J east or west, according to the position of the speaker. ; So Jerome quotes " trans Jordanem ;" but Dr. Thonv ■ son, rejecting this authority, supposes Abel-mizraim to , have been located near Hebron (Lund and Book, ii, 385). Atad, as a name, is possibly only an appellative de- scriptive of a "thorny" locality ("II2XPI *|"?i\ = " the floor [or trodden space] of the thorn"). See Jacob. Atad. See Thorn. Atalleph. See Bat.
At'arah (Heb. Atarah', fTlOSj a crown; Sept. 'Eripn v. r. 'Arono), the second wife of Jerahmeel, of the tribe of Judah, and mother of Onam (1 Chron. ii, 26). B.C. ante 1658. ' Atar'gatis (Arapyanc, Strab. xvi, p. 785 [Arcrr,-
yariov ok ti)v 'AOapau oi "EAAjjvfi; iKaXovv] v. r.
j 'ATipydrig, also 'Arepyarijc) is the name of a Syrian ! goddess whose temple CArapyaTuci' v. r. 'ATtpyariloi ) is mentioned in 2 Mace, xii, 26. It was destroyed 1 y Judas Maccabeus (1 Mace, v, 43, 44), from which pas- sage it appears to have been situated at Ashteroth-Kar- naim. Her worship also flourished at Mabug (i. e. Bambyce, afterward called Hierapolis), according to Pliny (Hist. Nat. v, 19), who also states that Atergatis is the same divinity as Derceto, AtpKtrio (Diod. Sic. vii, 4), or Dercetio (Ovid, Met. iv, 45). Besides internal evidences of identity (see Creuzer, Symbol, ii, 76 sq.), Strabo incidentally cites Ctesias to that effect (xvi, p. 1132). Derccto was worshipped in Phoenicia and at Ascalon (where fountains containing sacred fish are still kept — Thomson, Land and Boole, ii, 330) under the form of a woman with a fish's tail, or with a woman's face only and the entire body of a fi: h (Athen. viii, 346). Eishes were sacred to her, and the inhabitants abstained from eating them in honor of her (Lucian, De Dea Syria, xiv). Farther, by combining Diodorus (ii, 4) with Herodotus (i, 105), we may legitimately conclude that the Derceto of the former is the Venus (Aphrodite) Urania of the latter. Lucian compared her with Here, though he allowed that she combined traits of other deities (Aphrodite, Rhea, Selene, etc.). Plu- tarch (C?-ass. 17) says that some regarded her as "Aph- rodite, others as Here, others as the cause and natural power which provides the principles and seeds for all things from moisture." This last view is probably an accurate description of the attributes of the goddess, and explains her fishlike form and popular identifica- tion with Aphrodite. Lucian also mentions a ceremony in her worship at Hierapolis which appears to be con- ne< t id with the same belief, and with the origin of her name. Twice a year water was brought from distant places and poured into a chasm in the temple ; because, i he adds, according to tradition, the waters of the Del- I uge were drained away through that opening (De Syria i dea, p. 883). Compare Burns, ad Ovid, Met. iv, 45, where most of the references are given at length ; Mo- vers, Plioniz. i, 584 sq. Atergatis is thus a name un- der which they worshipped some modification of the same power which was adored under that of Astarte , (q. v.). That the 'ArepyariTov of 2 Mace, xii, 26j was at Ashteroth-Karnaim, shows also an immediate con- nection with Ashtoreih (q. v.). Whether, like the lat- ter, she bore any particular relation to the moon or to the planet Venus, is not evident. Macrobius (Sat. i, | 23, p. 322, Bip. ed.) makes Adargatis to be the earth (which, as a symbol, is analogous to the moon), and says that her image was distinguished from that of the sun by the direction of the rays around it (but see Swin- ton, in the Philosoph. Transactions, lxi, pt. 1, p. 845 sq.). Creuzer maintains that those representations of this goddess which contain parts of a fish are the most ancient, and endeavors to reconcile Strabo's statement that the Syrian goddess of Hierapolis was Atergatis, j with Lucian's express notice that the former was rep- resented under ihe form of an entire woman, by distin- guishing between the forms of different periods (Sym- I bolik, ii, 68). This fish form thows that Atergatis bears
ATAROTH
503
ATBACH
some relation, perhaps that of a female coun- terpart, to Dagon (q.
on the road from Jerusalem to Jaffa, west of Saris, which (although slightly beyond the ancient bounds of Judah) appears plausible, as the well Ayub in the
Ancient Medal of Atergutis. soph. Transactions, LXI, ii, 345 sq.).
No satisfactory etymology of the word has been dis- covered. That which assumes that Atergatis is "P^X
l) v.). There is an an- immediate vicinity may be a relic of the epithet here
applied distinctively to this place.
4. Ataroth -Shophan (Heb. Atroth' Shophan' ', "jBtiJ Mfk??; crowns of Shophan {hiding] ; Sept. mere- ly Eo^ap), another city (nominally) of the tribe of Gad, mentioned in connection with No. 1 (Num. xxxii, 35). The English version overlooks the distinction evident-
tique coin extant rep- resenting this goddess (Swinton, in the Philo-
Jft addir' dag, i. e. magnificent fish, which has often lv intended by the suffixed word, translating "Atroth, been adopted from the time of Selden down to the pros- I Shophan," as if two places were thus denoted The ent day, cannot be taken exactly in that sense. The | associated names would appear to indicate a locality syntax of the language requires', as Michaelis has al- not far from the border between Gad and Reuben ready objected to this etymology {Orient. Biblioth. vi, (probably, however, within the latter) perhaps at the 97), that an adjective placed before its subject in this | bead of Wady Eshteh, near Merj-hkhh (Lobinson s manner must be the predicate of a proposition. The j Map), as the place was famous for pasturage