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The Goddess Astarte
Astarte goddess, is also known as Ashtoreth and the queen of heaven. She was the ancient Phoenician great goddess of fertility, motherhood, and war.
The name astarte means the queen of stars.
Tammuz also is her son/consort as he is with Ishtar. According to legend, Astarte descended to earth as a fiery star. It landed near Byblos in a lake at Alphaca. This is the site where the original Tammuz died.
Representation
The Phoenicians portrayed Astarte with cow horns, representing fertility. The Assyrians and Babylonians pictured her caressing an suckling a smallchild. She was associated with the moon and called the Mother of the Universe, giver of all live on Earth. Pictorial representations often show her naked.
Astarte ruled all spirits of the dead residing in heaven, visible from earth as stars; hence came her name Astroarche, “Queen of the Stars”.
Other names
Astarte was called the mother of souls in heaven, the Moon surrounded by her star-children, to whom she gave their “astral” (starry) bodies. Occultists still refer to the astral body as the invisible double. They don’t remember the term’s original connotation of starlight.
Counterparts
In spite of her maiden and mother titles Anat was an aggressive goddess who slew Baal enemies. Astarte waded in the blood of her human victims. And desired to possess Aqhat’s bow.
Iconography
Astarte was pictured with helmet, battle-axe, and spear. In Egypt, where the Hyksos invaders introduced her, the cow horns of Hathor became part of her iconography.
Athirat, “the lady of the sea,” appears to be the consort of El, the equal of the Hebrew god Yahweh. Her role was restricted to fertility.
Astarte, “the queen of heaven,” was almost as fierce as Anat but less remote than Athirat. The Hebrews knew her as the goddess of the Sidonians, whom they worshiped. This angered Yahweh who complained to the prophet Jeremiah.
Symbols
At Mizpah temples of Yahweh and Astarte were erected side by side, while in Upper Egypt the Hebrews considered the goddess the divine consort still in the fifth century BC.
The same as in the temples of Ishtar and Inanna, the sacred marriage and temple prostitution were prominent features of the cult, of which Yahweh also complained.
Appearance
Astarte was a beautiful goddess as well as a dangerous one. Although the horns of the bull that she wore represented fertility, they could appear fearsome.
In her fearful aspect she was the “mistress of horses and chariots,” which might have been an Arabian variant of the god Athtar, known as the terrible god who tried to oust Baal.
History, Worship, origin and Cult of Astarte
Astarte’s name was first recorded about 1478 BC. But her cult was established by then. The cult spread westward from Phoenicia into Greece, Rome, and as far as the British Isles.
Prophets of the Old Testament condemned her worship. It was because it included sexual rituals, and sacrifices of firstborn children and newborn animals to her.
Some scholars hold Astarte was a prototype of the Virgin Mary. Their theory is based on the ancient Syrian and Egyptian rituals of celebrating Astarte’s rebirth of the solar god on December 25th.
A cry was heard that the Virgin had brought forth a newborn child, which was exhibited.
Sir James Frazer in the Golden Bough writes:
“No doubt the Virgin who thus conceived and bore a son on the twenty-fifth of December was the great Oriental goddess whom the Semites called the Heavenly Virgin or the Heavenly Goddess, in Semitic lands she was a form of Astarte”.
The theory that credits Astarte as being a prototype of the Virgin Mary made be given creditability by many who accept that Christ was born on December 25th. But not by those who do not believe this was the date of Christ’s birth, and say the exact date is unknown. A.G.H.
Sources:
- Guiley, Rosemary Ellen, The Encyclopedia of Witches and Witchcraft, New York: Facts On File, 1989, pp. 16-17
- Walker, Barbara G, The Woman’s Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets, New York, HarperCollins, 1983, pp,. 69-70
- Cotterell, Arthur, A Dictionary of World Mythology, New York, G. P. Putman’s Sons, 1980, pp. 26-27