Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Modern Phoenician Font and the Pyrgi Tablet



This is a "ready for print" copy of my first project.  My initial concept was to redesign a font set.  I settled on the Phoenician alphabet and decided to display my font by re-envisioning the Pyrgi Tablet.  The original is a gold leaf that is approximately 7 1/2 feet tall by 3 1/2 feet wide.  Due to price and availability, my final printout will not be nearly as grand.  I am currently waiting for an availability estimate for print on a faux gold paper either at either 18" by 24" or 24" by 36".  In addition to the text, I also wanted to conceptually illustrate the Phoenician goddess, Ashtart, and the temple built in her honor.  The text translates as follows:

To lady Ashtarot,
This is the holy place, which was made, and which was given by Tiberius Velianas who reigns over the Caerites. During the month of the sacrifice to the Sun, as a gift in the temple, he built an aedicula. For Ashtarot raised him with Her hand to reign for three years from the month of Churvar, from the day of the burial of the divinity [onward]. And the years of the statue of the divinity in the temple [shall be] as many years as the stars above.

Transcription from Hildegard Temporini, Joseph Vogt, Wolfgang Haase. 1972. Aufsteig und Niedergang der Römischen Welt, vol. 2, part 25. P.201.



Some minor points of clarification:

Phoenician, much like any other ancient language, is riddled with dialectical variations, given that it was major language in most of the known ancient western world during its use.  Much of my personal interpretations are bound by a fairly simple rule: of the letters and texts that I surveyed, any letters which had variation, I felt more at ease in manipulating, and any letters which were more uniform amongst the surveys, I took decidedly less artistic liberties with.

Ashtart is also another point of much conflicted information.  This was due to the fact that her persona was also a widely used and adapted figure amongst the ancient western world.  She is known as ʻṯtrt ("ʻAṯtart" or "ʻAthtart") in Ugaritic, עשתרת (Ashtoret, singular, or Ashtarot, plural) in Hebrew, Ishtar or Ashtart in Etruscan, etc. and as "ʻštrt" (ʻAshtart) in Phoenician.  Astart was connected with fertility, sexuality, and war (or any combination of the three, depending on the region and context). Her symbols were the lion, the horse, the sphinx, the dove, and a star within a circle indicating the planet Venus (but these are subject to region and context, as well). Pictorial representations often show her naked (but not always). She has been known as the deified evening star (the moon, or lunar goddess, if you will, and is also known as the heavenly goddess, dictating all celestial affairs).  So again, I survey many sources and attempted to create a representational image based on the Phoenician incarnation of Ashtart.

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