Astarte (; Ancient Greek: Ἀστάρτη, romanized: Astártē) is the Hellenized form of the Ancient Near Eastern goddess ʿAṯtart. ʿAṯtart was the Northwest Semitic equivalent of the East Semitic goddess Ishtar. 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. 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.
Name The Proto-Semitic form of this goddess's name was ʿAṯtart. While earlier scholarship suggested that the name ʿAṯtart was formed by adding the Afroasiatic feminine suffix -t to the name of the deity ʿAṯtar, more recent views accept the names ʿAṯtar and ʿAṯtart as being etymologically related while considering the exact relationship between them to be unclear. The meaning of the names ʿAṯtar and ʿAṯtart are themselves still unclear. The Masoretic Text vocalization ʿAštōret is in dispute: most scholars consider it as an artificial superimposition of the vowels of the Hebrew word bōšet (בֹּ֫שֶׁת, 'shame') upon the consonants of the original name; some other suggest it is a result of the Canaanite shift from /ā/ to /ō/ (despite the unexpected occurrence of the shift in this position), or, with an assumption of an early form *ʿAštārit, as a conventional occurrence of the shift -ā(r)i- to -ō(r)ē-.
Overview In various cultures, Astarte was connected with some combination of the following spheres: war, sexuality, royal power, beauty, healing and — especially in Ugarit and Emar — hunting; however, known sources do not indicate she was a fertility goddess, contrary to opinions in early scholarship. Her symbol was the lion and she was also often associated with the horse and by extension chariots. The dove might be a symbol of her as well, as evidenced by some Bronze Age cylinder seals. The only images identified with absolute certainty as Astarte are these depicting her as a combatant on horseback or in a chariot. While many authors in the past asserted that she has been known as the deified morning and evening star, it has been questioned if she had an astral character at all, at least in Ugarit and Emar. God lists known from Ugarit and other prominent Bronze Age Syrian cities regarded her as the counterpart of Assyro-Babylonian goddess Ištar, and of the Hurrian Ishtar-like goddesses Ishara (presumably in her aspect of "lady of love") and Shaushka; in some cities, the western forms of the name and the eastern form "Ishtar" were fully interchangeable. In later times Astarte was worshipped in Syria and Canaan. Her worship spread to Cyprus, where she may have been merged with an ancient Cypriot goddess. This merged Cypriot goddess may have been adopted into the Greek pantheon in Mycenaean and Dark Age times to form Aphrodite. An outdated argument, however, postulates that Astarte's character was less erotic and more warlike than Ishtar originally was, perhaps because she was influenced by the Canaanite goddess Anat, and that therefore Ishtar, not Astarte, was the direct forerunner of the Cypriot goddess. However, evidence from Iron Age Phoenicia show that Astarte became a more erotic goddess as opposed to her early Bronze Age worship in Ugarit and Syria, and that early attestations of Aphrodite, were more war-like. Greeks in classical, Hellenistic, and Roman times occasionally equated Aphrodite with Astarte and many other Near Eastern goddesses, in keeping with their frequent practice of syncretizing other deities with their own. In addition, certain aspects of other Greek gods, such as Artemis Astrateia are hypothesized to be heavily influenced by Astarte. Major centers of Astarte's worship in the Iron Age were the Phoenician city-states of Sidon, Tyre, and Byblos. Coins from Sidon portray a chariot in which a globe appears, presumably a stone representing Astarte. "She was often depicted on Sidonian coins as standing on the prow of a galley, leaning forward with right hand outstretched, being thus the original of all figureheads for sailing ships." In Sidon, she shared a temple with Eshmun. Coins from Beirut show Poseidon, Astarte, and Eshmun worshipped together. Other significant locations where she was introduced by Phoenician sailors and colonists were Cythera, Malta, and Eryx in Sicily from which she became known to the Romans as Venus Erycina. Three inscriptions from the Pyrgi Tablets dating to about 500 BC found near Caere in Etruria mentions the construction of a shrine to Astarte in the temple of the local goddess Uni-Astre (𐌔𐌄𐌓𐌕𐌔𐌀𐌋𐌀𐌉𐌍𐌖). At Carthage Astarte was worshipped alongside the goddess Tanit, and frequently appeared as a theophoric element in personal names.
Iconography Iconographic portrayal of Astarte, very similar to that of Tanit, often depicts her naked and in presence of lions, identified respectively with symbols of sexuality and war. She is also depicted as winged, carrying the solar disk and the crescent moon as a headdress, and with her lions either lying prostrate to her feet or directly under those. Aside from the lion, Astarte is associated with the dove and the bee. She has also been associated with botanic wildlife like the palm tree and the lotus flower. A particular artistic motif assimilates Astarte to Europa, portraying her as riding a bull that would represent a partner deity. Similarly, after the popularization of her worship in Egypt, it was frequent to associate her with the war chariot of Ra or Horus, as well as a kind of weapon, the crescent axe. Within Iberian culture, it has been proposed that native sculptures like those of Baza, Elche or Cerro de los Santos might represent an Iberized image of Astarte or Tanit.
Some androgynous figurines from Luristan having both female breasts and a beard have been argued to be portrayals of Astarte. Multiple Judean pillar figures feature a feminine form with breasts and a beard, holding a solar disk, and are thought to be Astarte.
Attestations
At Ebla The earliest record of ʿAṯtart is from Ebla in the 3rd millennium BC, where her name is attested in the forms Aštarta (𒀾𒁯𒋫) and Ištarta (𒅖𒁯𒋫).
