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The temple of Astarte in Sidon (1)

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03 Religious festivals, cults, rituals and practices
04 Religious and philosophical literature and poetry

 		Keywords
Europa
Period
2nd century CE
Roman Empire 		Channel
Helleno-Roman philosophers and scholars

Text
pseudo-Lucian, De Dea Syria 4:
There is another great sancuary in Phoenicia, which the Sidonians possess. According to them, it belongs to Astarte, but I think that Astarte is Selene. One of the priests, however, told me that it is a sanctuary of Europa, the sister of Cadmus; that she was the daughter of Agenor the king, and when she disappeared, the Phoenicians honored her with a temple and told a holy tale about her, namely that Zeus desired her since she was beautiful, that he assumed the form of a bull, seized her, and carried the girl off with him to Crete. I heard the same tale from the other Phoenicians as well, and the coinage which the Sidonians use depicts Europa sitting on the bull, which is Zeus, but they do not agree that the temple is that of Europa.

Source (list of abbreviations) (source links will open in a new browser window)
pseudo-Lucian, De Dea Syria 4

Bibliography

Attridge and Oden 1976Attridge, H. W. and R. A. Oden. The Syrian Goddess (De Dea Syria), Attributed to Lucian. Graeco-Roman Religion 1. Missoula: Scholars Press for the Society of Biblical Literature 1976.

Amar Annus


URL for this entry: http://www.aakkl.helsinki.fi/melammu/database/gen_html/a0000382.php

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