| Atargatis | |
|---|---|
 ANabataean depiction of the goddess Atargatis dating from sometime around 100 AD, currently housed in theJordan Archaeological Museum | |
| Major cult center | Hierapolis Bambyce |
| Symbols | dove, fish |
| Consort | Hadad |
| Equivalents | |
| Canaanite | Astarte |
| Greek | Aphrodite;Hera |
| Roman | Dea Syria,Venus |
Atargatis (known asDerceto by the Greeks[1]) was the chief goddess of northern Syria inClassical antiquity.[2][3] Primarily she was afertility goddess, but, as thebaalat ("mistress") of her city and people she was also responsible for their protection and well-being. Her chief sanctuary was at Hierapolis, modernManbij,[4] northeast of Aleppo, Syria.
Michael Rostovtzeff called her "the great mistress of the North Syrian lands".[3] Her consort is usuallyHadad. As Ataratheh, doves and fish were considered sacred to her: doves as an emblem of thelove goddess, and fish as symbolic of the fertility and life of the waters.[5]
According to a third-century Syriac source, "In Syria and inUrhâi [Edessa] the men used to castrate themselves in honor of Taratha. But whenKing Abgar became a [Christian] believer, he commanded that anyone who emasculated himself should have a hand cut off. And from that day to the present no one in Urhâi emasculates himself anymore".[6]
She is sometimes described as amermaid-goddess, due to her identification with a fish-bodied goddess atAshkelon.
Atargatis is seen as a continuation ofBronze Age goddesses. AtUgarit,cuneiform tablets attest multipleCanaanite goddesses, among them three are considered as relevant to theories about the origin of Atargatis:
John Day asserts that all three shared many traits with each other and may have been worshipped in conjunction or separately during 1500 years of cultural history.[7] While the worship of Ashtart and Anat as a pair is well attested,[8][9] Steve A. Wiggins found no evidence Ashtart was ever conflated with Athirat.[10] He also pointed out that the concept of Athirat, Anat and Ashtart as a trinity of sorts (popularized by authors likeTikva Frymer-Kensky), is modern and ignores the role of other deities in Ugarit - for exampleShapash; as well as the importance of the connection between Athirat and El.[11][12]
The original Aramaic name of the goddess was𐡏𐡕𐡓𐡏𐡕𐡄 (ʿAttarʿattā), with its other forms including𐡏𐡕𐡓𐡏𐡕𐡀 (ʿAttarʿattaʾ),𐡀𐡕𐡓𐡏𐡕𐡄 (ʾAttarʿattā),𐡀𐡕𐡓𐡏𐡕𐡀 (ʾAttarʿattaʾ), and the apocope form𐡕𐡓𐡏𐡕 (Tarʿatta). The nameʿAttarʿattā was composed of:[13][14][15][16][17][18]
The Greek name of the goddess, attested in the formsΑταργατις (Atargatis),Ατταγαθη (Attagathē),Αταρατη (Ataratē), andΑταργατη (Atargatē), was derived from the non-apocope forms of its original Aramaic name, while her Greek nameΔερκετω (Derketō) was derived from𐡕𐡓𐡏𐡕 (Tarʿatta).[15]
Various Greek and Latin writers have written about the goddess Atargatis or Derketo.[20]
Atargatis generally appears as the wife ofHadad. They are the protecting deities of the community.[a] Atargatis, wearing amural crown, is the ancestor the royal house, the founder of social and religious life, the goddess of generation and fertility (hence the prevalence ofphallic emblems), and the inventor of useful appliances.[21]
Derceto was venerated in mermaid form, i.e., with "a face of a woman, and otherwise the entire body of a fish" in a shrine byAshkelon, Syria, according toDiodorus (1st century BCE), drawing onCtesias (5th century BCE); the attached myth explaining that Derceto transformed into a fish, after drowning herself in a nearby lake.[b][22][24][25] The goddess was presumably revered in that fish-form at Ashkelon. It has been conjectured that the veneration of the goddess did indeed occur at Ashkelon and may have originated there.[26]However, there is no evidence that Atargatis was worshipped at Ascalon.[citation needed]
The image of Derceto as half-woman half-fish was also witnessed by Lucian (2nd century) somewhere in Phoenicia (i.e.,Phoenice Syria), but at the Holy City of Phoenicia (Hierapolis Bambyce), she was depicted entirely as a woman. This temple was nominally dedicated to "Hera", but some thought it actually consecrated Derceto.[28][29] Lucian in a later passage gives a description at length of this "Hera" whom the locals "call by a different name" (Atargatis), at Hierapolis.[c] The goddess was posed seated with two lions on her sides,[d] "In one hand she had a scepter, in the other a spindle, and on her head she wears rays, a tower [mural crown]..", and she wore a girdle (Ancient Greek:κεστός) as well. The head was set with a gemstone calledlychnis which glowed by night.[31][32]
The worship of Atargatis going back to theHellenistic Phoenicia (Seleucid Syria) is evidenced by inscriptions at Akko.[33]
The literary attestations as already given are that Derceto was depicted as fish-tailed goddess at Ashkelon (by Ctesias after Diodorus), and later atHieropolis (by Lucian).