In early Mari The main cult centre of ʿAṯtart was Mari, where early texts from her temple pre-dating the city's destruction by the Akkadian Empire record her name as ᴰʿAṯtarat (𒀭𒀸𒁯𒊏𒀜), who appears to have been distinguished from ʿAṯtart's East Semitic equivalent, the Mesopotamian goddess Ištar, at Mari. One text from Mari records that offerings were made to both ʿAṯtarat and the river-god Nārum together.
Among Amorites
In Amorite Mari The main cult centre of ʿAṯtart was still the city of Mari during the Amorite period, when her name is attested as a theophoric element in personal names such as ᴰAštart-azi (𒀭𒀸𒁯𒋫𒍣, lit. 'ʿAṯtart is my strength'). However, her name was otherwise written in cuneiform using ideograms and without the feminine suffix -t, in the forms ᴰaš-dar (𒀭𒀸𒁯) and ᴰinanna (𒀭𒈹). A contemporary incantation against snakebites from Ugarit recorded the existence of a manifestation of ʿAṯtart who resided in Mari.
At Ugarit At Ugarit, the local variant of ʿAṯtart, ʿAṯtartu (𐎓𐎘𐎚𐎗𐎚), was devoid of any astral aspects or associations with ʿAṯtar, and she played a minor role in mythological texts, but was often mentioned in Ugaritic ritual and administrative texts, thus suggesting that she was important for the institution of the royalty. ʿAṯtartu at Ugarit was associated with the goddess Anat, with Anat usually preceding ʿAṯtartu, and the two goddesses were often connected to each other through poetic parallelism. Both goddesses shared common traits such as perfect beauty, which characterised young goddesses, with the human Ḥuraya being compared to them in the text KTU 1.13 III using the terms lit. 'whose loveliness is like the loveliness of Anat, whose beauty is like the beauty of ʿAṯtartu' (𐎄𐎋𐎟𐎐𐎓𐎎𐎟𐎓𐎐𐎚𐎟𐎐𐎓𐎎𐎅𐎟𐎋𐎎𐎟𐎚𐎒𐎎𐎟𐎓𐎘𐎚𐎗𐎚𐎟𐎚𐎒𐎎𐎅, dāka nuʿmi ʿAnati nuʿmuha kama têsimi ʿAṯtarti têsimuha), in which Anat and ʿAṯtartu were connected through poetic parallels. Another trait which both Anat and ʿAṯtartu shared was their love of war, and their pairing appears to have been due to their common roles as beautiful hunters and warrior goddesses. The Ugaritic ʿAṯtartu nevertheless did not yet possess the erotic traits of the later Canaanite ʿAštart.
As hunter goddess In the text KTU 1.92, ʿAṯtartu is called ʿAṯtartu the Huntress (𐎓𐎘𐎚𐎗𐎚𐎟𐎕𐎆𐎄𐎚, ʿAṯtartu Ṣawwādatu) in the lines 2-3, with the next line mentioning her as "going to the desert" (𐎚𐎍𐎋𐎟𐎁𐎎𐎄𐎁𐎗, taliku bi-madbari). The following lines recorded that the goddess saw something whose name is lost due to damage to the text, and line 5 mentions that the deeps surge with water, which might either refer to a celestial sign or to a possible damp terrain where ʿAṯtartu was hunting. The lines 6-13 described ʿAṯtartu taking cover in the low ground and holding her weapons while hunting, and she finally slew an animal whose name is lost in line 14. Following this, ʿAṯtartu fed the animal she had slain to the gods El and Yarikh. Thus, present in the Northwest Semitic goddess was present a trait which was also characteristic of the South Arabian masculine hypostasis of ʿAṯtar, in whose honour sacred hunts were performed as fertility rite. This hunter aspect of ʿAṯtartu later faded away by the 1st millennium BC. In the later portion of the text KTU 1.92, ʿAṯtartu was given clothing, after which she is described as nšʾat ẓl k kbkbm (𐎐𐎌𐎀𐎚𐎟𐎑𐎍𐎟𐎋𐎟𐎋𐎁𐎋𐎁𐎎), meaning either raising a shadow like the stars, implying that ʿAṯtartu herself was brilliant and removed a shadow like the stars do, or as herself shining like the stars. This passage leads to another one in which Baal desires ʿAṯtartu for her beauty, and approaches her. ʿAṯtartu also appears as a huntress in the text KTU 1.114, where she and her sister Anat are consistently described as hunting together and bringing back game whose meat they distributed to the gods. In this text, ʿAṯtartu is mentioned before Anat, unlike most Ugaritic texts where this order is inverted, although the two goddesses are again connected through poetic parallels in the lines 10 to 11, reading "ʿAṯtartu and Anat he approached; ʿAṯtartu had prepared a steak for him, and Anat a tenderloin" (𐎓𐎘𐎚𐎗𐎚𐎟𐎆𐎓𐎐𐎚𐎟𐎊𐎎𐎙𐎊𐎟𐎓𐎘𐎚𐎗𐎚𐎟𐎚𐎓𐎄𐎁𐎟𐎐𐎌𐎁𐎟𐎍𐎅𐎟𐎆𐎓𐎐𐎚𐎟𐎋𐎚𐎔, ʿAṯtarta wa-ʿAnata yamġiyu ʿAṯtartu taʿdubu našabi lêhu wa-ʿAnatu katipa).
