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Author: Johanna Stuckey, PhD
Samhain 2003, Vol 3-1
From the Archives of MatriFocus
A Cross-Quarterly Web Magazine for Goddess Women Near & Far
Discover More: “ASWM Presents MatriFocus”

Ivory bas-relief Ugarit-Ras Shama 1550-1200/1150 BCE.
Drawing © Stéphane Beaulieu after Pope 1977: Plate XI.
About the bas-relief: Early excavators at Ugarit unearthed a few exquisite ivory furniture panels, one of which shows a goddess nursing two princes. Since Anat is the only female deity whom the Ugaritic poems describe as actually flying, this beautifully winged goddess is probably Anat.

Young and impetuous Anat was one of the great goddesses of the the area now occupied by Israel, Transjordan, and Syria. In mythic poems from the ancient city of Ugarit on the coast of Syria, she had a very active role, but the other important source for the polytheistic religion of the area, the Hebrew Bible, almost ignores her. Anat may once have been worshipped throughout the Levant, although she was probably more important in the north than in the south. However, by the Late Bronze Age (1550-1200 BCE), to judge from Ugarit, her cult seems to have begun to die out even in the north, as her attributes and functions were slowly taken over by other great goddesses.

According to Ugaritic poems dated to the latter part of Bronze Age (about 2000-1200 BCE), Anat was certainly a warrior goddess. Like Hindu Kali, she suspended severed hands and heads about her person and exulted in battle:

Anat’s soul was exuberant,
as she plunged knee-deep in the soldiers’ blood,
up to her thighs in the warriors’ gore … (Coogan 1978:91).

Not only did Anat delight in warfare, but she also enjoyed hunting. When she asked foolhardy, young prince Aqhat to give her his beautiful bow, he refused her request in a very insulting manner:

…bows are for men!
Do women ever hunt? (Coogan 1978:37).

Not surprisingly, ruthless Anat had him killed.

Contrary to the norms of patriarchal Ugarit, Anat behaved as if she were male, not female. She was an aggressive advocate for Baal, the god of storm and rain. On his behalf she threatened her father El, the ruler of the cosmos:

I’ll smash your head,
I’ll make your gray hair run with blood,
Your gray beard with gore …. (Coogan 1978:95)

She also ruthlessly destroyed Mot, the god of drought, sterility, and death, in order to release Baal from his clutches.

Despite her seemingly masculine nature, however, Anat did have a soft, almost motherly side, especially with regard to Baal. When she was searching for Baal after Mot had swallowed him, the poem comments:

Like the heart of a cow for her calf,
like the heart of a ewe for her lamb,
so was Anat’s heart for Baal. (Coogan 1978:111)

Further, she was one of “the two wet nurses of the gods” (Coogan 1978:66). In this capacity, she probably validated royal heirs, but she was no mother goddess. Indeed, in the Ugaritic poems, her usual epithet was “Virgin.”

Anat was not, however, a virgin in our sense. Rather, the word indicates that she was a young and marriageable woman who had not yet borne a child (Day 1991:145). As a perpetual teenager, Anat could indulge in culturally masculine activities. More important, she could cross sex-role boundaries precisely because she was not “a reproductive ‘fertility goddess’ (Day 1991:53)

Ugaritic cultic texts make clear that Anat was still venerated in the northern Levant during the Late Bronze Age (about1550-1200/1150 BCE). She also had a later, if a somewhat ambiguous, role in other areas of the ancient Levant. Although the Hebrew Bible, the Old Testament, never refers to Anat as a deity, she does appear in it occasionally in place and personal names. In all probability, the places named for Anat boasted important temples or shrines to the goddess (Day 2000:133). The Hebrew Scriptures also record two personal names containing the word Anat, the more interesting being that of the “judge” Shamgar ben Anat, “a champion in Israel” (Judges 3:31; 5:6). A number of scholars have put forward theories about the phrase “ben Anat, son of Anat.” Most convincing, however, is the hypothesis that “ben Anat” was a military designation, since a number of known Canaanite warriors also carried the same title. The warrior goddess was probably their guardian deity (Day 2000:134)

