In precisely similar manner the Semitic moon-goddess,
who followed the course of the sun, at
times manifesting herself to the eyes of men, at
others seeking concealment in the western flood
was represented as half woman, half fish, with
characteristics which make her lunar origin indisputable.
Her name was Derceto or Atergatis.
On the coins of Ascalon, where she was held in
great honour, is figured a goddess above whose
head is a half-moon, and at her feet a woman with
her lower extremities like a fish. This is Semiramis,
who, according to a popular legend, was the
child of Derceto. At Joppa she appears as a
mermaid. The story was, that she fled from
Typhon, and plunged into the sea, concealing
herself under the form of a fish. According to
Plutarch, the Syrian Tirgata, the Derceto of
Palestine, was the goddess of moisture[1]; and
Lucan (De dea Syra, c. 14) declares that she was
represented as a woman with a fish-tail from her
hips downward.
In every mythology, the different attributes of
- ↑ Plutarch, Crass, c. 17. According to Greek mythology, this goddess, under the name of Ceto, “with comely cheeks,” is the daughter of Sea and Earth, and wife of Phorcys (Hesiod, Theog. v. 235. 270).