As warrior goddess Attestations of ʿAṯtartu as a warrior goddess at Ugarit are minimal, with the principal one being her role in the text KTU 1.2 I 40, where she and Anat together restrain Baal by holding, respectively, his left and right hands. This text also linked ʿAṯtartu and Anat through poetic parallelism in the lines "His right hand Anat seized, His left hand ʿAṯtartu seized" (𐎊𐎎𐎐𐎅𐎟𐎓𐎐𐎚𐎟𐎚𐎜𐎃𐎄𐎟𐎌𐎎𐎀𐎍𐎅𐎟𐎚𐎜𐎃𐎄𐎟𐎓𐎘𐎚𐎗𐎚, ymnh ʿAnatu tʾuḫd šmʾalh tʾuḫd ʿAṯtartu). The Ugaritic text KTU 1.86, the Book of Dreams (𐎒𐎔𐎗𐎟𐎈𐎍𐎎𐎎, Sipru Ḥulumīma), mentions the horses of ʿAṯtartu, which might possibly be another allusion to her role as a warrior. Possibly due to her role as a goddess of warfare, ʿAṯtartu was sometimes mentioned alongside the god Resheph in Ugaritic texts, such as in administrative documents, with jars of wine for the temples of ʿAṯtartu and of Resheph-gn being respectively mentioned immediately after each other in the text KTU 4.219, and in the text KTU 1.91's mentioning that the Rašpūma (lit. 'plural Rašpus'). Moreover, the attribute animal of Resheph was the lion, which was analogous to the lioness being the symbol of the warrior goddess ʿAṯtartu.
As healer goddess In the text KTU 1.114, ʿAṯtartu and Anat also went to hunt for ingredients to cure the drunkenness of El, to whose household they belonged, and they are later mentioned in the narrative as applying the components of the cure to cause the healing, thus connecting the two goddesses with healing. Among the Ugaritic incantations mentioning ʿAṯtartu are two where she is invoked to protect against snakebites: in the first incantation, from the text KTU 1.100, which is part of a sequence addressed to the sun-goddess Shapash to be delivered to a succession of deities, she is mentioned immediately after Anat, and the two goddesses' names are combined in the form "Anat and ʿAṯtartu at ʾInbubu" (𐎓𐎐𐎚𐎟𐎆𐎟𐎓𐎘𐎚𐎗𐎚𐎟𐎛𐎐𐎁𐎁𐎅, ʿAnatu-wa-ʿAṯtartu ʾInbubaha), and the incantation itself is intended to be delivered to Anat's home at ʾInbubu, thus putting ʿAṯtartu on a secondary level compared to Anat. ʿAṯtartu was also mentioned on the side of the tablet on which the inscription was written. In this incantation, the first instance of ʿAṯtartu was that of ʿAṯtartu of Ugarit, while the second one was ʿAṯtartu of Mari. In a second incantation against snakebites, from the text KTU 1.107, ʿAṯtartu was mentioned after Anat in a pairing of the two goddesses as part of a list also including pairings of Baal and Dagon, and Resheph and Yarikh. A third incantation, from the text KTU 92.2016, either against fever or for good childbirth, mentioned "Baal and the holy ones in the river" (𐎁𐎓𐎍𐎟𐎖𐎄𐎌𐎎𐎟𐎁𐎐𐎅𐎗, Baʿli qadišūma bi-nahri), followed by "the torrent of ʿAṯtartu, in the Raḥbānu" (𐎐𐎃𐎍𐎟𐎓𐎘𐎚𐎗𐎚𐎟𐎁𐎟𐎗𐎈𐎁𐎐, naḫla ʿAṯtarti bi-Raḥbāni), itself in turn followed by "in the sea" (𐎁𐎊𐎎, bi-Yammi), suggesting that this incantation alluded to three distinct water bodies.
As leonine goddess ʿAṯtartu's emblem was the lion, and she was explicitly called a lioness and a panther in the hymn RIH 98/02, which reads:
The hymn especially emphasizes ʿAṯtartu and her name, with its mention of the goddess as "name" possibly being connected to her role as the Name-of-Baal, and the second line calls her a "lioness" while the fourth and fifth lines liken her to a panther. This association of ʿAṯtartu with the lion corroborates with significant comparative evidence from ancient West Asia and North Africa:
ʿAṯtartu's East Semitic equivalent, ᴰIštar (𒀭𒀹𒁯), also had a lion as her attribute animal; one of ʿAṯtartu's Egyptian hypostases, the goddess Qetesh, is depicted standing on a lion on a plaque where she is given the triple name of Qetesh-ʿAstart-ʿAnat (𓈎𓂧𓈙𓏏𓆇𓉻𓏛𓊃𓍿𓂋𓏤𓏏𓆇𓂝𓈖𓍿𓇋𓏏𓆇𓆗, Qdšt-Ꜥsṯrt-Ꜥnṯt); ʿAṯtartu herself was identified with multiple lion-goddesses in Egypt; the Phoenician goddess Tanit, whose name was linked to that of ʿAṯtartu's later Phoenician iteration, ʿAštart, was represented with a lion's head; the masculine counterpart of ʿAṯtartu, ʿAṯtaru, was also called "Lion" (𐎍𐎁𐎜, labaʾu). ʿAṯtartu in her form as a lioness might have been invoked as a theophoric element in the personal names Šuma-labʾi (𐎌𐎎𐎍𐎁𐎛, 'Name of the Lioness'), and ʿAbdi-Labiʾti (𐎓𐎁𐎄𐎍𐎁𐎛𐎚, 'Servant of the Lioness'), the latter of which holds the same meaning as the personal names ʿAbdi-ʿAširti (𒁹𒀴𒀀𒅆𒅕𒋾) and ʿAbdi-ʿAštarti (𒁹𒀴𒀭𒈹), both meaning "Servant of ʿAṯtartu."