It was also in the Late Bronze Age that Anat achieved her greatest status, when she became an Egyptian war goddess, especially important to the warlike Ramesside pharaohs. Indeed, the “great” warrior king Ramses II (1304-1237 BCE) regarded her as his patron deity (Patai 1990:62). In addition, some Egyptian reliefs of the Ramesside Age (1300-1200 BCE) are dedicated to Canaanite goddesses, and some mention Anat by name. At the bottom of one, there is a depiction, with inscription, of a ritual offering to Anat (Westenholz 1998:80,#28)

In the Iron Age, from 1200 BCE on, at least one Israelite/Jewish community in exile seems to have revered Anat. It was a military colony in Upper Egypt. At the end of the fifth century BCE, a member of that community wrote letters mentioning Anat along with “Yaho,” that is, Yahweh (Patai 1990:65-66). It is possible that, in the colony, Anat was Yahweh’s consort. In addition, some evidence left on the island of Cyprus by the Phoenicians, the descendants of the Canaanites, refers to Anat and suggests that she was venerated there, where, later, she seems to have been identified with Greek Athene (Oden 1976:32). Otherwise, Anat did not survive as a separate deity, but may have been assimilated into the “Syrian Goddess” of Roman times.

References & Suggested Readings

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Contributors retain the copyright to their work; please do not take art or words without permission. Other graphics and reference materials are used and attributed as per the Fair Use Provision of The Copyright Act and individual terms of use.

Author: Johanna Stuckey, PhD
Samhain 2007, Vol 7-1
From the Archives of MatriFocus
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Mask of goddess or, more likely, priestess. Carved from alabaster. Originally eyes and eyebrows inlaid. Hair perhaps covered with gold leaf. Found in Uruk, near the E-anna, the great temple of Inanna in the center of the city. Dated ca. 3300-3000 BCE.
Drawing © S. Beaulieu, after Aruz 2003: 25 and figure 11a; Seibert 1974: Plate 7)

Enheduanna (En-hedu-anna),[2] daughter of Sargon the Great, was princess, priestess of the moon god Nanna at Ur in Mesopotamia, now Iraq, earthly embodiment of his spouse Nin-gal[3], and the first poet whose name we know.

We know the names of many high priestesses (en-priestesses or entu), a number of whom probably also wrote hymns and other literature for the temple. We can also tentatively identify en-priestesses from the rolled cap which they often wore.[4] However, not until 400 years after Enheduanna can we identify another priestess as author of a particular piece of writing.

An offering scene to a bearded and horn-crowned god enthroned before his temple. One offering might be the musical instrument (a bull lyre?) between the god and the male worshipper. The priest holds a spouted libation vessel. Behind and larger to show her importance is an en-priestess wearing the distinctive roll-brim hat (Winter 1987). Greenish translucent stone cylinder seal. Dated around 2400 BCE.
Drawing © S. Beaulieu, after Collon 1990: 45 #30

Nin-shata-pada, too, was the daughter of a ruler, Sin-kashid, who first governed Durum, then became king of Uruk in 1860 BCE. He married Shallurtum, a Babylonian princess, daughter of Sumu-la-El (1880-1845 BCE), thus cementing an alliance with that growing kingdom (Hallo 1991: 380).[5]

Like many other kings in Mesopotamia, Sin-karshid followed the then-accepted policy of appointing close relatives to high posts in dependent or conquered cities.[6]Kings regularly assigned provincial governorships to their sons and made their daughters high priestesses of cities whose tutelary or guardian deity was male. Thus a son could get experience in ruling a city state, and a daughter, as spouse of a god and so the embodiment of a goddess, wielded considerable religious power and extensive political influence (Hallo 1991: 378-379).

When a queen or princess was installed as a priestess, she usually took a religious name with religious meaning. Nin-shata-pada’s name means “Lady Chosen by [means of] the Heart [Omens].”[7] Particularly for the city of Ur, scholars know the official names of a large number of high priestesses and, often, how long they lived (Sollberger 1954-1956: 24-46). For instance, Queen Pu-abi of Ur, whose remains and grave goods were found in the great Royal Cemetery at Ur (2550-2400 BCE), was probably also a priestess.[8] Another royal woman who was both a princess and a priestess was Tuta-napshum. She was installed as en-priestess of the high god En-lil during the reign of Sargon’s grandson Naram-Sin (2260-2223 BCE) (Frayne 1993: 122-124, 175).

