Lucian has the reputation of being a witty scoffer, thanks to his many genuine essays and dialogues, and thus the reliability of De Dea Syria as an authentic picture of religious life in Syria in the second century has been brought into question, but given the possibility that Lucian is not in fact the author, the treatise may in fact be more accurate than was previously supposed.
Lucian's witty and critical nature has led to doubts about the accuracy of De Dea Syria. However, if he isn't actually the one who wrote it, then this treatise may be more credible than previously supposed.