The seafaring Canaanites during the Ice Age were known as the Sidonians, for Canaan’s son Sidon (Posidon), and when the Ice Age ended, the seafaring Canaanites became known as the Phoenicians, for Agenor’s son Phoenix, who with brother Cadmus began bringing the semitic alphabet (phonics) to the Aegean region circa 1400 b. c. Many agree with the theory that Phoenician means purple dye, produced by the Canaanites, but the word purple is from porphyra which is the Greek word for the predatory sea snail which provided the juice for the purple dye worth more than gold.