Banquet scenes on a cylinder seal found in the great royal Cemetery at Ur, near the body of Queen Pu-abi. The top register shows a woman with an elaborate hairdo seated on a throne-like chair and holding a cup. Female servants stand on either side of her. Opposite her is a bald male (a priest?) flanked by bald male servants, one of whom seems to be about to strike a hand bell. The scene below is an all-male one, featuring bald men who are probably priests. The inscription beside the upper register reads: Nin Pu-abi “Lady Pu-abi.” So the enthroned lady is likely to be Pu-abi, the second wife of King Meskalamdug. She seems to be dressed as a priestess and taking part in a ritual (Collon 1990: 19). Lapis lazuli. Dated 2550-2400 BCE.
Drawing © S. Beaulieu, after Aruz 2003: 109 figure 60a

The headdress and jewelry of Queen Pu-abi, made from gold leaf, lapis lazuli from Afghanistan, and carnelian from the Indus Valley. The circlet with spiral trim is draped with willow and beech leaves and topped with small, blue-and-white-filled, gold rosettes. The huge gold comb is surmounted by larger rosettes, also originally filled with blue and white paste. All the rosettes have eight-petals, usually a symbol of the goddess Inanna. Her enormous earrings are double crescents. Clearly the crown and its parts are symbolic, and some scholars suggest that they represent fertility (Pittman in Aruz 2003: 111). Dated 2550-2400 BCE.
Drawing © S. Beaulieu, after Aruz 2003:110 Plate 61a

Seal belonging to a female servant of the princess and priestess Tuta-napshum, who served as entu of the high god En-lil of Nippur. Her Semitic name probably means “She Has Found Life”
(Frayne 2007, personal communication) The priestess, wearing the flounced robe of deity, sits on a dais with a sacred tree behind her. She wears an odd, pointed crown. Standing before her, a servant, probably the seal owner, holds what looks like a musical instrument. The inscription reads: “Tuta-napshum, entu priestess of the god En-lil: Aman-Ashtan, the deaf woman, the prattler, (is) her female servant” (Frayne 1993: 175). As entu of En-lil, Tuta-napshum embodied his spouse Nin-gal “Great Lady.” Tuta-napshum was daughter of Naram-Sin, king of Sumer and Akkad (2260-2223 BCE) and great-granddaughter of Sargon the Great (Frayne 1993: 122-124)
Drawing © S. Beaulieu, after Frayne 1993: cover illustration

Priestly office was for life, and for most women it was an unusually long and interesting life.[9] When the priestess’s city was conquered, however, she could be ousted from her temple and even exiled.[10]

In Nin-shata-pada’s time, the southern cities of Isin and Larsa made numerous attempts to control Mesopotamia.

The large and flourishing kingdom of Larsa had three principal neighbors and rivals, Babylon, Isin, and Uruk. In 1804 BCE Rim-Sin, king of Larsa, captured Durum, the dependent city of Uruk where Nin-shata-pada lived, and in 1803 BCE he took Uruk, still ruled by Nin-shata-pada’s father’s dynasty. Uruk’s 60 years of independence were at an end. Rim-Sin would have the longest recorded rule (1822-1763 BCE) in Mesopotamia’s history (Leick 1999: 135).

According to Nin-shata-pada, Rim-Sin treated Uruk and its population with great clemency (Hallo 1991:387), and this fact likely persuaded her to plead her own cause to the conqueror, as well as that of her city Durum.

In a letter-prayer addressed not to a deity, as was more usual, but to a king, the writer describes herself:

This is what Nin-shata-pada the woman scribe,
Priestess of the divine Meslamtaea,
Daughter of Sin-kashid king of Uruk,
Your servant girl, says … (Hallo 1991: 387).

Nin-shata-pada’s letter-poem tells us that, at time of writing, she had been living away from Durum for over four years. Clearly, for her, as for Enheduanna centuries earlier, this situation was unbearable: “… they make me live like a slave. I have none who understand me.” She continues: “I am changed in my appearance (and) whole being; my body being dead, I walk about bowed down.”

