Atargatis
Archimandrite Nikifor’s Biblical Encyclopedia
(2 Macc. 12:26) — the name of a fortified place with a temple in Gilead, in the tribe of Manasseh, in which the Syrian commander Timotheus had a fortified camp; but Judas Maccabeus, having taken the city, set fire to the temple and the fortress with all who were in it (1 Macc. 5:37–44; 2 Macc. 12:26), putting 2,500 Syrians to death in the process. Atargatis, to whom the temple was dedicated, was a Babylonian-Philistine deity, depicted in the form of a woman with a fish’s tail instead of legs. Ponds with fish were usually dedicated to her.