replaced with different Greek names. The first case is the one employed at Amathous and Marion, while it is uncertain which was the case in Lapithos, if one accepts that, most likely, the Greek-named kings were of Phoenician origin. The practice of adopting a foreign name seems to be a one-directional phenomenon, that was exclusively employed by Phoenicians within Greek or mixed milieu.66 This linguistic permeability functions as a marker of Phoenician self-fashioning rather than passive assimilation.

• 67 Steele 2013, p. 200; Körner 2019, pp. 70-71.
• 68 Demetriou 2023.

33All these cases are attested in the context of a bilingual or multilingual milieu.67 The use of the script and language of the Other can be seen as an instance of Phoenician biculturalism, and an attempt to be a part of the culture of the Other, reflecting the process of amalgamation and hybridisation of Cypriot society and culture. The same is attested among the practices of Phoenicians living in Greek poleis and Egypt.68

• 69 Demetriou 2023, p. 37.
• 70 Dimova 2025, p. 26.
• 71 Demetriou 2023, p. 142.

35The hybrid images of Athena / Anat, Aphrodite / Astarte and Hathor / Baalat Gebal, goddesses all mentioned in the epigraphic corpus of Lapithos (the latter is mentioned implicitly among the Gods of Byblos in LL III), may express the process of cultural hybridisation, and it was among the Phoenician strategies of becoming part of host cultures.69 In this iconography the cult of the local goddess with her attributes – the bovine horns and ears – visualises the connection between divine protection and royal authority. Thus, the coins of ṣdqmlk can be seen as a medium of translation and adaptation of Phoenician symbols into the Cypriot politico-religious context.70 Such syncretism is characteristic of the Phoenicians, who facilitated the transmission of hybrid cults and practices throughout the Mediterranean.71