When Rim-Sin took Durum, Nin-shata-pada was already an old woman: “Though vigorous, I am abandoned in old age like a day which has ended” (Hallo 1991: 388). Nin-shata-pada makes it clear that she was used to living a very comfortable life, in a pleasant house with slaves and servants to do her bidding. On the other hand, she had her own temple work to do: attending and conducting rituals, supervising and appearing at festivals. Most of all, she was the visible embodiment of the god’s wife, the goddess on earth.

Her spouse Meslamta-ea was a god of the Underworld and one of the Great or Divine Twins, his brother being Lugal-Erra. Meslamta-ea was tutelary or protector deity of Durum, and the city was the foremost cult center of the combined worship of the Twins (Hallo 1991:379). Representing the astral sign Gemini, they guarded entrances. Visually they were identical, each wearing a horned hat, bearing a mace, and brandishing an axe. Meslamta-ea’s spouse, the goddess whom Nin-shata-pada incorporated or embodied, was Mamitu(m), Mama, or Mami, a mother goddess and deity of childbirth.[11] Her foremost title was “Mistress of All the Gods” (Black and Green 2003: 123-124, 133, 136; Leick 1998: 114). Neither Meslamta-ea nor Mami was among the first rank of deities, but neither were they minor. Both were identified with major deities: Meslamta-ea with the great god of the Underworld Nergal; and Mami, with the great earth goddess Ninhursag (Nin-hursaga). So Nin-shata-pada, though bereft of her city and her temple, was still a significant high priestess.

Nin-shata-pada’s prayer-letter was preserved as part of the curriculum of scribal schools, and its “very language was that of the royal scribes…” (Hallo 1983: 17). This is not surprising, given that, in the letter, she identifies herself as a scribe. It is arguable that scribes were the most important persons in ancient Mesopotamia (Saggs 1965: 72). To be a cribe was to be the cream of the cream. Few men, and even fewer women, achieved that height. A person needed both the connections to get admitted to a scribal school and determination to survive long, hard, and expensive years of rigorous training. Despite her elite status, Nin-shata-pada still had to overcome the limitations imposed on her sex. So becoming a scribe was no mean achievement (Hallo 1983: 17). Then she became a high priestess, a position for which her training had fitted her. And then, from exile, she wrote her famous letter-prayer.

Whether Rim-Sin greeted Nin-shata-pada’s plea favorably we do not know. Certainly her scribal training was a great asset, in that she was able to employ the language normal in hymns and inscriptions to draw a very flattering picture of the conqueror. I like to think that Rim-Sin responded positively to her prayer by restoring her to her place in the temple at Durum and that she lived out the remainder of her life as Mami, the goddess of birth and motherhood.

Notes

Bibliography

Graphics Credits

Contributors retain the copyright to their work; please do not take art or words without permission. Other graphics and reference materials are used and attributed as per the Fair Use Provision of The Copyright Act and individual terms of use.

Author: Johanna Stuckey, PhD
Beltane 2009 Vol 8-3
From the Archives of MatriFocus
A Cross-Quarterly Web Magazine for Goddess Women Near & Far
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Goddess wearing an impressive mural crown and flanked by doves, probably Artargatis identified with Aphrodite/Venus. Relief from the temple of Adonis at Duro-Europos. Dated to around the 1st century BCE. (Bilde attributes it to Khirbet Et-Tannur.)
Drawing © S. Beaulieu, after Bilde 1990: 175, fig. 7.

In one hand she holds a scepter, in the other a spindle. On her head she bears rays and a tower and she wears a girdle…. On the surface of the statue is an overlay of gold and very costly gems, some of which are white, some the color of water, many have the hue of wine and many are fiery.
(Lucian, The Syrian Goddess. Attridge and Oden 1976: 43, 45)

Edessa, Palmyra, Hieropolis (modern Membij and Greek Bambyce), and .
Drawing © S. Beaulieu.

In his account of the Syrian cult center Hieropolis, Greek writer Lucian called its goddess “Hera.” However, he added that the natives gave her (and her consort) “another name” (Attridge and Oden 1976: 43). That was almost certainly a form of Atargatis, life-giving divinity associated with rivers and springs, motherly protector of humans and animals. Atargatis often served as tutelary or protector deity of urban centers — the providence or luck of the place (Semitic Gad, Greek Tyche, Latin Fortuna). Especially on coins, she often wore the “mural crown” with battlements (crenellations) as representation of the town she cared for (Bilde 1990: 159). For example, she was Gad or Tyche of both Edessa and Palmyra.

