THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
Atargatis is the contracted form of 'Athtar, the Aramaic equivalent of Ishtar or Astarte (see Ashtoreth, § 2). Presimiably Maris here confounded with the name of another deity. A certain Palmyrene god ^.(ior Atah is supposed to be the one in question, but his attributes are not sufficiently known to make the combination certain.
Although a wholly satisfactory explanation of the compound name is lacking, a plausible hypothesis as to the leading motive of the complex cult may be offered. After the political extinction of Semitism, and the consequent depreciation of Ishtar- Astarte (along with the decline of the complementary Baal-worship), it was found necessary to perpetuate some of the leading features of such a wide-spread and deep-rooted cult. The fertility and life-giving power of water was one of the most familiar of the conceptions of the world of thought and fancy of which Astarte was the center. This idea was in large measure suggested by the
mysterious origin and fecundity of fish, the chief of water animals. These consequently figure very largely, along with other elements, in the cult of Atargatis, which replaced but did not supersede the worship of Astarte. See Ashtoreth.
J. F McCurdy.
Bibliography: J. Selden,Z>e dis Syris, ii, 3, London, 1617; F. C Movers, Die Phbnizier, i, 584-600, Bonn, 1841; K. B. Stark, Gaza und die philistdische Kiiste, pp. 250- 255, Jena, 1852; Derceto the Goddess of Ascalon, in the Journal of Sacred Literature, new series, vii (1865), 1-20; P. Scholz, Gbtzcndienst und Zauberwesen bei den alien Hebraern, pp. 301-333, Regensburg, 1877; J. P. .Six, in the Numismatic Chronicle, new series, xviii (1878), 102 sqq.; Hauvette-Besnault, in Bulletin de correspondance hellenique, vi (1SS2), 470-503; L. Preller, Rbmische Mythologie, vol. ii, Berlin, 1883; W. Robertson Smith, in the English Historical Review, ii (1887), 303-317; F. Baethgen, Beitrage zur semitiachcn Religionsgcschichte, pp. 68- 75, Berlin, 1889; R. Pietschmann,C7esc7tic/iteder Phbnizier, pp. 14S-149, Berlin, 1889; Schurer, Geschichte, ii, 23-24, Eng. transl.,II, i, 13-14 and iii, 91-92; DB, i, 194-195; EB, i, 379; Smith, Rel. of Sem., 172-176.
ATHANASIAN CREED.
I Title not Justified.
Not an Ecumenical Creed (§ 1). Not Athanasian (§ 2). II. History of Discussion. Theories of Origin (§1).
The so-called Athanasian Creed (Symbolum Athanasianum, also called, from its first word, Symbolum Quicunque) is an exposition of the catholic faith which, from the Carolingian period, in some places earlier than in others, began to be sung at prime every day throughout the Western Church. It was not then called a " symbol " or creed; the passage in Theodulf of Orleans (De spiritu sancto, M PL, cv, 247) which was supposed so to designate it is corrupt, and Hincmar's reference to " Athanasius speaking in the creed " (De prcedestinatione, MPL, cxxv, 374) has been shown to refer, not to this, but to the so-called fides Romanorum (see below, II, § 5).
I. Title not Justified: None of the manuscripts of the ninth or tenth century, no certain quotation of this date, none of the old commentaries, call it a creed And even later, Thomas Aquinas expressly says that Athanasius wrote his exposition not in the manner of a creed but rather in that of a teacher's lesson (Summa, lib, 1, 10, 3). And he is right. Nothing was originally considered a creed, strictly speaking, but the baptismal profession of faith, and only a composition of similar structure could be accounted a creed, or more properly, a form of the creed. The
i. Not an Quicunque can not come under this Ecumenical head; it is a theological exposition of Creed. the doctrines of the Trinity and the Incarnation found in the creed. It is natural, however, that its use in public worship should approximate it in the popular mind to the Apostles' Creed used at baptism, and the Nicene used in the mass. As late as 1287, it is true, a diocesan synod at Exeter refers to the " articles of faith as they aTe contained in the psalm Quicunque vult and in both symbols ;" but in the thirteenth century the name of creed was not seldom applied to it. Durandus (d 1296) says " the creed is three-
Facts as to Manuscripts (§ 2). Ancient Commentaries (§3). The Theory of Two Sources (§ 4). Parallels to the Athanasian Creed (§5).
III. Present Status.
Attempted Conclusion (§1). Controversy in Anglican Church (§2).
fold;" and Alexander of Hales in like manner, writing in England about 1230, says, " there are three symbols, one of the apostles; one of the Fathers, which is sung in the mass; and the third, the Athanasian, which is sung at prime." Accordingly the Reformers, when their time came, had learned to receive these old confessions as " the three creeds " of catholic Christendom. They did not know that the Greek Church had neither the Apostles' nor the Athanasian, and the later Lutherans included all three as a universal heritage in their Corpus doctrince. So also Zwingli, the French and Belgic Confessions, and the Anglican Thirty-nine Articles expressly accepted the three creeds as ecumenical. But the Eastern Churches do not know the Athanasian as an authority, in spite of the assertion of the Russian theologian Macarius. Of the Reformed Churches, those which accept the Westminster Confession, while agreeing with its general teaching, do not accept it formally; the American Episcopal Church has dropped it from the prayer-book; the Churches of Puritan origin and the Methodists do not use it; so also the Swiss and French Reformed, to say nothing of the antitrinitarian bodies.
But the Athanasian Creed is not only not ecumenical; it is not even Athanasian. Since Gerhard Voss demonstrated this in 1642, the Athanasian origin of it has been practically abandoned by scholars, even those of the Roman Catholic Church.
There are decisive grounds against it:
2. Not Atha- it was composed in Latin — the Greek
nasian. forms, which can be shown to be as
late as the thirteenth century, are mere translations; Athanasius himself, as well as his biographers, know nothing of it — the Greeks mention it first about 1200; and it expresses things of later origin, sucli as the final settlement of not only the Trinitarian but the Apollinarian and Christo-