The Syrian Goddess by Lucian of Samosata
November 20th 2006 04:29
Astrate Source: Sacred Texts
The tract called The Syrian Goddess is usually attributed to Lucian even though it is written in a different dialect than the one Lucian normally wrote in. No matter who wrote it, the tract remains our major source for understanding Near Eastern religion in classical times. It is also very important for understanding something about the nature of religion itself.
Lucian here describes his visit to Hierapolis where stood the great temple of Dea Syria, one of the great Mother Goddesses of the ancient times. The pantheon included Rhea, Cybele, Isis and Ishtar. Distinct from all of them was Atargatis and she had her major temple at Hierapolis and was known to Hellenic world as Dea Syria.
Lucian is an astute observer; he remains disturbed by some of the “miracles” he saw but his overall outlook is unfazed by them. If he has not understood something, he has not understood something. He is not overly mystified nor does he reject anything too quickly.
The tract describes all the exotic rituals and the phallic embellishments in detail.
The other practice that this particular temple was famous for was sacred prostitution. This too was practiced at other centres but this temple was well-known for it. On a ritual day, women even from well-to-do families would wait on the streets to be taken by foreign men and foreign men only. I wondered and still wonder how those women were treated after that day of joy.
Such practices were matters of immense spiritual and political controversy merely because the ancient world and the Near East in particular were being swept away in a tide of patriarchal religions including the then nascent Christianity. No wonder when it gained ascendancy, Christianity directed its ire against such pagan religions first.
For centuries, Lucian’s account was the only one available about this important stage of religious evolution but once archaeology unearthed near east civilizations, it was discovered that these practices went back for thousands of years. When you read Lucian’s tract, you get the felling that the worship though strong did not preserve the memories of its own traditions intact. In fact, it makes you realize how vulnerable these religions were to an attack by a young vigorous faith.
This book is available online, if you prefer it that way. Reading a straight out history like this is perhaps much better than reading ten fantasies and it gives you a high fed on strangeness and mysticism. No matter how skeptical you might be, it still can move you to the core as it did to me.
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Comment by Adele
Lost Fanatic
Day Break TV
Comment by nagster
Cenacle
Comment by Adrian
Philosophy Blog
I'm slow -- so what exactly does it tell you about the nature of religion?
And what made the religion vulnerable? The fact that it didn't have a long memory?
Comment by nagster
Cenacle
This tract is the only one available that completely deals with the near eastern Mother religion. As such it is invaluable both historiacally and content-wise.
As for what made it vulnerable. Modern commentators argue that the temple went thousands of years back. Though it was conscious of long heritage, these people did not even know who the goddess was. The area was scarred by wars and changing empires, so every new people would come and ad their own interpretation to the cult practices followed here. In the end, I think it stripped the religion of any cultural potency. All Christianity had to do was to attakc it for its barbarism.