#MermaidMonday: Atargatis of Ashkelon

November 27, 2023

Atargatis, also known as Ataratheh and redubbed Derceto by Pliny the Elder, was a chief goddess in northern Syria, with evidence of her cult being discovered at Palmyria. She was a fertility goddess but also presided over her city at Aleppo, called Hierapolis by the Greek, where she was the baalat (the “mistress”) and presided over the welfare of her people: doves were sacred to her, as a testament to her role as love goddess, but she’s also connected to fishes and it’s said she turned into a fish herself. She’s today’s profile on my Patreon.

books and literature

The Wandering Earth

The collection is extraordinary and spans from grand feats of sci-fi imagination (the titular story) to humorous tales such as the one in which a writer called Cixin Liu becomes homeless after spending all his money and energy on a grand saga called The Three-Thousand-Body

March 8, 2026 9:00 am

books and literature

Weird Sisters

Well, this was a fairly unusual read for me in this period, I’m more in my sci-fi era, but good things come from good friends who gift you books you wouldn’t have bought: they usually help you discover something cool you didn’t know. What I

March 6, 2026 9:00 am

books and literature

SciFi Friday — In the Year 2889 by Jules Verne (1889)

[Redactor’s note: In the Year 2889 was first published in the Forum, February, 1889; p. 662. It was published in France the next year. Although published under the name of Jules Verne, it is now believed to be chiefly if not entirely the work of

March 6, 2026 1:00 am