ATARGATIS (a-taega-lfs), (Gr. 'ArEp-ydrvs, at er-garace, or 'Arap-ydris, at-ar-gat'is), is the name of a Syrian goddess, whose temple (' Areryareiov) is mentioned in 2 Macc. xii:26.
That temple appears, by comparing I Macc. v :43, to have been situated at Ashtaroth-Karnaiin. Her worship also flourished at Mabilg (i. e., Bam byce or Hierapolis, which was, according to Raw linson, the Carchemish of the Hittites. It is now Jerablus. The recent discoveries in the history of the Hittites seem to show that the sacred martial dances of the priestesses of Atargatis, clad in armor, gave rise to the Greek legend of the Ama zons.
There is little doubt that Atargatis, or Aterga tis, is the same divinity as Derketo. Besides in ternal evidences of identity, Strabo incidentally cites Ctesias to that effect (xvi, p. 1132), and Pliny uses the terms 'Prodigiosa, Atergates, cis autem Derceto dicta.' We read that Derketo was worshiped in Phcenicia and at Ascalon under the form of a woman with a fish's tail, or with a woman's face only and the entire body of a fish ; that fishes were sacred to her, and that the inhab itants abstained from eating them in honor of her. These facts are found in Lucian (De Dea Syria, xiv), and, together with a mythological account of their origin, in Diodorus (ii :4). Further, by combining the passage in Diodorus with Herodo ttis (i :los), we may legitimately conclude that the Derketo of the former is the Venus Urania of the latter. Atergatis is thus a name t.ider
which they worshiped some modification of the same power which was adored under that of Ash toreth. That the of 2 Mace. xii :26 a as at Aslitaroth-Karnaim shows also an imme diate connection with Ashtoreth. Whether, like the latter, she bore any particular relation to the moon, or to the planet Venus, is not evident. Macrobius makes Adargatis to be the earth ( which as a symbol is analogous to the moon). and says that her image was distinguished from that of the sun by rays 'sursum version monstrando radiorum suterue missorton qucrcunsme terra t rocenerrrt' (tiaturnal. Creuzer maintains that those representations of this goddess which contain parts of a fish are the most ancient : and endeavors to reconcile Stra hn's statement that the Syrian goddess of Hier apolis was Atargatis with Lucian's express notice that the former was represented under the form of an entire woman, by distinguishing between the forms of different periods (Symbn/ik, :63). This fish-form shows that Atargatis bears sonic relation, perhaps that of a female counterpart, to DAtioN (which see).