But all of the extant iconography of the Syriac goddess catalogued in theLIMC shows her as anthropomorphic.[34][non-primary source needed] But the "fish-goddess form of Atargatis" were among the finds unearthed in theTransjordan, or soGlueck (cf.infra) has insisted, though only her forms as goddess of "foliage and fruits" or cereal goddess were published in his paper.[35]
Thetetradrachm issued underDemetrius III Eucaerus (96–87 BCE, coin image above) shows a fish-bodied figure on the reverse side, which scholarship identifies as Stargateis.[36][e] The cult statues of Stargateis and her consort Hadad were commonly employed on as the motif on the reverse of tetradrachm coinage by this monarch and byAntiochus XII Dionysus (87– 84 BCE) who succeeded him.[37]
Hieropolis Bambyce was one of the cities which minted its own coins.[38] And some of the Hieropolitan coinage portray "Atargatis as indeed seated between lions and holds a scepter in her right hand and probably a spindle in her left", just as Lucian had described.[39][40]Palmyra coinage also depicts aTyche on the obverse and strolling lion on the reverse; one coin also depicts a goddess mounted on a lion, and the lion symbolism suggest that Atargatis is being represented.
Coinage of Palmyra, some of which were found in the Palmyrene colony atDura-Europos, may depict the goddess. The coin with Tyche on the obverse and a strolling lion on the reverse, and one with a goddess riding a lion points to Atargatis, based on the lion motif.[41][f] There has also been found one Palmyrenetessera (token) inscribed with Atargatis's name (Aramaic:ʿtrʿth).[44]
A relief fragment found at Dura-Europos is thought to represent Atargatis/Tyche (Yale-French excavations, 1935–46), as it shows a pair of doves that are sacred to Atargatis besides her head; the doves are assumed to be perched on the post of her throne, which is missing. The figure's mural crown is emblematic of a Tyche (protector-goddess) of a city,[45][46] but this matches the historic account that the cult relief Atargatis Hierapolis was seen wearing a mural crown.[47]
In the temples of Atargatis at Palmyra and atDura-Europos[g] she appeared repeatedly with her consort,Hadad, and in the richly syncretic religious culture at Dura-Europos, was worshipped asArtemis Azzanathkona.[48]
In the 1930s, numerousNabatean bas-relief busts of Atargatis were identified byNelson Glueck atKhirbet et-Tannûr, Jordan, in temple ruins of the early first century CE;[49] there the lightly veiled goddess's lips and eyes had once been painted red, and a pair of fish confronted one another above her head. Her wavy hair, suggesting water to Glueck, was parted in the middle. AtPetra the goddess from the north was syncretised with a North Arabian goddess from the southal-Uzzah, worshipped in the one temple. AtDura-Europus among the attributes of Atargatis are the spindle and the sceptre or fish-spear.[50]
The legends are numerous and of an astrological character. A rationale for the Syrian dove-worship and abstinence from fish is seen in the story inAthenaeus 8.37, whereAtargatis is naively explained to mean "without Gatis", the name of a queen who is said to have forbidden the eating of fish.
