Editing Atargatis (section)

=== Priesthood ===
[[File:Galles, Archigalles et prêtres de la Mère des dieux.JPG|thumb|Bust of a priest of Atargatis, 3rd century AD, Capitoline Museums]]

During the Roman era, [[eunuch]] [[priest]]s worshipped Atargatis, similar to the [[Galli]] priests of [[Cybele]]. At the shrine in Hieropolis founded by [[Semiramis]], eunuch priests served the image of a fish-tailed woman. Rituals to the goddess were accompanied by flute playing and rattle shaking. In one rite, young males castrated themselves to become [[cross-dressing]] priests at the temple and thereafter performed tasks usually done by women. The obligatory lake or pond lay nearby, full of sacred fish which no one was allowed to eat; nor could anyone eat Atargatis's sacred doves.<ref>Attridge and Oden 1976: 23, 37, 39, 55</ref> The priests were described by [[Apuleius]] as [[mendicant]]s that traveled around with an image of the goddess dressed in a silken robe on the back of a donkey. When they arrived at village squares or a receptive estate they would perform an [[Religious ecstasy|ecstatic rite]], designed to attract a crowd and elicit their contributions. The priests were described as effeminate, wearing heavy makeup, turbans on their heads, and dressed in [[Saffron (color)|saffron colored]] robes of silk and linen; some in white tunics painted with purple stripes. They shouted and danced wildly to the music of flutes, whirling around with necks bent so that their long hair flew out; and in an ecstatic frenzy they would bite their own flesh and cut their arms with knives until they bled.<ref>Apuleius, ''The Golden Ass'' 8.26–28</ref>

According to a story retold by Lucian, the [[Stratonice of Syria|Assyrian queen Stratonice]] saw in a vision that she must build a temple at Hieropolis to the goddess and so the king sent her there with a young man named Combabus to execute the task. Knowing the queen's reputation Combabus castrated himself and left his genitals, sealed in a box. When the queen fell in love with Combabus and tried to seduce him, he revealed his mutilation, but this didn't dissuade her from desiring his constant companionship. When Stratonice and Combabus returned home, she accused him of trying to seduce her, and Combabus was arrested, tried, and sentenced to death. Combabus called for the sealed box to prove his innocence, where upon the king relented and rewarded Combabus for his loyalty. The temple was completed and a statue of Combabus was placed in it. This is said to be the origin of the practice of castration by the priests in the temple.

Another story ascribed to Combabus mentions that a certain foreign woman who had joined a sacred assembly, beholding a human form of extreme beauty and dressed in man's attire, became violently enamoured of him: after discovering that he was a eunuch, she committed suicide. Combabus accordingly in despair at his incapacity for love, donned woman's attire, so that no woman in future might be deceived in the same way.<ref>Lucian, ''De Dea Syria'' 19–29</ref>