Mural-crowned and veiled goddess as Tyche framed in a zodiac with crescent and scepter (or torch?) and carried by a winged Victory. Probably Atargatis. Limestone relief from the Nabataean temple at Khirbet Et-Tannur in Transjordan. Original in two pieces. Dated to the end of the 1st century BCE / beginning of the 1st century CE.
Drawing © S. Beaulieu, after Godwin 1981: 113. See also Binst 2000: 180.

Her epithets included “Pure,” “Virgin,” “Savior,” and “Mother of the Gods” (Lightfoot 2003: 82: Bilde 1990: 162), and her iconography connected her particularly to Cybele, the Great Mother. Like her, Atargatis was often depicted riding or accompanied by a lion. Often she sat on a throne flanked by two sphinxes or two lions. Her headdress was usually topped by a crescent moon and draped with a veil. In her hands she carried various objects: a plate or cup, a scepter or staff, and ears of grain, but most often she held a spindle and a mirror. Sometimes doves or fish were near or actually on her. In some places Atargatis was associated with dolphins. At other places, the eight-pointed star emphasized her association with the planet Venus (Drijvers1980: 31).

Bust of a fishy, watery goddess sculpted in high relief on a white limestone block. Framed by a scallop design. Goddess has wavy, water-like hair, huge fish-like eyes, and a veil topped by two fish. From the Nabataean temple at Khirbet Et-Tannur, Transjordan, and dated to the end of the 1st century BCE / beginning of the 1st century CE.
Drawing © S. Beaulieu, after Binst 2000: 182. See also Bilde 1990: 169, fig. 3.

The earliest evidence of this goddess comes from the site of the ancient city Hieropolis — “Sacred City”  — which is the modern Membij and the Greek Bambyce (see map above). Her name and image appear on “a bewildering variety” of coins dating to the latter part of the 4th and the early part of the 3rd century BCE (Drijvers in Toorn, Becking, and Horst, 1999: 114). An Aramaic form of the name was ‘tr’th Ataratha, which the Greeks transformed into Atargatis and perhaps, in some places, shortened and altered to Derketo or Derceto (Lightfoot 2003: 37). Other spellings include Ataryatis, Attayathe, Ataryate, and Tar’atha. There is general scholarly consensus that the name derived from a combination of the names of the Canaanite goddesses Anat and Astarte (Drijvers in Toorn, Becking, and Horst 1999: 114), though some still think that the name also hides the third Canaanite goddess Asherah (Maier 1986: 67; Oden 1979: 58ff.). (See my articles on the Canaanite goddesses and goddess matters.)

A work about the goddess and her holy city, now bearing the Latin title De Dea Syria “About the Syrian Goddess,” dates to the 2nd century CE and is attributed to Lucian of Samosata (Attridge and Oden 1976; Meyer 1987: 130-141). Lucian wrote in Greek about, among other things, his visit to the great temple at Hieropolis, a walled sanctuary on a hill in the center of the city. As we saw, Lucian identified Atargatis with the Greek goddess Hera, but he also connected her to several other goddesses, for instance, Rhea (Cybele), Athena, Artemis, and Aphrodite. In addition, he saw her as having aspects of Nemesis and the Fates. Lucian described in considerable detail the shining magnificence of the temple, its numerous cult objects and statues, the multitude of its priests, and the various rituals celebrated there. Twice a day there were sacrifices, the ones to Hadad-Zeus being performed in silence. Those to the goddess were accompanied by flute playing and rattle shaking. In one rite, young men castrated themselves to become cross-dressing priests at the temple (Attridge and Oden 1976: 23, 37, 39, 55). 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.

In the temple, the goddess was supported by lions, and she held a scepter and a spindle. She wore on her head “rays and a tower” (Attridge and Oden 1976: 43). She was accompanied by a god sitting on bulls. Lucian identified him as Zeus, but remarked that the locals called him by another name. Very likely he was the Canaanite storm god Baal-Haddu (Syrian Hadad), the consort of Atargatis in the area.

