Adonis, Attis, Osiris : studies in the history of oriental religion / by J.G. Frazer.
- James George Frazer
- Date:
- 1906
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Adonis, Attis, Osiris : studies in the history of oriental religion / by J.G. Frazer. Source: Wellcome Collection.
99/368 page 79
![79 § 8. Cilician Goddesses So far, the Cilician deities discussed have been males; Goddesses we have as yet found no trace of the great Mother Goddess less who plays so important a part in the religion of Cappadocia than gods and Phrygia, beyond the great dividing range of the Taurus, religion^11 Yet we may suspect that she was not unknown in Cilicia, though her worship certainly seems to have been far less prominent there than in the centre of Asia Minor. The difference may perhaps be interpreted as evidence that mother - right and hence the predominance of Mother Goddesses survived in the bleak highlands of the interior, long after a genial climate and teeming soil had fostered the growth of a higher civilisation, and with it the advance from female to male kinship, in the rich lowlands of Cilicia, be that as it may, Cilician goddesses with or without a male partner are known to have been revered in various parts of the country. Thus at 1 arsus itself the goddess fAtheh was worshipped The along with Baal ; their effigies are engraved on the same coins 'SYtpgpSS of the city. She is represented wearing a veil and seated Upon partner of a lion, with her name in Aramaic letters engraved beside her.1 Hence it would seem that at Tarsus, as at Boghaz-Keui, the seems to Bather God mated with a lion-goddess like the Phrygian a^orm^f1 Cybele or the Syrian Atargatis. Now the name Atargatis Atargatis. is a Greek rendering of the Aramaic 'Athar-'atheh, a com¬ pound word which includes the name of the goddess of Tarsus.2 Thus in name as well as in attributes the female 1 B. V. Head, Historia Numorum, p. 616. 2 The name 'Athar-'atheh occurs in a Palmyrene inscription. See G. A. Cooke, Text-book of North- Semitic Inscriptions, No. 112, pp. 267-270. In analysing Atargatis into 'Athar- 'atheh ('Atar-'ata) I follow E. Meyer (Geschichte des Alterthums, i. § 205, P- 247)j F. Baethgen (Beitrdge zur semitischen Religionsgeschichte, pp. 68- 75), G. A. Cooke [l.c.), C. P. Tide (Geschichte der Religion ini Altertum, i. 245), F. Hommel (Grundriss der Geo¬ graphic nnd Geschichte des alten Orient, PP- 43 S(2')i and Father Fagrange (Etudes sur les Religions Semitiquesf p. 13°)- In the great temple at Hierapolis - Bambyce a mysterious golden image stood between the images of Atargatis and her male partner. It resembled neither of them, yet combined the attributes of other gods. Some interpreted it as Dionysus, others as Deucalion, and others as Semiramis ; for a golden dove, traditionally associated with Semiramis, was perched on the head of the figure. The Syrians called the image by a name which Lucian translates “ sign ” (ar^fx7]iov). See Lucian, De dea Syria, 33. It has](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b31346510_0099.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
