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 based on the word bōšeth, “shame,” in order to express contempt for her. The plural is 'Aštāroth. The Vulgate uses the name in I Reg. 11:5, 33. The plural is found in Iudc. 2:13; 3:7, etc., and is explained analogously to the plural of Baal. The name A. is another form of the name of the Babylonian goddess Ištar, of the Aramaean goddess 'Attar (Atargatis), and of the Arabian god 'Attar.
A. was especially venerated by the Phoenicians, so that in the Old Testament she is called the goddess of the Sidonians (I Reg. 11:5, 33; II Reg. 23:13). Many figures of her have been found in Phoenicia, where she had temples; her name also appears in personal names, such as Abdastart, Bodastart, and Amastart, and the kings of the Phoenicians called themselves priests of A. From her homeland the cult was spread to the colonies, as is 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 is demonstrated by the temple of A. at Beth-shan, in which the weapons of Saul, killed in the battle of Gilboa, were placed (I Sam. 31:10). She was also worshipped among the Moabites, as is evident from the stele of King Mesha, on which (line 17) the name 'Aštart-Kemof occurs. Other traces of the cult of A. are found in Syria, namely at Hierapolis, Heliopolis, and also at Harran.
The Israelites, as soon as they entered Palestine, began to worship Baal and A. (Iudc. 2:13; 10:6; I Sam. 12:10), a cult that continued until the final period of the two Israelite kingdoms; even King Solomon erected a temple to A. in his later years (I Reg. 11:5, 33). Although eradicated by Solomon’s third successor, King Asa (I Reg. 15:12-13), the cult of A. developed 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 (I Reg. 16:31-33; 18:19). Jezebel’s daughter, Athaliah, who married Joram, king of Judah, once again introduced the worship of the goddess into Jerusalem (II Reg. 8:18; II Par. 24:7, 18), where it then remained until the time of Jeremiah, that is, until the collapse of the kingdom of Judah; even then the Hebrew women offered A. cakes and libations (Ier. 7:18; 44:17-19, 25).
As many of the passages cited from the Old Testament show, A. was worshipped together with Baal and also together with the heavenly host (II Reg. 23:4), that is, with the stars, and her worshippers called her the “queen of heaven” (Ier., loc. cit.). Like the Ištar of the Babylonians, 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 stele were sacred to her; she was the goddess of fertility, but also of war and destruction. Her cult was therefore obscene and also cruel, and was accompanied by human sacrifice and prostitution.
In many of the passages cited from the Old Testament, the Hebrew text names the 'Ašterah, a word that the Septuagint translates as ἄλσος and the Vulgate as nemus o lucus, “grove,” as in Iudc., 6:25, 30; II Reg., 21:3; 23:4; II Par., 33: