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Modern Zidou.
ZIDON
1093
ZIDON
ancient writers — viz. that this name stood for " Phoj- iiiciaii," and Zidonia itself for the whole of Phoenicia, of which it formed only an important part — is incorrect. Tyre, of later origin than Zidon, if not indeed founded by it, in the same way styles itself on coins D3"i;i CS, '"Metropolis of Zidonia," in the sense of its momentary hegemonj' over Zidon only, possibly also with a second- ary reference to the nationality of its inhabitants, most- ly immigrants from Zidon.
The frequent allusions to the skilfnlness of the Zido- iiians in arts and manufactures, the extent of their com- merce, their nautical information and prowess, in ancient writers, are well known (see Homer, //. vi, 290 ; xxiii, 743 ; OJ;is. iv, 0 17 ; xiii, 285 ; xv, 117, 425). Of the trade of the "Zidonian merchants" (Isa. xxiii,2; Ezek. xxvii, 8), both bjf land and sea, we hear in Diod. Sic. (xvi, 41, 45); of their glass, linen, and other manufactories, in riiny (v, 20), Virgil, Strabo (xvi, 10), and other clas- sical writers. The best vessels in the fleet of Xerxes were Zidonian (Herod, vii, 99, 128). lii Hasselquist's time (1750) its exports to France were considerable {Travels, p. 16G); but at present its traffic is chiefly confined to the neighboring towns (jMannert, Geogi-a- phie, i, 291 ; Kitto, Pictorial Bible, notes on Deut. xxxiii and Josh. xix).
2. Hisiory. — The antiquity of Zidon is evident from the ethnological assertion that Zidon was the first-born of Canaan, though Bery tus and Byblus, as towns found- ed bj' Cronos, claimed a high mythological antiquity. Tvre is not mentioned in the Pentateuch at all ; but Zi- don is referred to in terras that give it the pre-eminence among Phrenician cities. From a Biblical point of view, this city is inferior in interest to its neighbor Tyre, with which its name is so often associated. Indeed, in all the passages above referred to in which the two cit- ies are mentioned together, Tyre is named first — a cir- cumstance which might at once be deemed accidental, or the mere result of Tyre's being the nearest of the two cities to Palestine, were it not that some doubt on this point is raised bj' the order being reversed in two works which were written at a period after Zidon had enjoyed a long temporary superiority (Ezra iii, 7 ; 1 Chron. xxii, 4). However this may be, it is certain that, of the two, Tyre is of the greater importance in reference to the writings of the most celebrated Hebrew prophets ; and the splendid prophecies directed against Tyre, as a sin- gle colossal power (Ezek. xxvi; xxvii; xxviii, 1-19; Isa. xxiii), have no parallel in the shorter and vaguer utterances against Zidon (Ezek. xxviii, 21-23). The predominant Biblical interest of Tyre arises from the prophecies relating to its destiny.
If we could believe Justin (xviii, 3), there would be no doubt that Zidon was of greater antiquity than Tyre, as he says that tlie inhabitants of Zidon, when their city had been reduced by the king of Ashkelon, founded Tyre the year before the capture of Troy. Justin, however, is such a weak authority for any disputed historical fact, and his account of the early history of the Jews, wherein we have some means of testing his accuracy, seems to be so much in the nature of a romance (xxxvi, 2), that, without laying stress on the unreasonableness of any one's assuming to know the precise time when Troy was taken, he cannot be accepted as an authority for the earlj' history of the Phoenicians. In contradic- tion of this statement, it has been further insisted on that the relation between a colony and the mother city among the Phoenicians was sacred, and that as the Tyr- ians never acknowledged this relation towards Zidon, the supposed connection between Tyre and Zidon is morally impossible. This is a very strong point; but, perhaps, not absolutely conclusive, as no one can prove that this was the custom of the Phoenicians at the very distant period when, alone, the Zidonians would have built Tyre, if they founded it at all; or that it would have applied not only to the conscious and deliberate founding of a colony, but likewise to such an almost ac-
cidental founding of a city as is implied in the account of Justin. Certainly there is otherwise nothing im- probable in Zidonians having founded Tyre, as the Tyr- ians are called Zidonians; but the Zidonians are never called Tyrians. At any rate, tliis circumstance tends to show that in early times Zidon was thef most influential of the two cities. This is shadowed forth in the book of Genesis by the statement that Zidon was the first- born of Canaan (x, 15), and is implied in the name of "Great Zidon," or "the metropolis Zidon," which is twice given to it in Joshua (xi, 8; xix, 28). It is con- firmed, likewise, by Zidonians being used as the generic name of the Phoenicians, or Canaanites (xiii, 6; Judg. xviii, 7) ; and by the reason assigned for there being no deliverer to Laish when its peaceable inhabitants were massacred, that "it was far from Zidon-" whereas, if Tyre had been then of equal importance, it woidd have been more natural to mention Tyre, which professed substantially the same religion, and was almost twenty miles nearer (ver. 28). It is in accordance with the in- ference to be drawn from these circumstances that in the Homeric poems Tyre is not named, while there is mention both of Zidon and the Zidonians {Odys. xv, 425 ; II. xxiii, 743) ; and the land of the Zidonians is called " Sidonia" {Odys. xiii, 285). One point, however, in the Homeric poems deserves to be specially noted concern- ing the Zidonians, that they are never here mentioned as traders, or praised for their nautical skill, for which they were afterwards so celebrated (Herod, vii, 44, 96). The traders are invariably known by the general name of Phoenicians, wliich would, indeed, include the Zido- nians; but still the special praise of Zidonians was as skilled workmen. \Vhen Achilles distributed prizes at the games in honor of Patroclus,he gave as the prize of the swiftest runner a large silver bowl for mixing wine with water, which had been cunningly made by the skilful Zidonians, but which Phoenicians had brought over the sea (Homer, II. xxiii, 743, 744). When Mene- laus wished to give to Telemachus what was most beau- tiful and most valuable, he presented him witli a similar mi.ting-bowl of silver, with golden rim — a divine work, the work of Hephajstus— which had been a gift to Me- nelaus himself from Ph£fidimus, king of the Zidonians {Odys. iv, 614-G18; xv, 425). Again, all the beau- tifully embroidered robes of Andromache, from which she selected one as an offering to Athene, were the pro- ductions of Zidonian women, which Paris, when coming to Troy with Helen, had brought from Sidonia (//. vi, 289-295). But in no case is anything mentioned as having been brought from Zidon in Zidonian vessels or by Zidonian sailors. Perhaps at this time the Phoeni- cian vessels were principally fitted out at seaports of Phoenicia to the north of Zidon.