btained such
popularity that in Latin _refrigerium_ became synonymous with comfort and
happiness. The term retained this meaning in the liturgy of the church,[91]
and for that reason people continue to pray for spiritual
_rafraichissement_ of the dead although the Christian paradise has very
little resemblance to the fields of Aalu.

* * * * *

{103}

SYRIA.

The religions of Syria never had the same solidarity in the Occident as
those from Egypt or Asia Minor. From the coasts of Phoenicia and the
valleys of Lebanon, from the borders of the Euphrates and the oases of the
desert, they came at various periods, like the successive waves of the
incoming tide, and existed side by side in the Roman world without uniting,
in spite of their similarities. The isolation in which they remained and
the persistent adherence of their believers to their particular rites were
a consequence and reflection of the disunited condition of Syria herself,
where the different tribes and districts remained more distinct than
anywhere else, even after they had been brought together under the
domination of Rome. They doggedly preserved their local gods and Semitic
dialects.

It would be impossible to outline each one of these religions in detail at
this time and to reconstruct their history, because our meager information
would not permit it, but we can indicate, in a general way, how they
penetrated into the Occidental countries at various periods, and we can try
to define their common characteristics by showing what new elements the
Syrian paganism brought to the Romans.

The first Semitic divinity to enter Italy was {104} _Atargatis_, frequently
mistaken for the Phoenician 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 ([Greek: Suria thea]), 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