Английская Википедия:Atargatis

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Шаблон:Short description Шаблон:Infobox deityШаблон:Redirect Шаблон:Middle Eastern deities Atargatis (known as Derceto by the Greeks[1]) was the chief goddess of northern Syria in Classical antiquity.[2][3] Primarily she was a fertility goddess, but, as the baalat ("mistress") of her city and people she was also responsible for their protection and well-being. Her chief sanctuary was at Hierapolis, modern Manbij,[4] northeast of Aleppo, Syria.

Michael Rostovtzeff called her "the great mistress of the North Syrian lands".[3] Her consort is usually Hadad. As Ataratheh, doves and fish were considered sacred to her: doves as an emblem of the love goddess, and fish as symbolic of the fertility and life of the waters.[5]

According to a third-century Syriac source, "In Syria and in Urhâi [Edessa] the men used to castrate themselves in honor of Taratha. But when King Abgar became a 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 a mermaid-goddess, due to identification of her with a fish-bodied goddess at Ashkelon.

Origin and name

Atargatis is seen as a continuation of Bronze Age goddesses. At Ugarit, cuneiform tablets attest multiple Canaanite goddesses, among them three are considered as relevant to theories about the origin of Atargatis:

  • ʾAṯirat, described as "Lady of the Sea" (rbt ảṯrt ym) and "mother of the gods" (qnyt ỉlm)
  • ʿAnat, a war goddess
  • ʿAṯtart, a goddess of the hunt also sharing Anat's warlike role, regarded as analogous to Ishtar and Ishara in Ugaritic god lists and as such possibly connected to love

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 like Tikva Frymer-Kensky), is modern and ignores the role of other deities in Ugarit - for example Shapash; as well as the importance of the connection between Athirat and El.[11][12]

The original Aramaic name of the goddess was Шаблон:Lang (Шаблон:Transl), with its other forms including Шаблон:Lang (Шаблон:Transl), Шаблон:Lang (Шаблон:Transl), Шаблон:Lang (Шаблон:Transl), and the apocope form Шаблон:Lang (Шаблон:Transl). The name Шаблон:Transl was composed of:Шаблон:SfnШаблон:SfnШаблон:SfnШаблон:SfnШаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn

The Greek name of the goddess, attested in the forms Шаблон:Lang (Шаблон:Transl), Шаблон:Lang (Шаблон:Transl), Шаблон:Lang (Шаблон:Transl), and Шаблон:Lang (Шаблон:Transl), was derived from the non-apocope forms of its original Aramaic name, while her Greek name Шаблон:Lang (Шаблон:Transl) was derived from Шаблон:Lang (Шаблон:Transl).Шаблон:Sfn

Classical period

Шаблон:See also

Various Greek and Latin writers have written about the goddess Atargatis or Derketo.[13]

Atargatis generally appears as the wife of Hadad. They are the protecting deities of the community.Шаблон:Efn Atargatis, wearing a mural crown, is the ancestor 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.[14]

Файл:Kircher oedipus aegyptiacus 28 derceto.png
Derceto, from Athanasius Kircher's Oedipus Aegyptiacus, 1652.

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 by Ashkelon, Syria, according to Diodorus (1st century BCE), drawing on Ctesias (5th century BCE); the attached myth explaining that Derceto transformed into a fish, after drowning herself in a nearby lake.Шаблон:Refn[15]Шаблон:SfnpШаблон:Sfnp 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.[16] Шаблон:Citation needed span

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.Шаблон:Refn [17] Lucian in a later passage gives a description at length of this "Hera" whom the locals "call by a different name" (Atargatis), at Hierapolis.Шаблон:Refn The goddess was posed seated with two lions on her sides,Шаблон:Efn "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 (Шаблон:Lang-grc) as well. The head was set with a gemstone called Шаблон:Linktext which glowed by night.[18][19]

The worship of Atargatis going back to the Hellenistic Phoenicia (Seleucid Syria) is evidenced by inscriptions at Akko.[20]

Iconography

The literary attestations as already given are that Derceto was depicted as fish-tailed goddess at Ashkelon (by Ctesias after Diodorus), and later at Hieropolis (by Lucian).

But all of the extant iconography of the Syriac goddess catalogued in the LIMC shows her as anthropomorphic.[21]Шаблон:Primary source inline But the "fish-goddess form of Atargatis" were among the finds unearthed in the Transjordan, or so Glueck (cf. infra) has insisted, though only her forms as goddess of "foliage and fruits" or cereal goddess were published in his paper.[22]

Numismatics

Файл:Derketo.jpg
The reverse of a coin of Demetrius III, depicts fish-bodied Atargatis,[23] veiled, holding the egg (cf. birth of Syrian Venus from egg, §Mythology ) flanked by barley stalks.
Файл:Atargatis & lion.JPG
The reverse of a coin from Cyrrhestica depicts Atargatis riding a lion, wearing a mural crown, and holding a sceptre.