As gender non-conforming goddess Although divine roles were often modelled on human ones, such as masculine gods in relation to patriarchy and kingship being represented like human men, and feminine goddesses in relation to marriage and domestic chores being represented like human women, the exceptional roles of ʿAṯtartu and ʿAnatu as hunter and warrior goddesses signalled them as being at odds with the social norms of the societies where human women were not supposed to hunt of which they were deities. This characterisation is made explicit in the myth of Aqhat, where Aqhat exclaims to Anat, ht tṣdn tʾinṯt (𐎅𐎚𐎟𐎚𐎕𐎄𐎐𐎟𐎚𐎛𐎐𐎘𐎚), meaning either "now do womenfolk hunt?" as a question, or "now womenfolk hunt!" sarcastically, to contrast her with human women, who were not supposed to hunt. Thus, while Baal and Resheph were both hunter gods whose roles as such made them conform to masculine gender roles, the roles of ʿAṯtartu and Anat as hunter and warrior goddesses constituted an inversion with respect to the gender roles of human women. This made them role models and mentors, as Anat does in the story of Aqhat, in which she addresses him with the intimate term "my brother" and tells him that she will instruct him in hunting, thus being able to bond with the addressee and be present and active in him development into an accomplished hunter. The episode of ʿAṯtartu performing filial duties by "shutting down the jaws" of the enemies of El was another case of gender inversion where the goddess successfully performed actions which among mortals were reserved for men only.
Manifestations One of the manifestations of ʿAṯtartu attested in the Late Bronze Age was ʿAṯtartu Ḫurri (𐎓𐎘𐎚𐎗𐎚𐎟𐎃𐎗), whose name has been variously interpreted as ʿAṯtartu of the Hurrians, ʿAṯtartu of the Grotto or Cavern, ʿAṯtartu of the Tomb(s), or ʿAṯtartu of the Window, and was also recorded at Ugarit in Akkadian as ᴰʿAṯtartu Ḫurri (𒀭𒌋𒁯 𒄯𒊑), and as ᴰIštar Ḫurri (𒀭𒌋𒁯 𒄷𒊑). Some Ugaritic texts identified ʿAṯtartu with the Hurrian goddesses ʾIšḫara and Šauška and supporters of the interpretation of the name ʿAṯtartu Ḫurri as "ʿAṯtartu of the Hurrians" suggest that this manifestation of ʿAṯtartu was the one identified with the Hurrian goddess Šauška. Other possible manifestations of ʿAṯtartu at Ugarit might have included ʿAṯtartu ndrg (𐎓𐎘𐎚𐎗𐎚𐎟𐎐𐎄𐎗𐎂) and ʿAṯtartu ʾabḏr (𐎓𐎘𐎚𐎗𐎚𐎟𐎀𐎁𐎏𐎗), of still uncertain meaning, with the latter being affixed with the title Qadišatu (𐎖𐎄𐎌𐎚, 'the Holy One').
As member of the household of El In in the hymn RIH 98/02, ʿAṯtartu is called on to shut the jaw of El's attackers in the line "May she shut the jaw of El's attackers" (𐎚𐎕𐎔𐎖𐎟𐎍𐎈𐎚𐎟𐎄𐎟𐎂𐎗𐎟𐎛𐎍, taṣpiq laḥata dā gūri ʾIli), which finds a literary parallel in the myth of Aqhat, where the titular hero Aqhat is instructed to "shut the jaw of his (father's) detractors" (𐎉𐎁𐎖𐎟𐎍𐎈𐎚𐎟𐎐𐎛𐎕𐎅, ṭābiqu laḥatê nāʾiṣihu), thus signaling ʿAṯtartu as performing filial duties by protecting El, the patriarch of whose household she was a member of.
As consort of Baal Although there is little to no evidence of ʿAṯtartu being explicitly considered the consort of Baal at Ugarit, the text KTU 1.114 did refer to Baal as sexually desiring ʿAṯtartu, with possible mention of a bed in line 32 of the text perhaps alluding to these two deities engaging in sexual intercourse. Although the once widespread view that Anat was also a consort of Baal has recently fallen out of favour due to lack of evidence from Ugarit, indirect evidence, such as Egyptian adaptations of West Semitic myths in which both ʿAṯtartu and Anat were the consorts of Baal might constitute indirect evidence that this might also have been the case at Ugarit. Sacrifice to ʿAṯtartu might have been included in the list of sacrifices for the family of Baal in the Ugaritic text KTU 1.148.16 possibly because ʿAṯtartu might have been regarded as the consort of Baal at Ugarit. Contemporary sources, including Egyptian adaptations of West Semitic myths which feature ʿAṯtartu and Anat as the brides of Baal, and later sources, such as the role of the Phoenician ʿAštart as the consort of Baal, also suggest that ʿAṯtartu was a consort of Baal, although this evidence is still very uncertain and this pairing appears to have been distinctly Levantine.
As the "Name of Baal" Another connection between ʿAṯtartu and Baal was through her name ʿAṯtartu-Name-of-Baal (Ugaritic: 𐎓𐎘𐎚𐎗𐎚𐎟𐎌𐎎𐎟𐎁𐎓𐎍, romanized: ʿAṯtartu šuma Baʿli). This name defined the identity of the goddess as being in relation to Baal. ʿAṯtartu's role as the Name-of-Baal might also have been connected to the use of Baal's name as a magical weapon, such as in the text KTU 1.2 IV 28, where one line reads "By Name, ʿAṯtartu hexed (Yammu)" (𐎁𐎌𐎎𐎟𐎚𐎂𐎓𐎗𐎎𐎟𐎓𐎘𐎚𐎗𐎚, bi-šumi tigʿaruma ʿAṯtartu), in reference to ʿAṯtartu invoking the power of Baal's name and his titles, such as "Mighty Baal" (𐎀𐎍𐎛𐎊𐎐𐎟𐎁𐎓𐎍, ʾalʾiyanu Baʿlu) and "Rider of the Clouds" (𐎗𐎋𐎁𐎟𐎓𐎗𐎔𐎚, rākibu ʿurpati), to hex the god Yammu.
Cult The Ugaritic deity-lists gave minimal importance to ʿAṯtartu in the realm of rituals, and she was the last mentioned in several of these, although she was nevertheless important politically for the ruling dynasty of Ugarit and the administration of that city-state, being thus associated with the institution of the monarchy. In one letter to the king of Ugarit concerning maritime commercial activities with Cyprus, the lines 6 to 9 read "I do indeed speak to Baal Ṣapānu, to the Eternal Sun, to ʿAṯtartu, to Anat, to all the gods of Cyprus" (𐎀𐎐𐎋𐎐𐎟𐎗𐎂𐎎𐎚𐎟𐎍𐎟𐎁𐎓𐎍𐎟𐎕𐎔𐎐𐎟𐎍𐎟𐎌𐎔𐎌𐎟𐎓𐎍𐎎𐎟𐎍𐎟𐎓𐎘𐎚𐎗𐎚𐎟𐎍𐎟𐎓𐎐𐎚𐎟𐎍𐎟𐎋𐎍𐎟𐎛𐎍𐎟𐎀𐎍𐎘𐎊, ʾanākuna ragamtu lê Baʿli Ṣapuni lê Šapši ʿālami lê ʿAṯtarti lê ʿAnati lê Kulli ʾIlī ʾAlaṯiya), placing Baal and ʿAṯtartu in the initial position and naming ʿAṯtartu first, before the other Ugaritic goddesses, indicating the political importance of ʿAṯtartu at Ugarit. The temple of ʿAṯtartu was likely located within the city of Ugarit, perhaps within the complex of the city's royal palace itself, with administrative records mentioning the existence of cultic personnel devoted to the goddess at this temple, the Ugaritic Akkadian text RS 20.235 referring to a servant of the goddess and the text KTU 4.163 mentioning singers of ʿAṯtartu, while the text KTU 4.219 contains the record of a payment of silver for the temple of the goddess immediately before that of a payment for the temple of the god Resheph. Ugaritic administrative texts also mentioned the use of wine in the royal rituals pertaining to ʿAṯtartu, with the ritual text KTU 1.112 mentioning the offering of a jar of wine to the goddess's manifestation of ʿAṯtartu Ḫurri. The texts KTU 4.242 I 1 and 11 mention clothing for the statue of ʿAṯtartu Šadî (𐎓𐎘𐎚𐎗𐎚𐎟𐎌𐎄, lit. 'ʿAṯtartu of the field'), who was identified with the North Syrian goddess ᴰIštar Ṣēri (𒀭𒈹𒂔, lit. 'Ištar of the steppe land'), with ʿAṯtartu Šadî herself being referred to as Ištar Ṣēri in Akkadian texts from Ugarit. Ištar Ṣēri was invoked as a divine witness in an oath between the kings of Ugarit and Carchemish, further attesting of her importance for the royalty of Ugarit, and she appears to have been popular enough in northern Syria and the Hittite Empire that she was worshipped in Hatti, where her name was written as Uliliyaš ᴰIštar (𒀭𒈹𒆤). Although ʿAṯtartu had none of the erotic traits of her later Canaanite variant, ʿAṯtartu Šadî/Ištar Ṣēri was nevertheless present in hierogamy royal entry rituals whereby a statue or a woman representing the goddess was inserted in the alcove of Ugarit's royal palace. Due to these aspects of the goddess, Akkadian texts from Ugarit and Emar identified ʿAṯtartu with her Mesopotamian counterpart Ištar, with the Akkadian milieu within which the Ugaritic texts were composed not distinguishing ʿAṯtartu from Ištar, and the Akkadian text RS. 17.22 + 17.87 from Ugarit referred to a second temple of hers as the "kunaḫi-temple of Ištar."
At Emar ʿAṯtart was imported from the Levant into the Amorite city-state of Emar during the Late Bronze Age, where she received a major cult and possessed a temple at the highest point of the city of Emar itself, with a treasure of existing there of ʿAṯtartu ša āli (𒀭𒈹 𒍅, lit. 'ʿAṯtart of the City'). Like at Ugarit, she did not exhibit any astral traits and was not associated to her masculine counterpart, ʿAṯtar. ʿAṯtart was worshipped at Emar, where, like at Mari, the name of the goddess was written in cuneiform using ideograms and without the feminine suffix -t, in the forms ᴰaš-dar (𒀭𒀸𒁯) and ᴰinanna (𒀭𒈹), while also appearing in ritual texts and onomastica there. ʿAṯtart at Emar was worshipped under various manifestations, such as:
ʿAṯtartu ša abī, variously interpreted as "ʿAṯtart of the Sea," ʿAṯtart as patron-goddess of the abû shrines and of the month Abî, or "ʿAṯtart of the fathers"; ʿAṯtartu ša tāḫāzi (𒀭𒀹𒁯 𒀞, lit. 'ʿAṯtart of Battle'); ʿAṯtartu ša duriši (lit. 'ʿAṯtart of Trampling').
