The Punic goddess found herself surrounded by vast darkness. She could see absolutely nothing—not even her own hands.

  “Where am I?” she wondered.

  “The last thing I remember is seeing that man wearing a bull’s hide… and then, apparently, I fell into this abyss,” she recalled.

  She began to walk blindly, but darkness was all that surrounded her. Then, far away, she noticed a small light. Tania started moving toward it.

  “That must be the exit,” she thought.

  She ran and ran, yet the light never drew closer. Panic began to rise within her.

  “Damn it… is this just an illusion?” Tania thought impatiently as she kept running at full speed.

  The light did not move. It did not approach. It simply remained there, motionless. Tania suddenly stopped.

  “Enough! Get me out of here, or you’ll regret it!” Tania shouted furiously.

  A laugh echoed from the depths.

  “Show yourself, coward!” Tania yelled.

  “But my dear Tannit,” the voice replied, “I haven’t trapped you anywhere. You are inside yourself right now. These are your memories.”

  At that moment, Tania saw the light again. It was a small, joyful girl running happily, holding a little doll in her hand. The girl had red hair, a crimson triangular dress, lightly tanned skin, and amber-colored eyes. A red crescent moon was painted on her forehead.

  Tania understood immediately. That child was her.

  “You bastard… I see what you’re trying to do,” Tania said angrily as she stared at the cheerful girl.

  The darkness began to fade. A room emerged—the room where Tania had lived as a child.

  Tania—or Tannit, as she was once called—was born in Lel in the 8th century BCE. She never knew her mother, only that she had died long ago, and that Tania had been her last daughter. She never met her father either—the king of the phoenician gods, El. The young girl was raised among the female malakim who served within the palace of Lel.

  Years later, in her early adolescence, she received a marriage decree to the lord of the city of Carthage, one of the many cities founded through Lel’s great expansion into the human world. The city lay in the northern lands of Libya (name of the African continent at that time).

  She was married to a god far older than herself, named Hammon—one who had helped the ancient Phoenicians establish a city in that region. Carthage was now emerging as the most powerful city in the world.

  The marriage was purely symbolic, meant to strengthen the faith of the city’s people. They celebrated the new goddess Tannit, representing her as the silhouette of a woman in a triangular dress with a moon above her head. Yet because the union was symbolic, Tania never lived with her husband—she never even shared a bed with him. She felt alone and abandoned in a foreign land.

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  Hammon—known as Baal Hammon, a title earned through power and heroism—resided in a palace isolated from Lel, called Qart-Lel, meaning “New Lel.” The bearded god wore a reddish-orange crown shaped like a blooming tulip, from which two ram horns emerged. He dressed in a simple orange tunic and was almost always seated upon his throne, flanked by two golden sphinxes.

  Tania frequently descended to Carthage to observe the humans who lived there. She watched them with curiosity. Knowing no one in Qart-Lel, interacting with people made her feel happy. Though strict rules governed how often she could visit the human world, Tania chose to ignore them.

  She visited the bazaars, adored the city’s food, and tried to recreate the recipes when she returned to Qart-Lel—much to the disapproval of the female malakim, who scolded her that a goddess should not engage in such tasks.

  She often visited the ports and was fascinated by ships. Men brought goods from a distant land called Iberia; tin from a far northern island beyond the Pillars of Melqart (Gibraltar's name at that time); and regions the Punic people claimed lay far south beneath vast jungles. Tania had seen all those lands from the sky—but had never set foot in them. She dreamed of visiting Iberia someday, especially because it was said to be full of rabbits, and she adored those little animals.

  During one of her wanderings, she visited a temple dedicated to herself and found the human depiction of her amusing. When the priests asked who she was, she replied with a smile:

  “I’m the girl from that little figurine you have there.”

  Naturally, the priests didn’t believe her, and Tania made no effort to display her divinity. She knew that if she did, humans would fear her and no longer treat her as they did now.

  A terrible plague fell upon Carthage, and Tania volunteered to help the sick. Many victims were brought to the main temple of Tannit, where the goddess herself tended to them. The priests began to suspect that the adolescent truly was the goddess Tannit when those she treated recovered rapidly.

  Amid the crisis, Egyptian kingdoms sent a delegation to Carthage to assist the people. Tania noticed that two of the envoys were deities and approached them.

  They were two extraordinarily beautiful women, dressed as Egyptian princesses. The first was named Sekhmet, the second Hathor. Both were strikingly similar—black hair, tanned skin, tall stature—but their eyes differed. Sekhmet’s were amber, like Tania’s, while Hathor’s were silver.

  Tania formed a deep friendship with Sekhmet, admiring her greatly and dreaming of becoming like her someday. But that was impossible—Sekhmet was a Solar warrior goddess, while Tania was a Lunar goddess of peace and prosperity. They were utterly incompatible. Still, Tania began attempting to create fire with her hands instead of water.

  Sekhmet invited Tania to visit the Land of Manu, the realm of the Egyptian gods, as relations between Qart-Lel and the Egyptian pantheon were friendly. The Punic goddess was awestruck by the architecture and beautiful gardens of the realm. Sekhmet showed her the kingdom while riding with her in a golden chariot.

  “Are you the daughter of the legendary god Ra?” Tania asked in awe.

  “Oh, come on, Tannit—you’re the daughter of god El. I’ve heard that since he ascended the throne, his realm has done nothing but expand. He’s incredibly powerful,” Sekhmet replied with a bright smile.

  “Even though I never met my father, I know he’s deeply respected in Lel for defeating a cruel and wicked man. I also lost my mother in that incident,” Tania replied shyly.

  “I’m very sorry, princess,” Sekhmet said softly.

  “I’ve heard so much about you, Queen Sekhmet. I heard you’re an incredibly powerful warrior, and one of the few Egyptian goddesses who can wield the solar disk like your father,” Tania said excitedly.

  “My dream is to grow up and become like you,” the Punic goddess confessed, smiling warmly at her friend.

  “I’m sure there must be more positive role models to follow than me,” the Egyptian goddess replied gently.

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