The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Mythology
Arthur Cotterell and Rachel Storm
Astarte
Astarte was the principal goddess of the Phoenicians and Canaanites. She was incorporated into Egyptian mythology as a daughter eitherof the sun god RA, or of PTAH, and she was often depicted naked, bearing weapons and riding a horse.
According to one story from Egyptian mythology, Ptah and the other great gods were forced to pay tributes to the sea. Gifts of silver, gold andprecious stones were brought to the seashore, but the sea wanted more. The gods then told Astarte to take more offerings to the sea. When she arrived at the shore, Astarte mocked the sea, who responded by insisting that he have Astarte herself as a gift. The great gods covered Astarte with jewels and sent her back to the shore, but this time SETH accompanied her in order to fight the sea. Although the end of the story is missing, it is ussually pressumed that Seth fought the sea and saved Astarte.
The name Astarte is sometimes translated as "Womb", or "That Which Issues from the Womb" suggesting that the goddess was primarily a fertility deity. Astarte was also asociated with love and procreation, and her cult included the practice of temple prostitution among her devotees.
In the Old Testament of the Bible, she appears as Ashtoreth, and SOLOMAN had a temple built in her honour near Jerusalem. Indeed the Israelites sometimes revered the goddess as the queen of heaven and wife of YAHWEH.
The Goddess Asherat, or Ashera-of-the-Sea, tends to be viewed as identical with Astarte. She was called "Mother of the Gods" and was said to have had 70 children. According to texts dating from the 14th century BC, the supreme god EL took two women, generally believed to be aSHERAT AND anat, as his consorts, and by them fathered SHACHAR and Shalim, "Dawn" and "Dusk", and many other deities.
It is not certain whether Anat and Astarte were two seperate goddesses or different aspects of the same goddess. Anat may have been the dark aspectof the goddess and Astarte the light, heavenly aspect. In one text they are both described as the daughters of NEITH, and Egyptian mother goddess. Moreover they were both known as "Lady of Heaven". Aphrodite is widely believed to have developed from Astarte.
(Source -
The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Mythology
Arthur Cotterell and Rachel Storm
Copyright © 1999 ANNESS PUBLISHING .)
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