entities: ENT_ARA_ATARGATIS

The core table — every entity in the database, spanning gods, angels, demons, aeons, prophets, saints, heroes, spirits, monsters, personified abstractions, cosmological realms, and ritual categories. Use category to filter by functional type (146 values: Underworld Deity, Hero, Adversarial Being, Revealer Figure, etc.). Use tradition to filter by tradition. The short_note column contains a scholarly description with source citations.

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entity_id canonical_name greek_name tradition entity_type category primary_domains tags cult_scope primary_period evidence_confidence review_status inclusion_basis earth_association_score chthonic_flag serpent_flag short_note entity_class
ENT_ARA_ATARGATIS Atargatis   Aramean great Syrian goddess / fish goddess Love Deity love; fertility; sovereignty; sea and fish; divine queenship; war; prophecy       A           Atargatis ("the Syrian Goddess," Greek Dea Syria; Aramaic Atar-ata or ʿAtar-ʿAte) is the most influential Aramean deity in the broader Mediterranean world and the principal goddess of the Syrian religious tradition. Her main cult center was the great temple complex at Hierapolis-Bambyce (modern Manbij, northern Syria), which Lucian of Samosata describes in detail in De Dea Syria (c. 150 CE): a monumental temple with sacred fish-pools where fish were never caught but fed by hand, sacred doves, a golden statue of Atargatis enthroned between lions (her cult animal), surrounded by divine effigies of other deities, and served by hundreds of priests including the castrated galli who performed ecstatic self-mutilation at festivals. Her theonym is a compressed form of two divine names: Atar (= Aramaic form of Astarte, the Semitic love/war goddess) + Ata/Ate (= possibly "Anat," the Ugaritic war goddess, making Atargatis a fusion of both female divine powers). She is a "panthea" — a many-in-one all-goddess who encompasses love, fertility, sovereignty, war, and prophecy in a single figure. Her cult spread dramatically across the Hellenistic world through Syrian merchant communities: major temples on Delos (the Atargateion, 2nd c. BCE), in Athens, and in Rome (the Galli priests's festivals were observed in Rome). She is typically depicted enthroned, wearing a turreted crown and holding a scepter, with lions flanking her throne and fish at her feet. Lucian De Dea Syria (§§1-60) is the fullest primary source; Lipiński (2000) pp. 589-610. deity

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