As warrior goddess ʿAṯtart's role as a warrior goddess is more attested at Emar due to the widespread reference of the manifestation of ʿAṯtart as ʿAṯtart of Battle (𒀭𒀹𒁯 𒀞, ʿAṯtartu ša tāḫāzi), who was also the main basis of the cult of this goddess at Emar. The warrior role of ʿAṯtart at Emar is also attested in the use of her name as a theophoric element in personal names such as ʿAṯtartu-qarrād (𒀸𒋻𒋾 𒌨𒊕, 'ʿAṯtart is a warrior') and ʿAṯtartu-lit (lit. 'ʿAṯtart is power'). The cult of ʿAṯtartu of Battle was performed by a priestess called the mašʾartu (𒈠𒀸𒅈𒌈), and the participants of her night festival were called the awīlû ša tāḫāzi (𒇽𒎌 𒋫𒄩𒍣, lit. 'men of the battle').
As hunter goddess ʿAṯtart's connection to hunting at Emar in ritual settings is recorded in a text mentioning "on the 16th day is the hunt of ʿAṯtart" (𒄿𒈾 𒌋𒐋 𒌓𒈪 𒍝𒁺 𒊭 𒀭𒀸𒁯, ina 16 umi ṣadu ša ᴰAštart), that is the hunt of ʿAṯtart which was performed on the 16th of the month of Abi. This ritual hunt was performed on the same day as the procession to her manifestation of the Poplar ʿAṯtart (𒀭𒀸𒋻 𒍝𒅈𒁀, ʿAṯtar ṣarba) from "the storehouse", which ascribes to ʿAṯtart agricultural traits otherwise unknown of her elsewhere during the Bronze Age. The line 𒄿𒈾 𒌋𒐋 𒌓𒈪 𒍝𒁺 𒊭 𒀭𒀸𒁯 also parallels the Sabaic hallowed phrase "the day when he performed the hunt for ʿAṯtar" (𐩺𐩥𐩣 𐩮𐩵 𐩮𐩺𐩵 𐩲𐩻𐩩𐩧, ywm ṣd ṣyd ʿṯtr), used to refer to the ritual hunts performed for the South Arabian god ʿAṯtar, who was himself a masculine counterpart of ʿAṯtart. Another Emarite text records that the hunt of ʿAṯtart was performed on the 16th of the month of Marzaḫāni, with the hunt of Baal being on the 17th of this same month, and both hunts being mentioned together in the texts from Emar, suggesting that the hunt of the goddess involved game or provisions, and that ʿAṯtart and Baal appeared together at Emar, likely under the influence of their pairing in the Levant; Baal himself appears as a hunter at Ugarit, but never alongside ʿAṯtart as he does at Emar.
As consort of Baal Although it was the pairing of the Hurro-Syrian goddess Ḫebat and Baal which was the principal divine couple at Emar, and despite there being no evidence yet that ʿAṯtart was explicitly paired with Baal at Emar as she was among the Canaanites, ʿAṯtart and Baal nevertheless had temples dedicated in common to both of them, and a common cult to this pair is suggested from the appearance of their names as theophoric elements in the popular personal names Zū-ʿAṯtarti (𒍪𒀸𒋻𒋾, 'The one of ʿAṯtart') and Zū-Baʿla (𒍪𒁀𒀪𒆷, 'The one of Baal'). There is nonetheless little beyond this curcumstantial evidence at Emar for any pairing of ʿAṯtart with Baal, which appears to have been a Levantine occurrence.
Legacy The worship of ʿAṯtart in the Middle Euphrates region, including at Emar, lasted until the Late Bronze Age. By the Iron Age, the name of ʿAṯtart appears to have become used to mean "goddess" in general, so that an Akkadian inscription from the city of Ḫanat referred to the goddess ʿAnat as "the strongest of the ʿAṯtarts (goddesses)" (𒁉𒋥 𒀭𒁹𒁯𒈨𒌍, gašrat ištarāti).
In Egypt
ʿAṯtart was eventually imported into New Kingdom Egypt, where she was renowned as a West Semitic war-goddess and often appeared alongside ʿAnat, with the West Semitic association of the two goddesses having also been borrowed by the Egyptians. Her cult is attested in Egypt from as early as the reign of Amenhotep II in the 15th century BC, and the goddess herself was attested under various manifestations, such as Ꜥꜣstjr ḫꜣrw (𓉻𓂝𓊃𓍘𓇋𓂋𓏤𓑅𓑅𓆼𓄿𓃭𓏤𓉐) and Ꜥꜣsyty ḫꜣwrw (𓉻𓂝𓋴𓏭𓍘𓇌𓆼𓏲𓃭𓏤𓆗), that is the same form of the goddess whose name in Ugaritic was ʿAṯtart Ḫurri.
The cult of ʿAṯtart would remain well-established in Late Period Egypt, during the 1st millennium BC, at Memphis, where a significant community of Semitic origin had been living since the New Kingdom, and where a temple of the goddess was part of the city's temple of the god Ptah. From at least as early as the 6th century BC, ʿAṯtart was identified with the Egyptian goddess Isis, and a 7th-century BC ivory box discovered at Ur and which had been dedicated to ʿAṯtart by the daughter of one an individual whose name, Peṭ-ʾIsi, (𐤐𐤈𐤀𐤎) meant "Given by Isis", might have originated in Egypt.
