Editing Melqart (section)

==Attempts at a synthesis==
[[File:Museo_de_Cádiz_(36137142923).jpg|thumb|Bronze statuette of Melqart from the historical Temple of Melqart at Cadiz ([[Sancti Petri]], [[Museum of Cádiz]])]]
The paucity of evidence on Melqart has led to debate as to the nature of his cult and his place in the Phoenician pantheon. [[William F. Albright]] suggested he was a god of the underworld partly because the god [[Milku]], who may be Melqart, is sometimes equated with the Mesopotamian god [[Nergal]], a god of the underworld, whose name also means 'King of the City'.<ref>''Archaeology and the Religion of Israel'' (Baltimore, 1953;  pp.&nbsp;81, 196)</ref> Others take this to be coincidental, since what is known about Melqart from other sources does not suggest an underworld god, and the city in question could conceivably be Tyre. It has been suggested{{by whom?|date=December 2021}} that Melqart began as a [[sea god]] who was later given solar attributes, or alternatively that he began as a solar god who later received the attributes of a sea god.