TYPE: Mother Goddess
ORIGIN: Northern Syrian
INFORMATION:
She enjoyed major cults at Khirbet Tannur, where she is depicted as the vegetation goddeess in nine separate variations, and at Khirbet Brak, where she is associated with dolphins. She often carries a cornucopia liking her with the goddess Tyche (fortune) and may commonly be flanked by lions. She sometimes carries a rudder or wears the mural crown of a city guardian. There are hints of sky affinities in some depictions, with a sign of the zodiac or a nimbus-like veil.
Her earliest consort is Dusara, but in later times she is linked with the Syrian storm god Hadad. At Dura and Hierapolis (Hera-Atargatis), she tended to overshadow Hadad. Atargatis is also a fish goddess depicted like a mermaid and in most of her cult centers she enjoyed a sacred lake stocked with fish. Statues of Hadad and Hera-Atargatis were carried in twice-yearly processions to the sea from Hierapolis, and by the third century BCE her cult had reached Egypt. Greek writers of the Hellenic period describe her as a "radiate" goddess, which suggests some links with sun symbolism. Also Allat.