Diodorus Siculus (2.4.2), quotingCtesius of Cnidus, tells how Derceto fell in love with a beautiful youth named Simios (also Ichthys, meaning 'fish') and bore a daughter but becoming ashamed of the illicit love, Derceto flung herself into a lake nearAshkelon and her body was changed into the form of a fish though her head remained human.[25][24] In Diodorus's version of the legend, Derceto also despised the child from this union and had exposed the daughter to the desert, where she was raised by doves. This child grew up to be Semiramis, the legendaryAssyrian queen.[23][51] Lucian also notes that the erection of the temple at Hieropolis was ascribed by some to Semiramis who dedicated it to her mother Derceto.[29]
Ctesias's account, according to one analysis, is composed of two myths, the Derceto transformation myth, and the Semiramis birth myth,[h] and a telling of each myth are told by a number of classical writers.[52]
The first myth (the Derceto metamorphosis into fish) is told, e.g., by Ovid as aDione-Cupid myth.[52] The irony is that even though Ovid explicitly mentions Derceto (Latin:Derceti) of Babylonia transforming into a fish,[53][i] Ovid's version of this first myth (detailed below) is recorded inFasti, and fails to mention the goddess in Syria (Dione) metamorphosing into fish-shape. The metamorphosis thereafter needs be reconstructed by consulting other sources which preserves that original ending.[54]
The second myth (the Semiramis birth myth) is told by various writers as an alternate version of the birth ofVenus (from an egg carried ashore by fish, then hatched by doves), however, Ctesias felt compelled to "drop" the egg element according to the analysis. This seemed a gratuitous ("incredible") excision to the analyst, given that Venus's birth from an ocean-found egg was not a far cry from the familiar version of the Aphrodite/Venus's genesis out of water (sea-foam).[55][57]
Ovid inFasti recounts the legend that the goddess Dione accompanied byCupid/Eros plunged into the river in Mesopotamia (Euphrates), whereby a pair of fish came to convey them through water to aid her escape fromTyphon.[58][21] The fish pair was commemorated as the constellationPisces of thezodiac, and local Syrians abstain from eating fish on account of it.[59] Menander and others[j] also relate this legend,[60] and some of the versions, say that the goddess and Cupid subsequently transformed into fish, possibly preserving the original telling.[54]
The name Dione could refer to Aphrodite's mother, but it was also an epithet of Aphrodite/Venus herself.[56] So the legend has also been told as one of Venus with Cupid casting herself into the Euphrates, then transforming into fish.[61]
The second myth describes the birth of Syrian Venus as originating in an egg that fell into theEuphrates, rolled onto land by fish, was hatched in the clutches of doves (scholia toGermanicus'sAratus;[62]Hyginus,Fabulae).[63][65]
The author ofCatasterismi explained the constellation ofPiscis Austrinus as the parent of the two fish making up the constellation of Pisces; according to that account, it was placed in the heavens in memory of Derceto's fall into the lake atHierapolis Bambyce near the Euphrates in Syria, from which she was saved by a large fish — which again is intended to explain the Syrian abstinence from fish.
| Part of a series onAncient Semitic religion |
| Levantine mythology |
|---|
| Deities |
In many cases Atargatis, 'Ashtart, and other goddesses who once had independent cults and mythologies becamefused to such an extent as to be indistinguishable. This fusion is exemplified by the temple at Carnion (Carnaim), which is probably identical with the famous temple of 'Ashtart at Ashtaroth-Karnaim.
Not unnaturally she is identified with the GreekAphrodite. By the conjunction of her many functions (as fertility goddess and of appliances),[k] she becomes ultimately a great nature-goddess[21] analogous toCybele andRhea, despite originating as a sea deity analogous toAmphitrite. In one aspect she typifies the protection of water in producing life; in another, the universal of other-earth;[66] in a third (influenced, no doubt, byChaldean astrology), the power of Destiny.[21] She was also identified withHera byLucian in hisDe Dea Syria.[67]
As a consequence of the first half of the name, Atargatis has frequently, though wrongly, been identified asAshtart.[68] The two deities were probably of common origin and have many features in common, but their cults are historically distinct. There is reference in2 Maccabees 12.26[69] and1 Maccabees 5:43[70] to an Atargateion or Atergateion, a temple of Atargatis, at Carnion inGilead, but the home of the goddess was unquestionably notIsrael orCanaan, but Syria itself; atHierapolis Bambyce she had a temple in her name.[21]
A recent analysis of the cult of Atargatis is an essay by Per Bilde,[71] in which Atargatis appears in the context of other Hellenized Great Goddesses of the East.