As warrior goddess Under the 18th and 19th dynasties, ʿAṯtart was depicted either standing or on horseback and holding a sword and shield, and she was sometimes associated to the god Resheph just like she was at Ugarit due to her warrior role, as attested through a stela of Amenhotep II which includes a line mentioning both them together, "Resheph and ʿAṯtart were rejoicing in him doing all that his heart desired" (𓂋𓈙𓊪𓀭𓂝𓊃𓍘𓂋𓏤𓏏𓅱𓆗𓎛𓂝𓏲𓀠𓇋𓅓𓆑𓁷𓏤𓁹𓏏𓌸𓂋𓂋𓏏𓎟𓏏𓄣𓏤𓆑, Ršp Ꜥstjrtw ḥꜥw jmf ḥr jrt mrrt nbt jbf), and both deities were depicted and mentioned on a private votive stele found at the site of Tell el-Borg in the Sinai. During this period, some of the Levantine myths regarding ʿAṯtart were translated into Egyptian, as attested by the fragmented Papyrus so-called of "ʿAṯtart and the Sea," the Egyptian translation of a West Semitic myth in which ʿAṯtart is called a "furious and tempestuous goddess" (nṯrt qndt nšny). During the 20th dynasty, one of the inscriptions of Ramesses III recording his military victories against the Libyans mentioned ʿAnat and ʿAṯtart in a praise to the king, "Montu and Set are with him in every battle; ʿAnat and ʿAṯtart are a shield to him" (𓏠𓈖𓍿𓅱𓀭𓃩𓂋𓎛𓈖𓂝𓆑𓐝𓋴𓎞𓇌𓀜𓏥𓎟𓂝𓈖𓍿𓏏𓆇𓆗𓂝𓊃𓍿𓇋𓂋𓏤𓍿𓏏𓆇𓆗𓈖𓆑𓐝𓇋𓆎𓐝𓌲, Mnṯw Stẖ r ḥnꜥf m skw nb Ꜥnṯt Ꜥsṯjrṯt nf m jkm); and a poem contained the lines "the yoke saddles of your chariot: they are ʿAnat and ʿAṯtart" (𓂧𓏏𓏤𓆱𓏥𓈖𓏏𓄿𓇌𓎡𓅓𓂝𓏭𓂋𓏤𓎡𓄿𓃀𓏲𓍘𓏏𓆱𓂝𓈖𓍘𓇋𓏏𓆇𓆗𓂝𓊃𓍘𓏭𓂋𓏤𓍘𓇋𓏏𓆇𓆗, ḏrwt n tꜣyk mꜥkꜣbwtjt Ꜥntjt Ꜥstyrtjt), which likened his chariot to the two goddesses. ʿAṯtart was also worshipped at the Temple of Hibis in the Kharga Oasis, where she is depicted, under the name Ꜥsṯt (𓂝𓊃𓍿𓏏𓆇𓁐), three times on a 5th-century BC relief, followed by Resheph. During the Ptolemaic period, ʿAṯtart was depicted on a chariot in a relief from the Temple of Edfu, where she is called "ʿAṯtart, Mistress of Horses, Lady of the Chariot" (𓂝𓊃𓍿𓂋𓂧𓏏𓆇𓁐𓎛𓏌𓏏𓊃𓐝𓊃𓐝𓃗𓏥𓎟𓅨𓂋𓇌𓏏𓆱, Ꜥsṯrdt ḥnwt smsmw nbt wryt).
As healer goddess In a medical papyrus from the 14th century BC, which contains a Northwest Semitic inscription written in Hieratic, the goddess, who is called Jsttr, appears as a healer, and is mentioned alongside Jšꜣmjnꜣ, that is the Northwest Semitic healer-god Eshmun, to whom she would be often found associated later in Iron Age Phoenicia. ʿAṯtart was still remembered as a huntress goddess during the Iron Age, and she was mentioned as such in a 5th-century BC Aramaic incantation against scorpion stings inscribed in Demotic from the Wādī al-Ḥammāmāt, whose text includes the lines "Hand of my father, hand of Baal, hand of ʿAttar my mother!" (kp-ʾbwy kp-Bʿl kp-ʿtr-ʾmy) and "Face of Baal! Cover, coat his wounds (with spittle)! Face of the Huntress (and) face of Baal!" (ʾnpy-Bʿl ksy šʿ-ḥrtw ʾnpy-ṣydtʾ ʾnpy-Bʿl).
As hunter goddess ʿAṯtart in the Wādī al-Ḥammāmāt text was referred to both as "ʿAttar my mother" and "the huntress", attesting of the continuation of the healer role of this goddess recorded since the Bronze Age at Ugarit, as well as of her pairing with Baal. The incantation's invocation of ʿAṯtart and Baal against the "enemy", that is the scorpion which has stung an individual, parallels the combat of these deities against cosmic or divine enemies in the Ugaritic texts.
As consort of Set In the 20th dynasty text, "The Contendings of Horus and Seth", ʿAnat and ʿAṯtart are referred to as divine daughters who are also the future wives of the god Set, whom the Egyptians identified with Baal. A Late Bronze Age seal from Egyptian-ruled Palestine discovered at the site of Baytīn represented ʿAṯtart as a warrior, and was inscribed with the name of the goddess, written as ꜥsṯjrṯ (𓂝𓊃𓍿𓏥𓁹𓍿). In the story of "ʿAṯtart and the Sea," which is an Egyptian translation of a Levantine mythological tradition, the Ennead, which in this story stood for the West Semitic divine council headed by El, initially offers tribute to the sea-god Yam to be given to him by the goddess Renenutet, and after this proves to be unsuccessful, they send him more appealing tribute to be delivered to him by ʿAṯtart, who weeps on being informed of this. When she goes to Yam, he sees her singing and laughing and addresses her as a "furious and tempestuous goddess" (nṯrt qndt nšny), and then instructs her to ask the Ennead to give him their daughter, with ʿAṯtart's tribute being unsuccessful since it is followed by a conflict between Set and Yam following the Levantine tradition of the contest between Baal and Yammu.
