Astarte on a car with four branches protruding from roof.
Julia Maesa coin from
Sidon.
Astarte (from Greek Αστάρτη (Astártē)) is the name of a goddess as known from Northwestern Semitic regions, cognate in name,
origin and functions with the goddess Ishtar in Mesopotamian
texts. Another transliteration is ‘Ashtart; other names for the goddess include
Hebrew or Phoenician עשתרת (transliterated
Ashtoreth), Ugaritic ‘ṯtrt (also ‘Aṯtart or ‘Athtart,
transliterated Atirat), Akkadian DAs-tar-tú (also
Astartu) and Etruscan Uni-Astre (Pyrgi
Tablets).
According to Mark Smith's "The Early History of God", Astarte may be the Iron Age (after 1200 BC) incarnation of the Bronze
Age (to 1200 BC) Asherah.
General discussion
Astarte was connected with fertility, sexuality,
and war. Her symbols were the lion, the horse, the sphinx, the dove, and a star
within a circle indicating the planet Venus. Pictorial representations often show her
naked.
Astarte was accepted by the Greeks under the name of Aphrodite. The island of Cyprus, one of Astarte's greatest faith centers,
supplied the name Cypris as Aphrodite's most common byname.
Other major centers of Astarte's worship were Sidon, Tyre, and Byblos. Coins from Sidon portray a chariot in which a globe
appears, presumably a stone representing Astarte. In Sidon, she shared a temple with Eshmun. At
Beirut coins show Poseidon, Astarte, and Eshmun worshipped together.
Other faith centers were Cytherea, Malta and Eryx in Sicily from which she became known to the Romans as Venus Erycina. A bilingual inscription on the
Pyrgi Tablets dating to about 500 BC
found near Caere in Etruria equates Astarte with Etruscan Uni-Astre that is Juno. At Carthage Astarte was worshipped alongside the goddess Tanit.
Donald Harden in The Phoenicians discusses a statuette of Astarte from Tutugi (Galera) near Granada in Spain dating to the 6th or
7th century BC in which Astarte sits on a throne flanked by sphinxes holding a
bowl beneath her breasts which are pierced. A hollow in the statue would have been filled with milk through the head and gentle
heating would have melted wax plugging the holes, producing an apparent miracle.
The Syrian goddess Atargatis (Semitic form
‘Atar‘atah) was generally equated with Astarte and the first element of the name appears to be related to the name
Astarte.
Astarte in Ugarit
Astarte appears in Ugaritic texts under the name ‘Athtart' but is of little importance in those texts. ‘Athtart and
‘Anat together hold back Ba‘al from attacking the other gods. Astarte
also asks Ba‘al to "scatter" Yamm "Sea" after Ba‘al's victory. ‘Athtart is called the "Face of Ba‘al".
Astarte in Egypt
Astarte first appears in Ancient Egypt beginning in the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt along with other deities who were worshipped by northwest
Semitic people. She was especially worshipped in her aspect of a war goddess, often paired with the goddess Anat.
In the Contest Between Horus and Set, these two goddesses appear as daughters of Re and are
given in marriage to the god Set, here identified with the Semitic name Hadad. Astarte was also identified with the goddess Sekhmet but seemingly more
often conflated, at least in part, with Isis to judge from the many images found of Astarte
suckling a small child. Indeed there is a statue of the 6th century BC in the
Cairo Museum, which would normally be taken as portraying Isis with her child Horus on her knee and which in every detail of iconography follows normal Egyptian conventions but the dedicatory
inscription reads: "Gersaphon, son of Azor, son of Slrt, man of Lydda, for his Lady, for Astarte." See G. Daressy, (1905)
pl. LXI (CGC 39291).
Plutarch, in his On Isis and Osiris, indicates that the King and Queen of Byblos, who
unknowingly have the Osiris' body in a pillar in their hall, are Melcarthus (ie. Melqart)
and Astarte (though he notes some instead call the Queen Saosis or Nemanūs, which Plutarch interprets as
corresponding to the Greek name Athenais).
Astarte described by Sanchuniathon
In the description of the Phoenician pantheon ascribed to Sanchuniathon Astarte appears as a daughter of Sky and Earth and sister of the God El. After El overthrows and banishes his father Sky, Sky sends to El as some kind of trick his "virgin
daughter" Astarte along with her sisters Asherah and the goddess who will later be called
Ba‘alat Gebul "the Lady of Byblos". It seems that this trick does not work as all three become
wives of their brother El. Astarte bears to El children who appear under Greek names as seven daughters called the
Titanides or Artemides and two sons
named Pothos "Longing" and Eros "Desire".
Later we see, with El's consent, Astarte and Hadad reigning over the land together. Astarte, puts the head of a bull on her
own head to symbolize Her sovereignty. Wandering through the world Astarte takes up a star that has fallen from the sky and
consecrates it at Tyre.
Astarte in Judea
The Masoretic pointing in the Hebrew Tanach (bible)
indicate the pronunciation as ‘Aštōret instead of the expected ‘Ašteret, probably because the two last syllables
have here been pointed with the vowels belonging to bōshet "abomination" to indicate that word should be substituted when
reading. The plural form is pointed ‘Aštārōt.
For what seems to be the use of the Hebrew plural form ‘Aštārōt as the name of a demon, see also Astaroth.
Astarte, or Ashtoret in Hebrew, was the principal
goddess of the Phoenicians, representing the productive power
of nature. She was a lunar goddess and was adopted by the Egyptians as a daughter of Ra or Ptah.
In Jewish mythology, She is referred to as Ashtoreth, supposedly interpreted
as a female demon of lust in Hebrew monotheism. The name Asherah may also be confused
with Ashtoreth, but is probably a different Goddess.
In Judaized Christian demonology, Ashtoreth is connected to Friday, and visually represented as a young woman with a cow's
horns on her head (sometimes with a cow's tail too).
Other associations
Some sources[attribution needed] claim that the Greek goddess
Aphrodite (especially in her aspect as Aphrodite Erycina) is another name for
Astarte.[citation needed] Herodotus wrote that the religious community of Aphrodite originated in Phoenicia and came to Greeks from there. He also wrote about the world's largest temple of Aphrodite, in one
of the Phoenician cities.
Her name is the second name in an energy chant sometimes used in Wicca: "Isis, Astarte, Diana, Hecate, Demeter, Kali,
Inanna." [citation needed]
Astarte is also used as the name of the Norwegian princess Märtha
Louise's "angel school."
References
- Donald Harden, The Phoenicians (2nd ed., revised, London, Penguin 1980). ISBN 0-14-021375-9
- G. Daressy, Statues de divinités, (CGC 38001-39384), vol. II (Cairo, Imprimerie de l'Institut français d'archéologie
orientale, 1905).
External links
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
%2001.jpg){kind=small}