Badly damaged sculpture showing Atargatis and her bearded consort Hadad. One of Hadad’s bulls survives at his left side. He holds a staff in his right hand and something unidentifiable in his left. She sits enthroned between her signature lions, holds what might be a spindle in her right hand, and probably originally had a scepter or staff in her left. A veil floats down from her layered hat, which is topped with a crescent. Roman.
Drawing © S. Beaulieu, after a photograph, source unknown.

To the north and east of Hieropolis was Edessa (modern Urfa), which, according to Christian legend, was the first ever kingdom to become Christian. However, well into the 5th century CE the city had a temple to Atargatis (as Venus star). Over and over again, the Christian bishop of the period had to forbid self-castration in honor of the goddess (Drijvers 1980: 77). A pool with sacred fish still exists at Urfa, though the carp are now dedicated to Ibrahim. At Edessa Atargatis was guardian of the city and especially of the springs near the citadel and the nearby river (Drijvers 1980: ix, 8, 79, 121).

She also had temples at Duro-Europos on the Euphrates and Palmyra (Tadmor), an oasis in the Syrian desert.

Dura-Europos was famous for having one of the oldest synagogues, almost complete and decked with frescoes. The city was a military post on the upper Euphrates, on the border between the Roman Empire and the troublesome Parthians (Drijvers 1980: 3). Atargatis shared her temple there with her consort Hadad. She might also have had a connection with the Adonis temple (Drijvers 1980: 23, 108).

Limestone carving found in the courtyard of the temple of Atargatis at Duro-Europos, still showing traces of paint. Dated 50 – 250 CE. Now at Yale University. The deities are seated on platforms between columns. The god is somewhat smaller than the goddess, indicating a decline in his status with respect to her. He carries what are probably thunderbolts and perhaps held a staff. His hat is tall, and he has snaky symbol on his shirt (see below). A bull supports him on his right. The goddess is flanked by lions, holds up her right hand in the blessing gesture, and likely held a scepter or staff in her left. She wears a high hat on wavy hair. What appears to be another bull peers over her left shoulder. Between the deities is a standard or symbol with a snaky design, possibly the sacred object Lucian described as “Sign” (Attridge and Oden 1976: 45)
Drawing © S. Beaulieu, after Binst 2000: 126. See also Bilde 1990: 167, fig. 2.

Anthropomorphic stone found in the Temple of the Winged Lions at Petra. Yellow sandstone. The hole at the top in the leafy frieze above the eyebrows probably held a sign of Isis. The eye sockets were originally set with precious stones. The Nabataean inscription reads: “Goddess of Hayyan, son of Nibat,” indicating that Hayyan dedicated the small stele. The decoration of the stone points to Isis, but the form of the votive is purely Nabataean. Isis was equated with Al-‘Uzza, probably the major goddess of Petra, and so was Atargatis. A similar but less ornate carving with a nearby inscription “Atargatis of Manbij” was found in the Siyyag Gorge at Petra. It has been dated to the end of the 1st century BCE – beginning of the 1st century CE. It is interesting that the commissioner of the Atargatis carving chose to depict the “foreign” goddess in a typical Nabataean way, with no clues to her identity except the nearby inscription. One explanation is that he was a Nabataean trader heading out for Syria and trying to enlist the support of the major goddess of Syria for his endeavor.
Drawing © S. Beaulieu, after Binst 2000: 164.

Palmyra was also famous but for another reason: Zenobia. A warrior queen, she ruled and expanded the Palmyrene Empire after her husband’s death in 267 CE. Atargatis was considered Palmyra’s Tyche and identified with Artemis (Glueck 1937:370). She is known from two bilingual inscriptions, and her temple was probably one of four official “tribal sanctuaries” (Kaizer 2002: 153ff.). In addition, there is some evidence that at Palmyra she was equated with the ancient Arabian goddess Allat, whose iconography was very like that of Atargatis (Kaizer 2002: 99ff. 148 note 30; Drijvers 1980: 100).

Votive stele now in the Vatican Museum. The goddess Atargatis, named “Dea Syria” in the inscription, sits enthroned between two lions. In the right hand she holds a spindle, universal Eastern Mediterranean symbol of woman, and in her left a mirror, usually an attribute of Aphrodite/Venus. Over wavy hair her low hat is topped by a crescent and draped with a veil. This is almost an archetypal representation of the goddess as she was perceived in the West.
Drawing © S. Beaulieu, after Bilde 1990: 173, fig. 6.

