CHAPTER FIVE

DE DEA SYRIA

The de Dea Syria can claim to be at least as bizarre as the Onos: a description of the shrine and rites of the Syrian goddess Atargatis at Hierapolis. In form it is presented as an 'extract' from history or ethnography; and in sophistic terminology, it is an ecphrasis as well. The many specialists who have been drawn to it for information on dialect, archaeology, or cult history seldom make detailed enquiries about the author; 1 and before we can relate it to Lucian's contributions to fiction, we have to deal with three separate issues: does the writer imitate Herodotus? Is he Lucian? And did he write it merely as imitation, or as subtle parody? The first question has been conclusively answered several times over: the author does imitate Herodotus, for whatever reason; 2 but most scholars have answered the other two with vague pronouncements about whether or not Lucian could ever adopt his opponents' point of view; the question demands much more detailed treatment. For Lucian to write so prolonged an account of a temple and its rites seems at first sight unlikely. He himself had no antiquarian interest in ritual; but he does devote a whole pamphlet to 'exposing' the cult founded by Alexander of Abonoteichos. And he wrote several works where he seems to concentrate on imitating one of his 'authors' exhaustively-Plato in Hermotimus, Aristophanes in Timon, Menippus( ?) in D. Mort.; while in Historia he gives pride of place to Thucydides. There is still a gap for Lucian's 'tribute' to

1 Most of them have in fact accepted it, but with little or no discussion, e.g. F. G. Allinson, Pseudo-Ionism in the second century, A]Ph 7 (1886), 203-207; H. Strong and J. Garstang, The Syrian Goddess, London 1913; H. Stocks, Studien zu Lukians De Syria Dea, Berytus, Archaeological Studies published by the Museum of Archaeology of the American University of Beirut 4, Copenhagen 1937, 1-40; C. Clemen, Lukians Schrift uber die Syrische Gottin ubersetzt und erlautert, Der Alte Orient 37, heft 3/4, Leipzig 1938. The last two, with Harmon's well annotated Loeb (IV.337 ff.). are an essential guide to the realistic features in this extremely recondite work. 2 For the linguistic parallels see D. A. Penick, Notes on Lucian's Syrian Goddess, Studies in honour of B. L. Gildersleeve, Baltimore 1902, 387-93; 0. Wedermeyer, Der Pseudo-ionismus der Kaiserzeit und die Dea Syria, Diss. Rostock 1923. DE DEA SYRIA 69

Herodotus. Now elsewhere he imitated the episode of Cyrus and the Massagetae; 3 Herodotus' previous section is a digression on Babylon, which includes a description of the temple of Zeus Belus and ritual prostitution.4 Lucian had both the material and the incentive. A. THE 'LUCIANIC' THEMES The DS has not been fully examined for contacts with the rest of the Lucianic Corpus: Helm rejected it on a priori grounds,6 so that he neither gives it an appendix in LM, nor lists any cross• references in PW. But it has important points of contact with Lucian's attacks on pretenders. The city has its name changed to Hierapolis to commemorate the growth of the cult; Lucian took offence that Abonoteichos was renamed lonopolis because of Alexander. 6 A papyrus head floating downstream is claimed to be the head of Osiris; the key point in Alexander's deception is the linen head he makes for Glycon. 7 And both oracles use autophones, which are meticulously described.8 Once more Philopseudes is a natural source of cross-references. In both works a youth's adul• terous passion serves as the starting-point for a tale.9 Kombabos' statue is shaped like a w'oman, but dressed as a"'man;Eucrates has too much regard for a comical and unmanly statue of Pellichus. 10 In both pieces bronze is used to frighten spirits;11 the god makes a solo flight, like the Hyperborean wizard; 12 and statues go on the move: Zeus and Hera move down towards the lake, while Pellichus walks round Eucrates' house. 13 The fantastic voyages in I car. and V H supply still more parallels. The author describes the exotic city of Hierapolis; Lucian includes several such episodes in V H, and describes a temple on his island of Dreams.a Both authors rationalise a natural phenomenon in a

3 Herod. l.201 ff./Charon 13. 'l.178ff. • PW 1761. 8 DS 1/Alex. 58. 7 DS 7/Alex. 12. 8 DS 36/Alex. 26. 9 DS 17 f./Philops. 14 f. 10 DS 26/Philops. 18. For Lucian's interest in androgynes, cf. VH I.22. 11 DS 29/Philops. 15. (In DS the purpose is left unstated). 12 DS 37/Philops. 13. 13 DS 47/Philops. 19. Bompaire (648) adds DS 36 (Apollo's moving statue)/ Philops. u DS 1/VH 1.29; II.32ff.