Lucian of Samosata

De Dea Syria (Greek: Περὶ τῆς Συρίης Θεοῦ, "Concerning the Syrian Goddess") is the conventional Latin title of a Greek treatise of the 2nd century AD, which describes religious cults practiced at the temple of Hierapolis Bambyce, now Manbij, in Syria. The work is written in a Herodotean-style of Ionic Greek, and has been traditionally ascribed to the Hellenized Syrian essayist Lucian of Samosata. De Dea Syria describes the worship as being of a phallic character, with votaries offering little male figures of wood and bronze. There were also huge phalli set up like obelisks before the temple, which were ceremoniously climbed once a year and decorated. The treatise begins with a re-telling of the Atrahasis flood myth where floodwaters are drained through a small cleft in the rock under the temple.

Trips to the Moon collects together three works by the Assyrian master of rhetoric and satire, Lucian of Samosata. The works are regarded as some of the first novels in western civilization, including some of the earliest examples of science fiction. He is witty and derisive and parodies the work of Homer as well as lowbrow popular tales of his time.

"This is the first edition of and full-length commentary on On the Syrian Goddess, an ionic ethnography of the Holy City of Hierapolis in northern Syria, where the Syrian goddess, Atargatis was worshipped. This treatise is one of the most important literary sources for a religion of the Roman Near East in its native setting. Traditionally ascribed to Lucian of Samosata, the work has often been viewed as satire. Lightfoot argues for a much subtler reading, for the first time combining a literary and philological approach with the evidence of archaeology to set this complex treatise in the fullest possible context. The result bears on the religious culture of Roman Syria; on the genre of Herodotean ethnography and its revival and reception in the Second Sophistic; and on Lucian of Samosata himself. The edition is based on a collation of all existing manuscripts and an English translation is provided."--BOOK JACKET.

Book digitized by Google from the library of Harvard University and uploaded to the Internet Archive by user tpb.

Book digitized by Google from the library of the New York Public Library and uploaded to the Internet Archive by user tpb.

Book digitized by Google and uploaded to the Internet Archive by user tpb.