Further, Atargatis was worshiped in what is now Israel at Ashkalon, originally a Canaanite city, then Philistine, then Phoenician. It was the site of Artagatis’s main temple in the southern Levant. According to the Apocrypha, she also had an “Atargateion” near Qarnaim (II Maccabees 12: 26). At Ashkalon, where she was called Derketo, she seems to have appeared as half fish, a mermaid goddess. In De Dea Syria, Lucian reported that he saw a statue of a Phoenician goddess who was a mermaid; he confirmed that she was called Derketo (Attridge and Oden 1976: 21).

Atargatis was also recognized by the Nabataeans, though she was never one of their pantheon (Healey 2001: 140-141). Evidence suggests that the Nabataeans were originally nomadic herders from Arabia who, in Greco-Roman times, controlled the main trade routes between Arabia and Syria and grew rich on frankincense and myrrh. Their kingdom flourished in the Hellenistic period (323-64 B.C.E.) and became part of the Roman Empire in 106 CE (Taylor 2002: 8). On a hilltop at Khirbet Et-Tannur, north of Petra in southern Transjordan, sits a small, ruined, but “extraordinary” Nabataean temple dating to the first part of the 1st century CE. Its excavator thought it was dedicated to Atargatis and her consort, but not everyone agrees (Healey 2001: 61). Certainly the sculpture and other decorations of the ruins suggest that the goddess worshiped there was very like Atargatis. The sculptured reliefs include the head of a goddess with two fish on her crown, winged Tyche figures, a lion, goddess heads with fruits and leaves, and reliefs of a Hadad-like god (Glueck 1937).

At the renowned Nabataean capital Petra, Atargatis’s cult was not very important, but there is some evidence of the goddess’s presence there (Taylor 2002: 132; Lindner and Zangenberg 1993). She might have been identified with the Arabian goddess Al-`Uzza, the Venus star, who was the tutelary deity of Petra. Like her, Atargatis had a close association with springs and water. At Petra is a sanctuary that archaeologists named the Temple of the Winged Lions (Healey 2001: 42-44). It may have been dedicated to an Atargatis-like goddess (Hammond 1990).

In the West she was usually called Dea Syria, the “Syrian Goddess.” Atargatis reached Rome during the first Punic War (264-241 BCE). By the time of the Roman novelist Apuleius, around 150-160 CE, the goddess’s begging eunuch priests had become notorious. In his story The Golden Ass, he described how a disreputable band of wandering followers of the goddess acquired Lucius in his donkey form and used him to carry the silk-bedecked image of their “foreign” goddess (195-199). The goddess he praised as “omnipotent and omniparent [all-generating]” (195), while he dismissed the priests as “lewd and very naughty fellows” (196). In the novel Lucius was restored to human form by the great goddess Isis (261-272).

The variations in the iconography of Atargatis resulted from her being identified with so many local goddesses, as well as great goddesses such as the Egyptian Isis. A splendid Egyptianized statue of her, complete with encircling snake, stood on the Janiculum in Rome in the 3rd century CE (Godwin 1981: 158 Plate 124). From Hieropolis in northern Syria, then, the cult of Atargatis disseminated all through Syria, northern Mesopotamia, the Mediterranean area, and the western part of the Greco-Roman world, even to Britain (Lightfoot 2003: 59).

Roman statue, likely of Artargatis, the “Syrian Goddess.” As is obvious, the figure is very Egyptianized showing that the commissioner/carver was heavily influenced by images of Isis. The snake probably came from images of the lion-headed god Aion of Mithraism (See Godwin 1981: 108, plate 72, and 109, plate 74.) Found on the Janiculum Hill of Rome. Dated to the 3rd century CE.
Drawing © S. Beaulieu, after Godwin 1981: 158, plate 124.

So that’s what happened to at least two of the Canaanite goddesses I wrote about in my first articles for MatriFocus almost six years ago (Anat, Astarte). They melded into Atargatis, a world-renowned deity. As to the third Canaanite goddess, we will find out more in the next issue of MatriFocus when I will be exploring the Carthaginian goddess Tanit and her background.

Bibliography

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