Fishing from the earliest times - Blog

APHRODITE—ATARGATIS 127To her, seemingly, as many offerings, as many prayerswere made as to any god.Whether she can be identified or not with Atargatis,through Derceto or Astarte, matters httle here.i But theimage of the goddess, as described by Lucian,^ " In Phoenicia,I saw the image of Derceto, a strange sight truly ! For shehad the half of a woman, and from the thighs downwardsa fish's tail," corresponds closely with an image of Ascalon.sARTEMIS WITH A LARGE FISH INFRONT OF HER DRESS.From Ephemeris ArchJlogique, PI. 10," having the face of a woman, but all the rest of the bodya fish."When in addition we find this same image at Ascalonstated by Herodotus (II. 115) to be that " of the heavenlyAphrodite," the identification of the Greek-Roman goddessappears, at any rate, to have gained wide acceptance.Doubtless Horace had this,^ or perhaps some fish-tailed^ It is probably the wisest course to admit that the unity of an ancientgod or goddess was a matter of name, rather than of nature.* De Dea Syr., ii. c. 14. The authorship is a matter of doubt. Theauthor adds, " but the image in the holy city is all woman."=>Diod. Sic, II. I.* On Greek and Italian vases, etc., women with fish bodies are occasionallyrepresented. Cf. Keller, op. cit., ii. 349.