At her temples at Ashkelon,Hierapolis Bambyce, andEdessa, there were fish ponds containing fish only her priests might touch.[72] Glueck noted in his 1937 paper that "to this day there is a sacred fish-pond swarming with untouchable fish at Qubbet el-Baeddwī, adervish monastery three kilometres east ofTripolis, Lebanon."[73]
The relief sculpture of the Syrian Goddess at Hierapolis was supported by a pair oftritonesses according to Lucian.[74]
Cult sites in the Near East include Dura-Europos, Palmyra, Akko (Ptolemais), Carnaim[l] and Nabataea.[75] Two well preserved temples inNiha,Lebanon are dedicated to her and to her consort Hadad.
From Syria, the worship of Atargatis and Hadad extended toGreece and to the furthest West into the Mediterranean.Lucian[76][77] andApuleius gave descriptions of the beggar-priests who went round the great cities with an image of the goddess on an ass and collected money. The wide extension of the cult is attributable largely to Syrian merchants; thus we find traces of it in the great seaport towns; atDelos especially numerous inscriptions have been found bearing witness to her importance. Again we find the cult inSicily, introduced, no doubt, by slaves and mercenary troops, who carried it even to the farthest northern limits of the Roman Empire.[21] The leader of the rebel slaves in theFirst Servile War, a Syrian namedEunus, claimed to receive visions of Atargatis, whom he identified with theDemeter ofEnna.
During the Roman era,eunuchpriests worshipped Atargatis, similar to theGalli priests ofCybele. At the shrine in Hieropolis founded bySemiramis, eunuch priests served the image of a fish-tailed woman. Rituals to the goddess were accompanied by flute playing and rattle shaking. In one rite, young males castrated themselves to becomecross-dressing priests at the temple and thereafter performed tasks usually done by women. The obligatory lake or pond lay nearby, full of sacred fish which no one was allowed to eat; nor could anyone eat Atargatis's sacred doves.[78] The priests were described byApuleius asmendicants that traveled around with an image of the goddess dressed in a silken robe on the back of a donkey. When they arrived at village squares or a receptive estate they would perform anecstatic rite, designed to attract a crowd and elicit their contributions. The priests were described as effeminate, wearing heavy makeup, turbans on their heads, and dressed insaffron colored robes of silk and linen; some in white tunics painted with purple stripes. They shouted and danced wildly to the music of flutes, whirling around with necks bent so that their long hair flew out; and in an ecstatic frenzy they would bite their own flesh and cut their arms with knives until they bled.[79]
According to a story retold by Lucian, theAssyrian queen Stratonice saw in a vision that she must build a temple at Hieropolis to the goddess and so the king sent her there with a young man named Combabus to execute the task. Knowing the queen's reputation Combabus castrated himself and left his genitals, sealed in a box. When the queen fell in love with Combabus and tried to seduce him, he revealed his mutilation, but this didn't dissuade her from desiring his constant companionship. When Stratonice and Combabus returned home, she accused him of trying to seduce her, and Combabus was arrested, tried, and sentenced to death. Combabus called for the sealed box to prove his innocence, whereupon the king relented and rewarded Combabus for his loyalty. The temple was completed and a statue of Combabus was placed in it. This is said to be the origin of the practice of castration by the priests in the temple.
Another story ascribed to Combabus mentions that a certain foreign woman who had joined a sacred assembly, beholding a human form of extreme beauty and dressed in man's attire, became violently enamoured of him: after discovering that he was a eunuch, she committed suicide. Combabus accordingly in despair at his incapacity for love, donned woman's attire, so that no woman in future might be deceived in the same way.[80]
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Atargatis".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 2 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 823.
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