"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)
It is argued that the Syrian Atargatis is the first mermaid goddess who appeared in Phoenician folklore between 700 b.c. to 1000 b.c....
There are a few theories as to what the name "Atargatis" means.
The name is Semitic, and in Phoenician is 'Athtart.
The first half of the name, most agree, is a form of the name Athtar (aka Astarte).
The second part is more problematic, however, and various interpretations of the whole of Her name are: "Atar the Daughter/Mother of 'Ate", "the Fish Goddess Atar", or "Atar the Favorable One".
The momentum of trasnformation commenced when this utterly elegant being was once in love with a mortal shepard called Mshadu and somehow she accidentally and unintentionally caused his death....
Ashamed by what she had done, she decided to jump into a lake and take on the form of a fish.
This is where the legend splits..
One version says that the powers that be…interviened... Atargatis was distned not to give up her divine beauty entierly so only her bottom half was turned fish like while her top half remained human....
The other version of this lore says that the waters wouldn’t conceal her beauty so she was forced to take on the half fish, half human form herself to conceal herself.
From there the flok-tale has spun out into other cultures.
For the Greeks..and later the Romans, Aphrodite also known
by her Roman name Venus, came to be portrayed from time to time as mermaid…
Atargatis is considered to be great mother and goddesss of Fertility of the earth and water.
The spread of civilization in the ancient East is also attributed to Atargatis as she is said to have taught the people social and religious practices...
Her consort is usually Hadad. As Ataratha she may be recognized by the self-mutilation of her votaries, recorded in a perhaps sensationalist Christian passage from the Book of the Laws of the Countries, one of the oldest works of Syriac prose, an early-third-century product of the school of Bar Daisan (Bardesanes)...
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