(Συρίη θεός), " the Syrian goddess," a name by which the Syrian Astarte or Aphrodite is sometimes designated. This Astarte was a Syrian divinity, resembling in many points the Greek Aphrodite, and it is not improbable that the latter was originally the Syrian Astarte, the opinions concerning whom were modified after her introduction into Greece; for there can be no doubt that the worship of Aphrodite came from the East to Cyprus, and thence was carried into the south of Greece. (Lucian, De Syria Dea ; Paus. 1.14.6; Aeschyl. Suppl. 562.).