ASTARTE

ASTARTE. — This is the Greek name of the principal goddess of the Chaldeans. In the Hebrew text of the Old Testament she is called 'Aštoreth' instead of 'Aštereth,' with a tendentious pronunciation derived from the word bōšeth ("shame"), to express contempt for her. The plural is 'Aštārōth'. The Vulgate uses the name in 1 Kings 11:5, 33. The plural is found in Judges 2:13; 3:7, etc., and is explained similarly to the plural of Baal. The name A. is another form of the name of the Babylonian goddess Ištar, the Aramaic goddess 'Attar (Atargatis), and the Arab god 'Attar.

A. was especially venerated by the Phoenicians, so much so that in the Old Testament she is called the goddess of the Sidonians (1 Kings 11:5, 33; 2 Kings 23:13). In Phoenicia, many images of her were found, where she had temples; her name also appears in personal names, such as Abdastar, Bodastar, Amastar, and the kings of the Phoenicians were called priests of A. From her homeland, the cult spread to the colonies, as shown by many inscriptions found on the island of Cyprus at Larnaca, in Malta, Sicily, Sardinia, and Carthage. The Philistines also worshipped the goddess, as evidenced by the temple of A. at Beth-shan, where the armor of Saul, killed in the battle of Gilboa, was placed (1 Samuel 31:10). She was also worshipped among the Moabites, as seen in the stele of King Mesha, where (line 17) the name 'Aštart-Kemōš' occurs. Other traces of the cult of A. are found in Syria, namely at Hieropolis, Heliopolis, and also in Hauran.

The Israelites, upon entering Palestine, began to render worship to Baal and to A. (Judges 2:13; 10:6; 1 Samuel 12:10), a cult that lasted until the final days of the two Israelite kingdoms; even King Solomon erected a temple to A. in his later years (1 Kings 11:5, 33). Abolished by Solomon’s third successor, King Asa (1 Kings 15:12-13), the cult of A. flourished in the northern kingdom of Israel, since King Ahab married Jezebel, daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Sidonians, who introduced the cult of Baal and A. into her new homeland (1 Kings 16:31-33; 18:19). The daughter of Jezebel, Athaliah, who married Joram, king of Judah, reintroduced the worship of the goddess to Jerusalem (2 Kings 8:18; 2 Chronicles 24:7, 18), where it persisted until the time of Jeremiah, that is, until the collapse of the kingdom of Judah; and even then, Jewish women offered cakes and libations to A. (Jeremiah 7:18; 44:17-19, 25).

As many of the cited passages from the Old Testament show, A. was worshipped alongside Baal and even with the host of heaven (2 Kings 23:4), that is, with the stars, and her worshippers called her "queen of heaven" (Jeremiah, loc. cit.). Like the Babylonian Ištar, she was identified with the planet Venus and thus had an astral character. Like Baal, she represents the force of nature and is the feminine, passive, productive, maternal principle. The dove and the sacred pole were sacred to her; she was the goddess of fertility, but also of war and destruction. Hence her cult was obscene and even cruel, involving human sacrifice and prostitution.

In many passages of the Old Testament cited in the Hebrew text, the word 'Aštarāh' is mentioned, which the Septuagint translates as d'Asōs and the Vulgate as nemus or lucus (grove), as in Judges 6:25, 30; 2 Kings 21:3; 23:4; 2 Chronicles 33:

3. This translation, however, cannot be justified, since in almost all passages the word 'Aštarāh' is found alongside other words meaning deities or their images; it is often stated that an 'Aštarāh' must not be made, or that it must be removed and burned, etc

phrases that do not suit a grove but rather an idol. Moreover, in many passages the Asherah is named alongside Baal (Judges 3:7; 1 Kings 18:19; 2 Kings 23:4), which demonstrates that it refers to a deity. Nevertheless, the Asherah is identified with A., and rightly so, because the names are used interchangeably in the Bible; thus (Judges 2:13; 10:6; 1 Samuel 7:4; 12:10) the god Baal is named alongside A., and (Judges 3:7) alongside the Asherah. Ancient versions often place the Asherah in place of A. The image of the Asherah was a wooden pole, which the Canaanites placed beside the altars of Baal (Exodus 34:13; Deuteronomy 7:5; Judges 6:25, etc.). Like A., the Asherah was the feminine, conceiving principle, the mother of life and the goddess of love, like the Greek Aphrodite and the Roman Venus.