![]() Not unnaturally she is identified with the Greek Aphrodite. Atargatis, in the capacity of πολιοῦχος, wears a mural crown, is the ancestor of the royal house, the founder of social and religious life, the goddess of generation and fertility (hence the prevalence of phallic emblems), and the inventor of useful appliances. They are the protecting deities of the community. This fusion is exemplified by the Carnion temple, which is probably identical with the famous temple of Astarte at Ashtaroth-Karnaim.Ītargatis appears generally as the wife of Hadad (Baal). In many cases, however, Atargatis and Astarte are fused to such an extent as to be indistinguishable. Again we find the cult in Sicily, introduced, no doubt, by slaves and mercenary troops, who carried it even to the farthest northern limits of the Roman empire. The wide extension of the cult is attributable largely to Syrian merchants thus we find traces of it in the great seaport towns at Delos especially numerous inscriptions have been found bearing witness to its importance. Lucian and Apuleius give descriptions of the beggar-priests who went round the great cities with an image of the goddess on an ass and collected money. From Syria her worship extended to Greece, Italy and the furthest west. 43), but the home of the goddess was unquestionably not Palestine, but Syria proper, especially at Hierapolis ( q.v.), where she had a great temple. 26 we find reference to an Atargateion or Atergateion (temple of Atargatis) at Carnion in Gilead (cf. The two deities were, no doubt, of common origin, but their cults are historically distinct. As a consequence of the first half of the name, Atargatis has frequently, though wrongly, been identified with Astarte. tempus opportunum), which occurs as part of many compounds. Ishtar) the second is a Palmyrene name ʽ Athe ( i.e. ![]() She is generally described as the “fish-goddess.” The name is a compound of two divine names the first part is a form of the Himyaritic ʽ Athtar, the equivalent of the Old Testament Ashtoreth, the Phoenician Astarte ( q.v.), with the feminine ending omitted (Assyr. 81), and as Dea Syria, or in one word Deasura (Lucian, de Dea Syria). ATARGATIS, a Syrian deity, known to the Greeks by a shortened form of the name, Derketo (Strabo xvi. ![]()
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