Whan I asked how many yeres the seyntuarye
hadde dured, and who thei wenden that here supposed
Goddesse were, manye stories weren tolde, both



 

prestes lore and lewede folkes, and verraye fables;
and some weren outlandissche, but othere somme
acordeden to hem of Grece. Alle thise seyinges
schalle reherce, but I beleve hem not in no kynde.
 
The more partie seyn, Deucalioun, the Scythe, Deucalion in the réle of a Scythian is odd. Hence Buttmann, rightly recognising that the tale is close akin to the Babylonian flood-story, proposed the reading Σισύθεα, considering Sisythes a possible variant of the name that in Berossus is Xisouthros. This is tempting, and has been widely accepted ; but the mistake, if there be one, is quite as likely to be due to Lucian or to his informant as to a scribe. 
founded the seyntuarye—that Deucalioun in the
tyme thereof the grete Flode befel. Of Deucalioun
Ihave herd a tale amonges Grekes, that thei tellen
in mynde of him; and the storie is of this maner
kynde. 
This generacioun, the men of now a dayes, nas not
the firste, but that firste generacioun al perissched,
and thise ben of the seconde generacioun that cam
of Deucalioun and multiplyed eftsones. Of tho
firste men, thei seyn that thei were right felonouse
and didde wikkede dedis, for thei ne kepten not non
othes, ne herberweden no straungers, ne receyveden harno fugityves; and for that skylle the grete tribu- cause
lacioun cam upon hem. Anon the erthe sent forthe
moche water and grete reynes were made and the
ryveres flowede gretli and the see wex wondur high,
in to tyme that alle thinges weren chaunged to water
and alle men weren dede, outtaken Deucalioun that
was laft unto the seconde generacioun for his gode
conseil and his gode werkes. And his deliveraunce
cam in this wyse. In to a gret arke that he hadde he
putte his children and his wyves, and thanne entrede,
and at entrynge ther camen to him swyn and hors
and lyouns kynd and serpentes and alle bestes that



 

lyven on erthe, two and two. And he resceyvede as
hem alle, and thei diden him non harm, but betwene
hem was great charitee fro the goddes, and in oon;
arke thei alle seyleden whyl the water prevayled.
So seyn Grekes of Deucalioun. In spite of Lucian’s repeated assurance, the story is more Semitic than Greek. On the West Semitic origin of the flood-story, see Clay, where also a translation of the Babylonian tale according to Berossus may be found (p. 82 sq.). 
 
But of that that sewede, men of the Holy Cytee sotiowed
tellen a tale that is worthy of gret merveylle, how
that in here londe opnede a huge hole and resceyvede
alle the water; and whan this happed, Deucalioun
leet maken awteres and leet bylden over the hole a atars
temple halowed to Iuno. At Gezer, not far from Jerusalem, “there is a living tradition that the waters of the flood burst forth in the neighbourhood” (Cook, p. 107). Likewise at Athens, within the enclosure of Olympian Zeus, in the precinct of Olympian Earth: ‘here the ground is cloven to a cubit’s width; and they say that after the deluge which happened in Deucalion’s time the water ran away down this cleft. Every year they throw into it wheaten meal kneaded with honey” (Pausanias 1, 18, 7, Frazer’s translation). I saughe the hole, that is
benethe the temple, a right lityl oon. If whilom it
was gret and now is become suche as it is, I wot
neer, but that I saughe is smal. 
In tokene of that storie thei don thus. Twyes
eech yeer water cometh fro the See in to the temple.
And not prestes only bryngen it, but al Surrye and
Arabye; and fro beyonden Eufrate gon manye men
to the See and bryngen alle watre, that anon thei
scheden out in the temple, and thanne it goth
adoun in to that hole; and al be it that the hole is
smal, natheles it taketh inne gret plentee of water.
And in doynge thus thei seyn that Deucalioun made
suche ordeynaunce for the seyntuarye in memorie of
that tribulacioun and that benefice. Further details of this rite are given in ¢. 48. Frazer's note on Pausanias l.c. compares an Athenian Hydrophoria connected with the memory of the flood; also the annual water-pouring in the Temple at Jerusalem on the Feast of Tabernacles. The performance was not simply commemorative; the offering at Athens of meal and honey was chthonic, and so was the water-pouring there (Cleidemus in Athenaeus 5, p. 410a). At Hieropolis the object was to quell evil spirits, according to Melito. “But touching Nebo, which is in Mabug, why should I write to you; for lo! all the priests which are in Mabug know that it is the image of Orpheus, a Thracian Magus. And Hadran (i.e. Hadaranes, a double of Hadad) is the image of Zaradusht, a Persian Magus, because both of these Magi practised Magism to a well which is in a wood in Mabug, in which was an unclean spirit, and it committed violence and attacked the passage of every one who was passing by in all that place in which now the fortress of Mabug is located; and these same Magi charged Simi, the daughter of Hadad (cf. c. 33), that she should draw water froin the sea, and cast it into the well, in order that the spirits should not come up,” etc. (Cureton, Spicil, Syr. 44 sq.) Early modern travellers have seen seawater poured into a brook (Baudissin, Studien, ii, p. 181), and it is perhaps significant that nowadays the Jans are angry if water is spilled on the hearth (Baldensperger, Jmmovable East, p. 85). Cf. Baudissin, p. 437, 3. a





 

Now that is the olde aunciene storie amonges
hem touching to the temple.
 