The tetradrachm issued under Demetrius III Eucaerus (96–87 BCE, coin image above) shows a fish-bodied figure on the reverse side, which scholarship identifies as Stargateis.[23]Шаблон:Efn 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 by Antiochus XII Dionysus (87– 84 BCE) who succeeded him.Шаблон:Sfnp

Hieropolis Bambyce was one of the cities which minted its own coins.Шаблон:Sfnp 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.Шаблон:Sfnp[24] Palmyra coinage also depicts a Tyche 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 at Dura-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.Шаблон:SfnpШаблон:Refn There has also been found one Palmyrene tessera (token) inscribed with Atargatis's name (Aramaic: Шаблон:Transliteration).Шаблон:Sfnp

Sculptures

Шаблон:Hatnote

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,[25][26] but this matches the historic account that the cult relief Atargatis Hierapolis was seen wearing a mural crown.[27]

In the temples of Atargatis at Palmyra and at Dura-EuroposШаблон:Efn she appeared repeatedly with her consort, Hadad, and in the richly syncretic religious culture at Dura-Europos, was worshipped as Artemis Azzanathkona.[28]

In the 1930s, numerous Nabatean bas-relief busts of Atargatis were identified by Nelson Glueck at Khirbet et-Tannûr, Jordan, in temple ruins of the early first century CE;[29] 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. At Petra the goddess from the north was syncretised with a North Arabian goddess from the south al-Uzzah, worshipped in the one temple. At Dura-Europus among the attributes of Atargatis are the spindle and the sceptre or fish-spear.[30]

Mythology

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 in Athenaeus 8.37, where Atargatis 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), quoting Ctesius 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 near Ashkelon and her body was changed into the form of a fish though her head remained human.Шаблон:SfnpШаблон:Sfnp In Diodorus's version of the legend, Derceto also depsite 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 legendary Assyrian queen.[31]Шаблон:Sfnp Lucian also notes that the erection of the temple at Hieropolis was ascribed by some to Semiramis who dedicated it to her mother Derceto.[17]

Analysis

Ctesias's account, according to one analysis, is composed of two myths, the Derceto transformation myth, and the Semiramis birth myth,Шаблон:Efn and a telling of each myth are told by a number of classical writers.Шаблон:Sfnp

The first myth (the Derceto metamorphosis into fish) is told, e.g., by Ovid as a Dione-Cupid myth.Шаблон:Sfnp The irony is that even though Ovid explicitly mentions Derceto (Шаблон:Lang-la) of Babylonia transforming into a fish,[32]Шаблон:Refn Ovid's version of this first myth (detailed below) is recorded in Fasti, 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.[33]

The second myth (the Semiramis birth myth) is told by various writers as an alternate version of the birth of Venus (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).[34]Шаблон:Refn

Syrian Venus

Ovid in Fasti recounts the legend that the goddess Dione accompanied by Cupid/Eros plunged into the river in Palestine (Euphrates), whereby a pair of fish came to convey then through water to aid her escape from Typhon.[35][14] The fish pair was commemorated as the constellation Pisces of the zodiac, and local Syrians abstain from eating fish on account of it.Шаблон:Sfnp Menander and othersШаблон:Efn also relate this legend,Шаблон:Sfnp and some of the versions, say that the goddess and Cupid subsequently transformed into fish, possibly preserving the original telling.[33]

The name Dione could refer to Aphrodite's mother, but it was also an epithet of Aphrodite/Venus herself.[36] So the legend has also been told as one of Venus with Cupid casting herself into the Euphrates, then transforming into fish.[37]

The second myth describes the birth of Syrian Venus as originating in an egg that fell into the Euphrates, rolled onto land by fish, was hatched in the clutches of doves (scholia to Germanicus's Aratus;[38] Hyginus, Fabulae).[39] Шаблон:Refn

The author of Catasterismi explained the constellation of Piscis 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 at Hierapolis 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.

Syncretism

Шаблон:Fertile Crescent myth (Levantine) In many cases Atargatis, 'Ashtart, and other goddesses who once had independent cults and mythologies became fused 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 Greek Aphrodite. By the conjunction of her many functions (as fertility goddess and of appliances),Шаблон:Efn she becomes ultimately a great nature-goddess[14] analogous to Cybele and Rhea, despite originating as a sea deity analogous to Amphitrite. In one aspect she typifies the protection of water in producing life; in another, the universal of other-earth;[40] in a third (influenced, no doubt, by Chaldean astrology), the power of Destiny.[14] She was also identified with Hera by Lucian in his De Dea Syria.[41]

As a consequence of the first half of the name, Atargatis has frequently, though wrongly, been identified as Ashtart.[42] The two deities were probably of common origin and have many features in common, but their cults are historically distinct. There is reference in 2 Maccabees 12.26[43] and 1 Maccabees 5:43[44] to an Atargateion or Atergateion, a temple of Atargatis, at Carnion in Gilead, but the home of the goddess was unquestionably not Israel or Canaan, but Syria itself; at Hierapolis Bambyce she had a temple in her name.[14]

A recent analysis of the cult of Atargatis is an essay by Per Bilde,[45] in which Atargatis appears in the context of other Hellenized Great Goddesses of the East.

