Editing Resheph (section)

===Phoenician sources===
[[File:KaratepeNord7.jpg|thumb|The [[Karatepe bilingual]].]]
References to the worship of Resheph in [[Phoenicia]]n cities are scarce, and he did not play a significant role in [[Phoenician religion]].{{sfn|Ulanowski|2013|p=159}} Attestations are largely limited to [[toponyms]] and [[onomastics]].{{sfn|Münnich|2013|p=240}} No references to offerings, statues or altars are known, and even the Phoenician [[theophoric names]] invoking him are uncommon and exclusively attested in sources from [[Egypt]], which might indicate they were only used by members of the [[diaspora]].{{sfn|Münnich|2013|pp=244-245}} The oldest [[Phoenician language|Phoenician]] text mentioning Resheph, the [[Karatepe bilingual]], comes from outside Phoenicia.{{sfn|Xella|1999|p=701}} It is attributed to the local [[Cilicia]]n ruler Azatiwada.{{sfn|Münnich|2013|p=210}} While it references Resheph, due to absence of theophoric names invoking him it is not certain to what capacity he was actively worshiped by the Phoenician inhabitants of this area, and his presence might rely on the need to include a god possible to treat as an equivalent of [[Luwian religion|Luwian]] [[Runtiya]].{{sfn|Münnich|2013|p=213}} He is designated by a unique epithet in this context, ''șprm'', possibly “of the goats”{{sfn|Rutherford|2019|p=84}} or “of the stags”.{{sfn|Münnich|2013|p=210}} Translators most commonly presume that the title is a cognate of [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] ''ṣāpîr'', with additional support for the view that an animal is meant coming from the fact that Runtiya is typically described as a “stag god” and from to Resheph's well attested association with [[gazelles]] in Egyptian sources.{{sfn|Münnich|2013|p=211}}

Only a single source mentioning Resheph comes from Phoenicia itself.{{sfn|Münnich|2013|p=240}} An [[Bodashtart inscriptions|inscription]] of king [[Bodashtart]] from [[Sidon]] mentions a district named after him.{{sfn|Ulanowski|2013|p=159}} However, it is possible that this toponym was not linked to an active cult, and only constituted a relic of past practices.{{sfn|Münnich|2013|p=245}} A number of difficult to precisely date Phoenician sculptures from the eighth or seventh century BCE from locations such as [[Gadir]], [[Huelva]], [[Selinunte|Selinous]] and [[Samos]] are sometimes interpreted as representations of Resheph, though [[Melqart]] is a possibile identification as well.{{sfn|López-Ruiz|2021|pp=214-215}}

No evidence for the worship of Resheph in [[Punic people|Punic]] cities exists.{{sfn|Münnich|2013|p=258}} A single text mentions a person bearing a theophoric name invoking him, a certain Abd-Rashap,{{sfn|Münnich|2013|p=257}} though the individual in mention originated in Egypt.{{sfn|Münnich|2013|p=245}} Most of the references to purported Punic evidence for the worship of Resheph in older scholarly literature are the result of misreading the theonym Eresh (''‘rš''), well attested in theophoric names, or the title “[[Baal]] of the cape” (''rš'').{{sfn|Münnich|2013|pp=257-258}}

[[File:Gehörnter Gott, Enkomi.jpg|thumb|The horned god from Enkomi.]]
[[Cyprus]] is an exception from the scarcity of Phoenician attestations of Resheph.{{sfn|López-Ruiz|2021|p=268}} Sources from this area are the richest corpus of texts mentioning him from the first millennium BCE.{{sfn|Münnich|2013|p=264}} Similarly as the evidence for the worship of [[Anat]] from this area this might indicate a continuity of traditions originating in the [[Bronze Age]], when both of these deities were most commonly venerated.{{sfn|López-Ruiz|2021|p=268}} The oldest possible reference to Resheph being known to Cypriots is one of the [[Amarna letters]], written by the king of [[Alashiya]], in which the “hand” of a deity represented in cuneiform by the logogram <sup>d</sup>MAŠ.MAŠ, most likely him rather than Nergal in this context, is blamed for the death of local [[coppersmith]]s.{{sfn|Münnich|2013|p=246}} This is presumed to be the description of a plague which struck the kingdom.{{sfn|Rainey|2014|p=18}} It has also been proposed that an early bronze statue of a horned god from [[Enkomi (archaeological site)|Enkomi]] might be a representation of Resheph.{{sfn|Ulanowski|2013|p=160}} Later on Resheph's cult center on the island was Idalion.{{sfn|Xella|1999|p=702}} Four dedications to him from the reign of a local ruler, Milkyaton, have been found in this city.{{sfn|Ulanowski|2013|p=161}} A bilingual inscription from [[Kition]] dated to 341 BCE mentions Resheph under the epithet ''ḥṣ'', whose interpretation remains uncertain, with proposals such as “arrow” (''hēs'') or “street” (''hūs'') being present in scholarship.{{sfn|Ulanowski|2013|p=157}} The former view is more common, and finds support in his iconography.{{sfn|Ulanowski|2013|p=253}} Despite Resheph's prominence on Cyprus, the number of theophoric names invoking him from this area is small.{{sfn|Xella|1999|p=702}}