Note 255 — Chapter III · THE SANCTUARIES THAT ARE OUTSIDE THE CITADEL.

We have incidentally curious evidence of the association of Kourotrophos with the Oriental Aphrodite. An inscription (C.I.A. III. 411) found on a Turkish wall near the temple of Nike mentions the entrance to a chapel of Blaute and Kourotrophos (εἴσοδος πρὸς σηκὸν Βλαύτης καὶ Κουροτρόφου). Lydus (de Mens. I. 21), on the authority of Phlegon, tells us that Blatta was ‘a title of Aphrodite among the Phenicians’ (καὶ βλάττα δέ, ἐξ ἧς τὰ βλάττια λέγομεν, ὄνομα Ἀφροδίτης, ἐστι κατὰ τοὺς Φοίνικας ὡς ὁ Φλέγων ἐν τῷ περὶ ἑορτῶν φησί). He does not tell us,—what is obvious enough,—that Blaute and Blatta are Greek attempts to reproduce Baalat (‎‏בַּעֲלַת‏‎). Blaute is but Aphrodite-Pandemos, Lady, Baalat of the People.