Ešmun, a föníciai gyógyító-isten nyomában
Eshmun – on the track of the Phoenician healing god

Summary/Abstract: Eshmun was the healing god of ancient Sidon, and known around Syria-Palestina. His cult spread throughout Palestina in the Old Testament times, and has two hypothetic marks in the books of Amos and Isaiah. By archeological research we can demonstrate his presence on the Holy Land. In the Achaemenid Era his cult appeared in the Aramaic language colony in Egypt and due to the cultural relationship with North Arabia, in the oasis of Tayma with the name of Ashim(a). Furthermore, the Phoenicians had got many colonies around the Mediterraneum, and the cults of the homeland influenced them. Lots of theophoric names got the element of the divine name Eshmun from the Hellenistic and Roman period. Thus, the cult or the name of the healing god of Phoenicia were known in the Roman Empire, chiefly in territory of the post-Phoenician or post-Punic colonies. Eshmun was associated in the ancient times with the fertility goddess and with the serpent. Thus, he may have been equivalent with Asclepius or the Nechushtan figure from the Old Testament.

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