But othere men ,
trowen that Semiramys of Babyloyne, of the which
sothely ben manye werkes in Asye, sche made this
foundacioun, and not for Iuno but for hir owne
Moder, that hadde to name Derketoun. A legend of Ascalon made Semiramis the daughter of Derceto by a Syrian youth with whom Aphrodite (i.¢. Astarte) made Derceto fall in love. In her grief and shame, Derceto destroyed the youth, exposed the daughter, and herself leaped into a pool and was turned into a fish. Semiramis was miraculously attended by doves until she was discovered and handed over to Simmas, a royal overseer ; eventually she married Ninus (Ctesias, quoted by Diodorus Siculus 2, 4). She was intimately connected with temple traditions at Hieropolis : two statues of her stood near the temple, with one of which the story was connected that she had once tried to usurp the place of the goddess (cc. 39, 40), and some thought that the “token” of c. 33 represented her. . And I
beheld the schap of Derketoun in Phenicye, a
straunge merveylle, halfundel womman, but the
tothere half, wel fro thighes to feet, streccheth out
in a fissches tayl. Cook, p. 30 sg. speaks of “various rude and almost shapeless objects of bronze which have been interpreted, thanks to a more realistic specimen from the Judaean Tell Zakariya, as models of an amphibious creature with human head and the tail of a fish;”’ and he adds: “a splendid Carthaginian sarcophagus of a priestess (M. Moore, Carthage of the Phoenicians, frontispiece) represents a woman of strange beauty with the lower part of the body so draped as to give it a close resemblance to a fish’s tail.” But in Hellenistic times the goddess was almost always represented in human form. For other stories of her transformation, see W. Robertson Smith, Eng. Hist. Rev., ii (1887), 303 sg. ; Gruppe, Gr. Mythol. p. 1345; for the survival of the belief into modern times, Niéldeke, Zeitschr. der Deutsch. Morgenlind. Gesellsch. 35, 220. . But the ymage in the Holy
Cytee is hoolyche woman, and the tokenes of here
seyinge ben not right certeyn. Thei leven fissches
holy thynge, and thei ne touchen fissche never; and




 

though of othere foules thei eten alle, the dowve
thei ne eten not, but sche is holy, as thei wenen. See cc. 45, 54, with the notes thereon. 
And thise thinges ben don, thei trowen, be cause of
Derketoun and Semiramys, the oon for that Derketoun hath schap of a fissche, and the tother
because that atte laste Semiramys tornede to a
dowve. On the transformation of Semiramis into a dove, see Athenagoras, Legat. pro Christ. 76 (Ctesiae Fragmenta ed. Miiller, p. 17); Diodorus 2, 20, 2. Diodorus (2, 4, 6; cf. Hesychius) says that the name Semiramis is derived from the word for dove in the Syrian dialect. At all events the similarity of the Assyrian word summatu (dove) helps to account for her introduction into these stories (Lehmann- Haupt, Roscher’s Lexikon, s.v. Semiramis, p. 694). But to me, that the temple was bylded of
Semiramys peraventure may I graunte; but that it
longeth to Derketoun I ne leve not in no kynde. Lucian’s scepticism is unjustified. Pliny (5, 81) and Strabo (16, p. 785) were better informed. Atargatis is the Greek version of ‘Atar-‘ata; Derceto is the Greek version of the abbreviated form Tar-‘ata. See Cumont in Pauly- Wissowa, Realencycl., under Atargatis and Dea Syria. 
For amonges somme peples of Egypte thei ne eten
not fissche, and that is not-don for no favour to
Derketoun. In Astrology, c. 7, Lucian tells why these Egyptians do it; it is because they were especially devoted to the sign Pisces. This may be more than a mere jest ; Cumont says: “Old totems of Semitic tribes or of Egyptian nomes survived in the form of constellations” (Astrology and Religion, p. 116; cf. p. 81). But for the abstaining in Egypt other reasons were given, from Herodotus on (2, 37; cf. Plutarch, Isis and Osiris, cc. 7, 32, 72, and for other references, Frazer, Pausanias iv, p. 154). See also page 398, note 1. 

 
Ther is also an other holy storie that I herde from a
wys man, how that the goddesse is Cibella and the
servys founded of Attis. Attis was a Lydien of
kynde, that first leet teche the ceremonyes that
longen to Cibella. And alle rytes that Phrygiens and
Lydiens and Samothracyens perfourmen, tho rytes
lerneden thei of Attis. For whan Cibella gelt him,
he cessed to lede the lyf of a man, but chaunged
to femele schappe, and did on wommenes clothynge,
and goynge to every londe perfourmed ceremonyes
and reherced what betyd him and preysed Cibella
in songes. Ther with alle cam he to Surrye, and for
als moche as the peple beyonden Eufrate resceyvede






 

him not, ne his cerimonyes nouther, he founded the
seyntuarye in this place. And for a signe thereof,
the goddesse for the most partie ressembleth Cibella,
for lyouns drawen hir and sche holt a timbre and
bereth tours on hir hede, right as Lydiens formen
Cibella. Also he spak of Galles that ben in the
temple, seyinge that Galles gelden hem and counterfeten Attis not at alle for no worschipe of luno but
for worschipe of Cibella. This identification of the Dea Syria with Rhea has been spoken of as a temple-legend. Is it not rather a simple deduction of Lucian’s “wise man,” based upon general resemblance and upon the presence of Galli in both cults? The resemblance, however, was real, and the identification was not unusual ; a striking instance is in Bardesanes, where the Syriac version (Cureton, 31) has Tharatha, the Greek, as quoted by Eusebius, Rhea. It has been revived by modern scholars, notably Meyer, and with good reason ; but whether the “Mother-goddess” is Semitic in origin, as he formerly held, or non-Semitic (Hittite), as he now argues, is still, it seems to me, an open question. See note below on Combabus. 
 
But after myn avis, al be it that this is wel
semynge, it is not trewe, for I have herde an other
cause whi thei gelden hem that is a gret dele mo to
beleven.