Astarte

Astarte
Goddess of war, beauty, hunting, love
Phoenician statuette figurine of ʿAštart from El Carambolo in Spain
Major cult centerUgarit, Emar, Sidon, Tyre
Planetpossibly Venus
Symbolslion, horse, chariot
ParentsEpigeius/Ouranos and Ge/Gaea (Hellenised Phoenician tradition)
Ptah or Ra (in Egyptian tradition)
Consortpossibly Baal (Hadad)[1][2]
Equivalents
GreekAphrodite
RomanVenus
MesopotamianIshtar
SumerianInanna
HurrianIshara;[3] Shaushka[4]
EgyptianIsis

Astarte (/əˈstɑːrt/; Ἀστάρτη, Astartē) is the Hellenized form of the Ancient Near Eastern goddess ʿAṯtart. ʿAṯtart was the Northwest Semitic equivalent of the East Semitic goddess Ishtar.[5]

Astarte was worshipped from the Bronze Age through classical antiquity, and her name is particularly associated with her worship in the ancient Levant among the Canaanites and Phoenicians, though she was originally associated with Amorite cities like Ugarit and Emar, as well as Mari and Ebla.[6] She was also celebrated in Egypt, especially during the reign of the Ramessides, following the importation of foreign cults there. Phoenicians introduced her cult in their colonies on the Iberian Peninsula.

  1. ^ Smith 2014, pp. 48–49, 61.
  2. ^ Lewis 2011, p. 208.
  3. ^ Smith 2014, pp. 74–75.
  4. ^ Smith 2014, pp. 76–77.
  5. ^ Lipiński 1995, pp. 128–154.
  6. ^ Smith 2014, pp. 33–34, 36.