Cult

Temples

Файл:Balıklıgöl Urfa2.jpg
The fishpond of fish sacred to Atargatis survives at Şanlıurfa, the ancient Edessa, its mythology transferred to Ibrahim.

At her temples at Ashkelon, Hierapolis Bambyce, and Edessa, there were fish ponds containing fish only her priests might touch.[46] Glueck noted in his 1937 paper that "to this day there is a sacred fish-pond swarming with untouchable fish at Qubbet el-Baeddwī, a dervish monastery three kilometres east of Tripolis, Lebanon."[47]

The relief sculpture of the Syrian Goddess at Hierapolis was supported by a pair of tritonesses according Lucian.[48]

Cult sites in the Near East include Dura-Europos, Palmyra, Akko (Ptolemais), CarnaimШаблон:Efn and Nabataea.Шаблон:Sfnp Two well preserved temples in Niha, Lebanon are dedicated to her and to her consort Hadad.

From Syria, the worship of Atargatis and Hadad extended to Greece and to the furthest West into the Mediterranean. Lucian[49][50] and Apuleius 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; at Delos especially numerous inscriptions have been found bearing witness to her importance. 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.[14] The leader of the rebel slaves in the First Servile War, a Syrian named Eunus, claimed to receive visions of Atargatis, whom he identified with the Demeter of Enna.

Priesthood

Файл:Galles, Archigalles et prêtres de la Mère des dieux.JPG
Bust of a priest of Atargatis, 3rd century AD, Capitoline Museums

During the Roman era, eunuch priests worshipped Atargatis, similar to the Galli priests of Cybele. At the shrine in Hieropolis founded by Semiramis, 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 become cross-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.[51] The priests were described by Apuleius as mendicants 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 an ecstatic 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 in saffron 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.[52]

According to a story retold by Lucian, the Assyrian 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, where upon 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.[53]

