Ba'al of Motya: Temple of the Sea and Sky

7/9/2024

Ba'al of Motya 30x24 Acrylic on panel ©Leslie Peterson Sapp

This dreamy nocturne depicts an ancient Phoenician temple complex on the tiny island of Motya, off the coast of Sicily.

Active from about 800 BCE to 400 BCE, the complex consists of several buildings and altars, surrounded by a graceful, circular boundary wall called a tememos. They are all centered around a 170 by 120-foot reflecting pool fed by underground springs, the only source of fresh water on the island.

The Phoenicians

The Phoenicians were a highly mobile, advanced and influential culture, which originated as a conglomeration of city states in what is now mostly Lebanon. They were the ones who invented the alphabet! With that pedigree, you'd think we'd know more about them. (To read more about the alphabet, and what makes it so special, read my blog entry about The Cup of Nestor.)

Assyrian relief of a Phoenician ship

The Phoenicians were a seafaring people, who founded many colonies, some as far west as Spain. They seemed to have developed innovations in ship technology and navigation. So, the temple complex on Motya had a lot to do with the sea, navigation and the constellations.

The Temple Complex

In the lower right of the painting, I have depicted in white chalk the plan of the temple complex, situated amongst the sinuous lines of a topographical map.

In this plan of the complex, you can see the Sanctuary of the Holy Waters, the Temple of Astarte, and the Temple of Ba’al.

All the buildings seem to have special orientations, either to significant stars or other temples in various nearby cities.

The Temple of Ba’al is oriented towards the constellation of Orion, which the Phoenicians regarded as the celestial representation of Ba’al. Adjacent to Orion is Sirius, another star important for maritime navigation.

In the center of the pool, remains of a pedestal were found, and in a nearby lagoon, part of a male deity statue was discovered. It is believed that this statue, thought to be of Ba’al, once stood on the pedestal in the middle of the pool.

Now, a replica of the partially preserved statue exists there, while the original is housed at the Motya Museum.

An Odd Archeological Mistake

The colony at Motya was destroyed by the Greeks in 396 BCE, and the temples fell into ruin.

Fast forward to the early 1900's, and Joseph Whitaker excavated the site for the first time. Sometime over the centuries, a channel had been dug, connecting the formally sacred pool to the sea, filling it with briny water. It had been used as a dry dock and as a salt pan. Whitaker assumed the pool had always been connected to the sea, and called it a "cothon."

The cothon harbor at Carthage

A cothon is an artificial, inland harbor used in the ancient world to protect military and commercial ships.

Seems like sort of a stretch, seeing as our pool at Motya is only 170 by 120 feet, but there it is.

In 2010, Professor Lorenzo Nigro of La Sapienza Unversity of Rome started a new excavation. But what they found didn't match up with the harbor buildings they were expecting.

Then things got even weirder.

They drained the cothon so they could excavate it, but the darn thing kept filling back up with water!

This is when they realized this was no dry dock at all, but a spring-fed sacred pool, the centerpiece of an entire temple complex.

It is speculated that the pool may have been used to reflect the constellations above, for worship and for learning navigation.

The sacred pool today, with the replica of the statue of Ba'al

Repeating Themes

Many of the pieces I have been doing for my series on Archeology Art have involved star constellations- in fact, the SAME constellations.

Gemini, Pleiades, Taurus, Orion, Ares.

There have been many repeating themes in this series. Stars, circles, centered and symmetrical compositions, boats, the sea, plans of ruins.

But what really amazed me was when I realized this piece looks so similar to a piece I did about 25 years ago.

I believe it was called City in the Belly, though it is long gone and I cannot be sure.

My inner visual impulses seem to ring true through the years.

I suppose this means I'm on the right path.

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