NANEA (Nava/a) occurs 2 Maccab. i. r3 as the name of the goddess to whom the temple in Elymais, which Antiochus Epiphanes attempted to plunder, was dedicated. Antiochus having heard that this temple was greatly enriched with golden shields, and breastplates, and weapons, which ' Alexander, the son of Philip,' had dedicated to the goddess, his cupidity was excited, and he sought to possess himself of all this treasure. He was, however, stoutly resisted and driven off by the priests, who raised the people en masse against him, and was thus baulked of his prey (1 Maccab. vi. 1-6; 2 Maccab. i. 13-15). The Persian god dess Nanea, whose name, however, is variously written as 'APair4s, 'Aveires, etc., seems to have been the moon-goddess worshipped by dif ferent nations under different names. Josephus, and also Polybius, from whom he quotes, calls her "Apreuis, or Diana (,4ntiq. xii. 9. I).
Stuart thinks that here the words of Daniel re specting Antiochus are illustrated and fulfilled: 'He will have no respect to the delight of women,' rripr1 by which phrase he supposes the goddess of the temple of Elymais to be intended. This
female deity,' he adds, under different names, was worshipped in Africa, Syria, Phoenicia, Cyprus, Greece, Rome, Babylonia, Persia, and other coun tries. The Mylitta (= Heb. generatrir) of the East was the Venus of the West, the Neith of Egypt, the Astarte of the Syrians, the Anais or Anaitis of the Armenians; all uniting in the wor ship of the power which represented maternal pro ductiveness. . . . Antiochus, it seems, paid little or no regard to this idol.' Stuart then refers to the attempted plunder of the temple of this goddess, and adds that Nanea seems to him an appellation formed from Anaitis by vulgar pronunciation,' C0171. on Dan. ii. 39, pp. 353, 354. Winer identi fies Nanea with Meni, Realwbrterbuch, art. Had. The narrative in 2 Maccab. i. 13-15 differs in some particulars from that in i Maccab. vi. 1-6; but the sacrilege mentioned in 2 Maccab. ix. 12 must, if historical, relate to a wholly different transaction, as the scene of it is Persepolis, not Elymais.—I. J.