426 FISH NOT IN SACRIFICE OR AUGURY 
sometimes identified with Astarte and with Atargatis !—un- 
doubtedly a fish goddess—Ichthyolatry has been claimed for 
Israel. 
But Cheyne, after showing that the mistake of identification 
arose from Carnaim, where (Maccabees v. 26) the temple of 
Atargatis stood, beingalsocalled (Gen. 
xiv. 5) Ashtoreth-Carnaim, disputes 
the deduction, and denies that these 
goddesses were one and the same. 
He points out that at Ascalon 
there were two separate temples, one 
to Astarte (Ashtoreth) and one to 
Atargatis (Derceto), standing side by 
side.2 
Strabo, however, states (XVI. p. 
ATARGATIS, 748) that in Hierapolis, or Bambyce, 
From a coin of Hierapolis. or Magog, “ there was worshipped the 
Ce eo ee Syrian goddess Atargatis,”’ and on 
Head, Historia Numorum? p. 785 that this same goddess is called 
Sarria lire = by the historian Ctesias Derceto, and 
by others Athara. In Strabo’s day 
apparently the name, if not the cult, of Atargatis and 
Ashtoreth were considered identical.3 
Milton, at any rate, evinces no doubt, 
‘* Came Ashtoreth, whom the Pheenicians called 
Astarte, queen of heaven, with crescent horns : 
In Sion also not unsung, where stood 
Her temple on the offensive Mount.” 4 
1 For data on Atargatis and Derceto, and for various Syrian coins bearing 
fish, see J. B. Pitra, Spicilegium Solesmense, III. pp. 503-4 (Paris, 1855). 
2 Ency. Bibl., p. 379. 
3 In Some Palestinian Cults in the Greek and Roman Age (Proceedings of 
British Academy, vol. V. p. 9), Mr. G. F. Hill, speaking of the worship in the 
two cities, concludes that the one at Ascalon is identified by Herodotus with 
that of Aphrodite Urania, and that at Gaza with Derceto, or Atargatis. Lucian 
(if he wrote De dea Syria) distinguishes the goddess of Ascalon from her of 
Hierapolis, who was worshipped in human not semi-human form, but there is 
little doubt of the connection between them. The Greeks identified both with 
Aphrodite. Other writers state that the Canaanite Ashtoreth, pre-eminently 
the goddess of reproduction and fecundity, became the goddess of fish (which, 
as sacred to her, were forbidden food) and of the pomegranate, both of which 
from their thousands of eggs or seeds are striking emblems of fertility. 
4 Graf Wolf von Baudissin in Hauck’s Protestantische Realencycl., 3rd ed., 