See also

Шаблон:Portal

Explanatory notes

Шаблон:Notelist

References

Citations

Шаблон:Reflist

Sources

Шаблон:Refbegin

Шаблон:Refend

External links

Шаблон:Commons category

Шаблон:Authority control

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  1. ↑ Pliny the Elder. Natural History, 5.19.1.
  2. ↑ Шаблон:Cite web
  3. ↑ 3,0 3,1 M. Rostovtseff, "Hadad and Atargatis at Palmyra", American Journal of Archaeology 37 (January 1933), pp 58-63, examining Palmyrene stamped tesserae.
  4. ↑ Шаблон:Cite web
  5. ↑ Шаблон:Cite web
  6. ↑ Ошибка цитирования Неверный тег <ref>; для сносок BauerKraft1996 не указан текст
  7. ↑ Шаблон:Cite book
  8. ↑ M. Smith, 'Athtart in Late Bronze Age Syrian Texts [in:] D. T. Sugimoto (ed), Transformation of a Goddess. Ishtar – Astarte – Aphrodite, 2014, p. 49-51
  9. ↑ G. Del Olmo Lete, KTU 1.107: A miscellany of incantations against snakebite [in] O. Loretz, S. Ribichini, W. G. E. Watson, J. Á. Zamora (eds), Ritual, Religion and Reason. Studies in the Ancient World in Honour of Paolo Xella, 2013, p. 198
  10. ↑ S. A. Wiggins, A Reassessment of Asherah: With Further Considerations of the Goddess, 2007, p. 57, footnote 124; see also p. 169
  11. ↑ S. A. Wiggins, A Reassessment of Tikva Frymer-Kensky's Asherah [in:] R. H. Bael, S. Halloway, J. Scurlock, In the Wake of Tikva Frymer-Kensky, 2009, p. 174
  12. ↑ S. A. Wiggins, Shapsh, Lamp of the Gods [in:] N. Wyatt (ed.), Ugarit, religion and culture: proceedings of the International Colloquium on Ugarit, Religion and Culture, Edinburgh, July 1994; essays presented in honour of Professor John C. L. Gibson, 1999, p. 327
  13. ↑ The modern repertory of literary allusions to her is van Berg, Paul-Louis (1973) Corpus Cultus Deae Syriae (C.C.D.S.): les sources littéraires, Part I: Répertoire des sources grecques et latines; Part II: Études critiques des sources mythologiques grecques et latines, Leiden: Brill.
  14. ↑ 14,0 14,1 14,2 14,3 14,4 14,5 Шаблон:EB1911
  15. ↑ Ошибка цитирования Неверный тег <ref>; для сносок macalister не указан текст
  16. ↑ Ошибка цитирования Неверный тег <ref>; для сносок barton не указан текст
  17. ↑ 17,0 17,1 De Dea Syra, 14 apud Шаблон:Harvp
  18. ↑ De Dea Syra, 32 , quoted in English in: Шаблон:Harvp. A more extensive quote is given in Шаблон:Harvp
  19. ↑ Ошибка цитирования Неверный тег <ref>; для сносок fowlkes-childs&seymour не указан текст
  20. ↑ Ошибка цитирования Неверный тег <ref>; для сносок berlin не указан текст
  21. ↑ Drijvers Dea Syria LIMC.
  22. ↑ Шаблон:Harvp, note 3: ".. Besides the fish-goddess form of Atargatis, sculptures of her were found depicting her as a grain goddess (fig. 13) and as a goddess of foliage and fruits (figs 14–15).
  23. ↑ 23,0 23,1 Ошибка цитирования Неверный тег <ref>; для сносок wright не указан текст
  24. ↑ Шаблон:Harvp only writes that Hieropolitan coins typically depicted "Zeus", but the lion was also added as a sub-type, and "the lion was known as the companion and avatar of Atargatis".
  25. ↑ Ошибка цитирования Неверный тег <ref>; для сносок matheson не указан текст
  26. ↑ Шаблон:Harvp, pp. 47–48, 172–173 apud Matheson
  27. ↑ Шаблон:Harvp, n. 30
  28. ↑ Rostovtseff 1933:58-63; Dura-Europos III.
  29. ↑ Ошибка цитирования Неверный тег <ref>; для сносок glueck1937 не указан текст
  30. ↑ Baur, Dura-Europos III, p. 115. For Pindar (Sixth Olympian Ode), the Greek sea-goddess Amphitrite is "goddess of the gold spindle".
  31. ↑ Ошибка цитирования Неверный тег <ref>; для сносок ringgren не указан текст
  32. ↑ Ovid. Metamorphoses IV: 44ff.
  33. ↑ 33,0 33,1 Hyginus, de Astronomica II: 30 and Manilius IV: 580 sqq. apud Шаблон:Harvp
  34. ↑ Шаблон:Harvp and Шаблон:Harvp: "as Aphrodite sprang from the sea-foam, or as Atargatis, .."
  35. ↑ Fasti 2.459–.474 apud Шаблон:Harvp
  36. ↑ Ошибка цитирования Неверный тег <ref>; для сносок lucas не указан текст
  37. ↑ Шаблон:Harvp, he does not specify which primary source from among the authors he listed.
  38. ↑ Шаблон:Harvp and Шаблон:Harvp
  39. ↑ Hyginus, Fabula 197: "Into the Euphrates River an egg of wonderful size is said to have fallen, which the fish rolled to the bank. Doves sat on it, and when it was heated, it hatched out Venus, who was later called the Syrian goddess. Since she excelled the rest in justice and uprightness, by a favour granted by Jove, the fish were put among the number of the stars, and because of this the Syrians do not eat fish or doves, considering them as gods".
  40. ↑ Macrobius. Saturnalia, 1.23.
  41. ↑ Шаблон:Cite book
  42. ↑ Dirven's hypothesis that at Palmyra Atargatis was identical to Astarte, who functioned as the Gad of Palmyra, has been criticised by Ted Kaizer (The Religious Life of Palmyra 2002 :153f), who suggests that we "stick to the divine names actually given by the worshippers" and follow the Palmyrene inscriptions, which distinguish between them.
  43. ↑ Шаблон:Cite web
  44. ↑ Simply referring to "the temple that was in Carnaim" (on-line text).
  45. ↑ Bilde, Per (1990). Religion and Religious Practice in the Seleucid Kingdom (in series "Studies in Hellenistic Civilization") Aarhus University Press
  46. ↑ Lucian, De Dea Syria; Diodorus Siculus II.4.2.
  47. ↑ Шаблон:Harvp, note 4
  48. ↑ Lucian. De Dea Syria 14; Шаблон:Harvp, Lucian: On the Syrian Goddess, p. 67 n. 17. apud Шаблон:Harvp and n. 21
  49. ↑ Lucian, De Dea Syria.
  50. ↑ Шаблон:Harvp apud Шаблон:Harvp
  51. ↑ Attridge and Oden 1976: 23, 37, 39, 55
  52. ↑ Apuleius, The Golden Ass 8.26–28
  53. ↑ Lucian, De Dea Syria 19–29
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