On the Syrian Goddess

The work is written in a Herodotean style of Ionic Greek, and has been traditionally ascribed to the Syrian[1] essayist Lucian of Samosata.

[3] De Dea Syria describes the worship as being of a phallic character, with votaries offering little male figures of wood and bronze.

The treatise begins with a retelling of the Atra-Hasis flood myth, where floodwaters are drained through a small cleft in the rock under the temple.

A great bronze altar stood in front, set about with statues, and in the forecourt lived numerous sacred animals and birds (but not swine) used for sacrifice.

The lake was the centre of sacred festivities and it was customary for votaries to swim out and decorate an altar standing in the middle of the water.