Dercĕto

and Dercĕtis , a godde of Syria, called also At erg at is , whom some supposed to be the same as Astarte. She was represented as a beautiful woman above the waist, and the lower part terminated in a fish’s tail. According to Diodorus, Venus, whom she had offended, made her pa ionately fond of a young priest, remarkable for the beauty of his features. She had a daughter by him, and became so ashamed of her incontinence, that she removed her lover, exposed the fruit of her amour, and threw herself into a lake. Her body was transformed into a fish, and her child was preserved, and called Semi ram is. As she was chiefly worshipped in Syria, and represented like a fish, the Syrians anciently abstained from fishes. Lucian , de Deâ Syria .— Pliny , bk. 5 , ch. 13 .— Ovid , Metamorphoses , bk. 4 , li. 44 .— Diodorus , bk. 2 .