Astarte
Astarte, great goddess of the ancient Levant
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Identity, Domains and Origins of Astarte
Astarte (in Northwest Semitic ʿAshtart, and in the biblical sources Ashtoreth) is the great goddess of the ancient Levant, attested in the texts of Ugarit from the fourteenth century BCE. Goddess of love, sexuality, fertility, war and sovereign power, she was also associated with the stars and, in particular, with the planet Venus, the evening star. In the Canaanite pantheon she appears linked to El and is often presented as consort of Baal Hadad, the storm god. Her name and functions connect with the Mesopotamian Inanna-Ishtar, of whom she constitutes the West Semitic variant. Astarte embodies a twofold nature (that of the love which engenders life and that of the warlike fury which reaps it), a trait she shares with other great goddesses of the ancient Near East.
Cult, Rites and Iconography of Astarte
The cult of Astarte radiated from Phoenicia towards its great cities (Tyre, Sidon and Byblos) and its Mediterranean colonies, with Carthage at the head; she was also received in Ramesside Egypt. Philo of Byblos, transmitted by Eusebius, calls her “the greatest goddess” and relates that she placed upon her head the head of a bull as an emblem of royalty and that she consecrated in Tyre a star fallen from the sky. Hence her characteristic iconography: the nudity associated with fecundity, the horns, the lion that symbolizes warlike strength, the dove of sacred love and the astral star. Her sanctuaries received offerings, music and dances; later classical authors also attributed to her rites of sacred prostitution, today disputed by modern scholarship.
Syncretisms, Bible and Survival of Astarte
For the Greeks, Astarte was identified with Aphrodite (the Phoenicians “say that Astarte is Aphrodite”, according to Philo), and thence with the Roman Venus; Lucian of Samosata, in “On the Syrian Goddess”, linked her also with the Moon. The Hebrew Bible condemns her under the name of Ashtoreth, “abomination of the Sidonians”, reproaching Solomon for her cult and celebrating its destruction in the reform of Josiah (1 Kings 11 and 2 Kings 23); the Masoretic vocalization seems to deform her name with the vowels of “bosheth” (shame). It is fitting to distinguish the goddess from her late demonization as Astaroth, the masculine demon of the medieval and Renaissance grimoires: they are the same root, but Astarte is the historical deity of love and war, not that infernal figure.
Also known as
Relics
Symbology
Element
Moon and Love
Number
7
Color
Red
Animals
Dove and Lion
Sigils:
Traits
Powers
Weaknesses
Behavioral
Resistances
Relations with other beings
In the Atlas
Travel the beings’ world of origin and the cosmos of their dimensions.
Mythologies
Canaanite mythology developed among the Semitic peoples who inhabited the region of Canaan, located in the eastern Mediterranean Levant, from the late third millennium BCE until the first half of the first millennium BCE. The main sources for its knowledge come from the texts discovered at Ugarit, as well as references in Egyptian, Hittite and Hebrew documents. This tradition formed part of a broader set of religions of the ancient Near East and shared elements with Mesopotamian and Egyptian mythologies, although it retained distinctive features linked to the coastal and agricultural environment of the area. In the Canaanite pantheon, the divinities associated with fertility, storms and the sea occupied a prominent place. Baal, god of rain and vegetation, played a central role in the myths of combat against the forces of chaos, while Asherah, associated with motherhood and sacred trees, figured as the consort of the supreme god El. Other relevant figures included Astarte, Dagan and Mot, who embodied aspects of war, grain and death respectively. Worship was practiced in local shrines and temples, with rituals that sought to ensure agricultural prosperity and the protection of the city-states. The influence of Canaanite mythology is perceived in later traditions of the Levant, especially in the religion of ancient Israel, where certain elements were reinterpreted or rejected. Epigraphic and archaeological remains found in Phoenicia and Palestine attest to the continuity of some cults until the Hellenistic period, at which time a progressive fusion with Greek and Roman divinities took place.
Sources
Ugaritic Texts
Various (scribes of Ugarit) · c. 1300 BC
Corpus of inscriptions and tablets documenting the mythology, rituals and theology of the Canaanite pantheon in Ugarit.
On the Syrian Goddess
Lucian of Samosata · c. 160
Treatise attributed to Lucian of Samosata (2nd c.) on the cult of the Syrian goddess at Hierapolis, a source on Atargatis and Astarte.
Phoenician History
Filón de Biblos (trad. E. H. Gifford, en Eusebio, PE I) · 1st-2nd c. AD
Work by Philo of Byblos (1st-2nd c.), preserved by Eusebius in the Praeparatio Evangelica, a source on Phoenician mythology and gods.
Frequently asked questions
Which heavenly body is Astarte associated with?
With Venus, the evening star, like the Mesopotamian Inanna-Ishtar, of whom she is the West Semitic variant. The lunar association is late and secondary: it comes from Greco-Roman identifications such as Lucian's in De Dea Syria, not from the ancient Levantine cult.
What are her characteristic emblems?
The lion, for warlike fury; the dove, for sacred love; the bull's horns, which Philo of Byblos says she set upon her head as an emblem of royalty; and the star, from her link with Venus. Philo also reports that she consecrated at Tyre a star fallen from heaven, and the nakedness of her figurines is read as a sign of fecundity.
Is Astarte the same as the demon Astaroth?
No. Astarte is the historical deity of the Levant; Astaroth is what sixteenth-century Christian demonology made of her name. The Bible condemns her as Ashtoreth, distorting the vocalisation with the vowels of bosheth, shame; out of that Hebrew plural a male duke of hell later emerged. Same root, different figures, and fifteen centuries between them.
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