gatis, frequently mistaken for the Phœnician Astarte,
who had a famous temple at Bambyce or Hierapolis,
not far from the Euphrates, and was worshiped with
her husband, Hadad, in a considerable part of Syria
besides. The Greeks considered her as the principal
Syrian goddess, ^* and in the Latin countries she was
commonly known as dea Syria, a name corrupted into
Iasura by popular use.

We all remember the unedifying descriptions of her
itinerant priests that Lucian and Apuleius ¹ have left.
Led by an old eunuch of dubious habits, a crowd of
painted young men marched along the highways with
an ass that bore an elaborately adorned image of the
goddess. Whenever they passed through a village or
by some rich villa, they went through their sacred
exercises. To the shrill accompaniment of their Syrian
flutes they turned round and round, and with their
heads thrown back fluttered about and gave vent to
hoarse clamors until vertigo seized them and insensi-
bility was complete. Then they flagellated themselves
wildly, struck themselves with swords and shed their
blood in front of a rustic crowd which pressed closely
about them, and finally they took up a profitable col-
lection from the wondering spectators. They received
jars of milk and wine, cheeses, flour, bronze coins of
small denominations and even some silver pieces, all
of which disappeared in the folds of their capacious
robes. If opportunity presented they knew how to in-
crease their profits by means of clever thefts or by
making commonplace predictions for a moderate con-
sideration.

This picturesque description, based on a novel by

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