FISHING AND FISH-HOOKS, ETC. 327 



sovereign of Sidon especially, and that a woman, that 

 is to be ascribed the great advancement which was 

 made in the comfort and prosperity of the people by 

 the regulation and protection of the fisheries. Her 

 name was Gatis, and afterwards, by what appears to 

 have been a higher title of honour, Atergatis. She was 

 the author of an edict by which it was enacted that no 

 one should eat fish without a licence from her, and 

 that eveiy fisherman should bring to her the fish he 

 had caught a claim which, as Selden believed, was 

 intended to imply that she was so far the sovereign 

 of the neighbouring sea that no one should be per- 

 mitted to take fish in it without a licence from herself. 

 That this was not an act of severity to her own sub- 

 jects, but was rather intended to protect them from 

 the encroachments of strangers, appears from the high 

 favour in which she was always held by the former ; 

 for after death, according to the theology of these 

 ages, she was regarded as a goddess, and fishes of 

 gold and silver were dedicated to her even from 

 districts that were situated at a considerable distance 

 and in some places people abstained from eating fishes 

 in honour of her. This circumstance is to be ascribed 

 to the fact that the image which represented the 

 goddess Atergatis who was also called Derketo 

 was made in the form of a woman witli a fish's 

 tail, and in some instances with the head and arms 

 only of a woman, but the whole body of a fish. 



