The Great Mother Goddess of Northern Syria, the DEA SYRIA, the ‘Lady of Life’, she was linked with ASTARTE of the Phoenician pantheon. Her major Syrian cult centres were at Kherbet Tannur, where she is a vegetation goddess, and at Kherbet Brak, where she is associated with dolphins. She is also known as DERKETO at her worship centre at Ascalon. Her symbol is a fish, or a pole or tree trunk, and many of her sanctuaries included a fish-pond. There are similarities and links with the Anatolian CYBELE. Her chief sanctuary was at Hierapolis/Bambyce, modern Mambij, from where twice yearly her statue and that of storm god HADAD/ADAD were carried to the sea. Her first consort is DUSARA, but later she became linked with Hadad/Adad. Her worship was spread by Greek merchants and became synonymous with that of APHRODITE and later, VENUS. Roman citizens comprised most of her worshippers at her shrine at Delos, where a statue of her was consecrated for the wellbeing of Rome in 118/117BCE. At Eryx in Sicily she was identified with Punic ASTARTE, also identified with ISHTAR/INNANA, and at ceremonies her sacred prostitutes played the role of Dido, while Roman consuls and generals played Aeneas. The Etruscans worshipped her as ASTRES. There is a link between Atargatis and the lunar AL-LAT(H)/AL-UZZA of the Nabataeans of south Palestine, whose centre was Petra, and some authorities identify her as the chief goddess of Arabia, her principal temple being the Ka’abah. The emperor Nero revered her and thus brought her worship to the centre of the Roman Empire, where she was invested as VENUS Erycina (from Eryx). Her temple on the Capitoline dedicated April 23, after the Roman defeat by Hannibal at Lake Trasimene, 217 BCE. Lucian’s Ode 43 is dedicated to Dea Syria. Her chief attributes were her control over fertility, her ability to protect cities, and her power over nature. Her symbols include a cornucopaea (possibly linking her with TYCHE, goddess of fortune), a rudder, zodiac signs and an astral veil. She sometimes appears as half-dolphin or 'mermaid' and sometimes she is flanked by lions
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