A PHOENICIAN DRAMA.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXV, Issue 9, 9 January 1913, Page 3

A PHOENICIAN DRAMA.

STRANGE DISCOVERY IN RUINS

Four wonderful sarcophagi have been found amongst the ruins of ancient Sidon, one of the greatest of Phoenician cities, and it is the opinion of tire discoverers that a famous historical legend lias been -substantiated.

The stone caskets, 'icarved about 300 8.C., in the last period of Greek art, were recovered by the Turkish authorities, and'are now in the museum at Constantinople. One of these sacrophagi is known as that of Alexander the Great, not because it was thought that the body of the Macedonian conqueror -had lain there, but because -its sides were carved with scenes of his triumphs’. Of the four sacrophagi,done stood-out supreme in beauty.' 'lts sides hold in relief the figurts 'df 18 motirnih'g Vom’dil, exquisitely chiselled. The coffer was of tlie finest marble. It had been delicately painted, and the tints were still fresh. About the bottom rim was a hunting scene and about the top a flfnertd' procession. The casket was christened “The Sarophagus of the Weepers.”

The bodV' in the (< ‘Sarcophagus of the Weepers” was that of a young woman not more than 25 years old. It was, said finders, as perfectly preserved as though she had just died. They described her as very beautiful, but said that her chest was flattened and discoloured as though a heavy weight had been pressed upon it. Scientists believe that the body of the girl was that of the Sidonian sweetheart herself of Alexander the Great, part of whose story still lives in legend. She was supposed to have killed herself after the conqueror’s departure from Phoenicia, but the description of the great bruise on her breast tells, the scientists think, a more sinister story of her fate. She had been crushed to death by an elephant, the cruel custom of the Phoenicians when executing offenders against the State! To understand how these conclusions have been reached it is necessary to go into ancient history. In 300 8.C., using Sidon as a base of operations, Alexander succeeded in battering the walls of Tyre, and, leading the final assaidt in person, captured the city. Alexander had taken as his favourite the Princess Am-Ashtoreth, daughter of Abd Elonim, a member of the Royal family of Phoenicia. Then, his work being done, he marched away with his army, leaving behind him his beautiful favourite, and his puppet king, her father.

What happened then. The bruise hints 9ft the story. It was the custom of the Phoenicians, when executing prisoners of rank who had committed crimes against the State, to stake out the malefactor with golden chains. Then one of the royal elephants, trained for the work of execution, was led on. The enormous beast would place a foot on the criminal before him and slowlv crush him to death. In some eases the method was varied by the elephant kneeling upon the body. This, then, was what happened to the Princess Am-iAishthoreth. Alexander gone, the Phoenicians rose against her and her father and wreaked their vengeance so cruelly on the woman that the conqueror had loved! But afterwards friends—Alexander himself, perhaps—had the corpse placed in the wonder sarcophagus now known as that of the “Weepers.”