BIBLIOGRAPHY: The Syrian religions have been studied with especial
attention to their relation with Judaism: Baudissin, _Studien zur
semitischen Religionsgeschichte_, 2 vols., Leipsic, 1876. The same author
has published veritable monographs on certain divinities (Astarte, Baal,
Sonne, etc.) in the _Realencyclopädie für prot. Theol._, of Herzog-Hauck,
3d ed.--Bäthgen, _Beiträge zur semitischen Religionsgeschichte_, Berlin,
1888.--W. Robertson Smith, _The Religion of the Semites_, 2d. ed., London,
1894.--Lagrange, _Etudes sur les religions sémitiques_, 2d ed., Paris,
1905. The results of the excavations in Palestine, which are important in
regard to the funeral customs and the oldest idolatry, have been summarized
by Father Hugues Vincent, _Canaan d'après l'exploration récente_, 1907.--On
the propagation of the Syrian religions in the Occident, see Réville, _op.
cit._, pp. 70 _et passim_; Wissowa, _Religion der Römer_, pp. 299 ff.;
Gruppe, _Griech. Mythol._, pp. 1582 f.--Important observations will be
found in Clermont-Ganneau, _Recueil d'archéologie orientale_, 8 vols.,
1888, and in Dussaud, _Notes de mythologie syrienne_, Paris, 1903. We have
published a series of articles on particular divinities in the
_Realencyclopädie_ of Pauly-Wissowa (Baal, Balsamem, Dea Syria, Dolichenus,
Gad, etc.). Other monographs are cited below.
1. Lucian, _Lucius_, 53 ff.; Apul., _Metam._, VIII, 24 ff. The description
by these authors has recently been confirmed by the discovery of an
inscription at Kefr-Hauar in Syria: a slave of the Syrian goddess "sent by
her mistress ([Greek: kuria])," boasts of having brought back "seventy
sacks" from each of her trips (Fossey, _Bull. corr. hell._, XXI, 1897, p.
60; on the {242} meaning of [Greek: pêra], "sack," see Deissmann, _Licht
von Osten_, 1908, p. 73).