Atergatis, the far-famed goddess of the Syrians, was also a fish-divinity. Her image, like that of Dagon, had at first a fish's body with human extremities protruding from it; but in the course of centuries it was gradually altered to that of a being the upper portion of whose body was that of a woman and the lower half that of a fish. Gatis was a powerful queen of Sidon, and mother of Semiramis. She received the title of "Ater," or "Ader," "the Great," for the benefits she conferred on her people; one of these benefits being a strict conservation of their fisheries, both from their own imprudent use, and from foreign interference. She issued an edict that no fish should be eaten without her consent, and that no one should take fish in the neighbouring sea without a licence from herself. It is not improbable that she and her celebrated daughter, who is said by Ovid and others to have been the builder of the walls of Babylon, were worshipped together; for that Atergatis was the same as the fish-goddess Ashteroth, or Ashtoreth, "the builder of the encompassing wall," we have, amongst other proofs, a remarkable one in Biblical history. In the first book of Maccabees v. 43, 44, we read that "all the heathen being discomfited before him (Judas Maccabeus) cast away their weapons, and fled unto the temple that was at _Carnaim_. But they took the city, and burned the temple with all that were therein. Thus was _Carnaim_ subdued, neither could they stand any longer before Judas." In the second book of Maccabees xii. 26, we are told that "Maccabeus marched forth to _Carnion_, and to the temple of _Atargatis_, and there he slew five and twenty thousand persons." In Genesis xiv. 5, this city and temple are referred to as "_Ashteroth Karnaim_." Fig. 7 is a representation of Atergatis on a medal coined at Marseilles. It shows that when the Phoenician colony from Syria, by whom that city was founded, settled there, they brought with them the worship of the gods of their country. [Illustration: FIG. 7.--ATERGATIS. _From a Phoenician coin._] Atergatis was worshipped by the Greeks as Derceto and Astarte. Lucian writes[39]:--"In Phoenicia I saw the image of Derceto, a strange sight, truly! For she had the half of a woman, and from the thighs downwards a fish's tail." Diodorus Siculus describes (lib. ii.) the same deity, as represented at Ascalon, as "having the face of a woman, but all the rest of the body a fish's." And this very same image at Ascalon, which Diodorus calls Derceto, or Atergatis, is denominated by Herodotus[40] "the celestial Aphrodite," who was identical with the Cyprian and Roman Venus. Of all the sacred buildings erected to the goddess, this temple was by far the most ancient; and the Cyprians themselves acknowledged that their temple was built after the model of it by certain Phoenicians who came from that part of Syria. [39] 'Opera Omnia,' tom. ii. p. 884, edit. Bened. de Dea. Syr. [40] Lib. i. cap. cv.