ATARGATIS ə tär’ gə tĭs, ā tär gā’ tĭs (Ατάργατις, the Gr. transliteration of עתרעתה. A variant name, Δερκετώ, owes its origin to the shorter Sem. form, תרעתה). A Syrian goddess of fertility. Atargatis was one of the popular deities of the Hel. period. She was a type of the common mother-goddess figure, the counterpart of Aphrodite. She is related to the familiar Ishtar or Astarte (cf. Ashtoreth in the OT), the symbol of fertility religion which Josiah had opposed (2 Kings 23:13).

She is known in ancient lit. as the Syr. goddess, Dea Syria or Deasura. The chief center of worship was in Hieropolis, in northern Syria. Among other temples were those at Carnaim, in Gilead (2 Macc 12:26), and Khirbet Tannur (described in The Other Side of the Jordan by Nelson Glueck). Her temples, cultic practices, and begging priests are described in detail in Lucian’s work The Syrian Goddess and in the Metamorphoses of Apuleius. The priests, known as Galli, castrated themselves in frenzied orgies. The fertility motif is seen in the association of Atargatis with water, grain, fruit, and foliage.

Bibliography F. Cumont, Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism (1911); N. Glueck, The Other Side of the Jordan (1940); E. O. James, The Cult of the Mother Goddess (1959).