As the "Face of Baal" ʿAṯtart was called "Face of Baal" (ʾnpy-Bʿl) in the Wādī al-Ḥammāmāt inscription, which defined the goddess as representing the presence of the god Baal, especially in his temple. This usage of the name of a deity to represent their presence is also attested among the Phoenicians, who called the goddess Tanit as "the Face of Baal (Hammon)" (𐤐𐤍 𐤁𐤏𐤋, panē Baʿl), and among Israelites, in the verse of Book of Psalms of the Bible reading "Ascribe to Yahweh the glory due his name" (הָב֣וּ לַֽ֭יהוָה כְּב֣וֹד שְׁמ֑וֹ, hāḇū YHWH kəḇōḏ šəmō).
In Canaan Following the end of the Bronze Age, the Canaanite peoples during the Iron Age continued worshipping ʿAṯtart under the name of ʿAštart (𐤏𐤔𐤕𐤓𐤕), who was a continuation of her Ugaritic form, ʿAṯtart. During the 11th to 10th centuries BC, the early Canaanites invoked the lioness aspect of their variant of ʿAštart through inscriptions bearing the name ʿAbd-labʾit (𐤏𐤁𐤃𐤋𐤁𐤀𐤕), meaning "Servant of the Lioness (that is, lit. 'Servant of ʿAštart'), on arrowheads along with the name Bin-ʿAnat (𐤁𐤍𐤏𐤍𐤕), meaning "Son of Anat," implying that ʿAštart and ʿAnat were the patron-goddesses of the warriors who used these arrows.
In Phoenicia The Phoenician variant of ʿAštart was the goddess ʿAštart (𐤏𐤔𐤕𐤓𐤕). By the time that the Canaanite Phoenician civilisation had emerged in the 1st millennium BC, ʿAštart overshadowed the other Semitic goddesses in the Phoenician pantheon and had become the main personification of a less war-like and more sensual vitality. Like her East Semitic equivalent, Ishtar, the Phoenician ʿAštart was a complex goddess with multiple aspects: being the feminine principle of the life-giving force, ʿAštart was a fertility goddess who promoted love and sensuality, in which capacity she presided over the reproduction of cattle and family growth; the goddess was also the consort of the masculine principle of this life-giving force, variously personified as Hadad or Baal, who himself incarnated plant growth and presided over rain, water, springs, floods, and the sprouting and growth of cereals. This pairing of ʿAštart and Baal was later mentioned in the 1st century AD by Philōn of Byblos, who wrote about the goddess Astarte and Zeus (that is, Baal), called Adōdos (itself a Hellenisation of Phoenician Hadad) and Dēmarous, ruling over the land with the consent of Kronos (that is, ʾEl). As well as the goddess of carnal love and of fertility, ʿAštart was also a warrior goddess, although she no longer exhibited much of the hunter aspect of the Bronze Age ʿAṯtart, which had faded away so that by the 1st millennium BC the hunting scenes on the shrine of the Phoenician ʿAštart at the temple of Bustān aš-Šayḫ depicted her consort in the city-state of Ṣidōn, the god Eshmun, as a male hunter figure; ʿAštart was also a celestial goddess possessing astral traits and who was identified with the Morning Star, and occasionally to the Moon. The dove was a sacred animal of ʿAštart, as, like with her East Semitic equivalent Ishtar, was the lion. The cult of ʿAštart reached its highest level of prestige among the Phoenicians, in both mainland Phoenicia and thanks to the extensive maritime trade endeavours of the Phoenicians, in the Phoenician, and later Punic, colonies throughout the Mediterranean world, with her worship being recorded in Cyprus, as well as in Punic Africa and Sicily, with the oldest recorded mention of the Phoenician ʿAštart is from an 8th-century inscription from a bronze statuette, often called the Seville statuette or the El Carambolo statuette, which had been imported into Iberia from mainland Phoenicia. During the Hellenistic period, the Phoenicians identified their own goddess ʿAštart with the Egyptian goddess Isis) due to the influence of the Egyptian Osiris myth on their own conceptualisations of the afterlife and salvation. Among the Phoenician and Punic personal names containing the name of ʿAštart were ʿAštart-ʿaz (𐤏𐤔𐤕𐤓𐤕𐤏𐤆, lit. 'ʿAštart is my strength', already attested in Amorite Mari as ᴰAštart-azi, 𒀭𒀸𒁯𒋫𒍣), and Gidd-ʿAštart (𐤂𐤃𐤏𐤔𐤕𐤓𐤕).
Iconography
ʿAštart was often depicted as a naked goddess because of her role as a fertility and sexuality goddess, and many terracotta figures of naked women found in Israel and Judea were depictions of ʿAštart, although not every image of a naked woman from this location was a representation of her. ʿAštart was also depicted in the form of "concubines of the dead" statuettes placed in burials, as well as in sympathetic magic figurines possessing fertile traits intended to ensure that women desiring to have children would become pregnant.
Images of an armed goddess might also have been representation of ʿAštart as a goddess of war and hunting, due to which she was often depicted on horseback or on a war chariot, sometimes holding an epsilon axe. ʿAštart was often depicted with a "Hathoric" hairstyle, which connected her with the Phoenician ivory sculptures of the woman at the window and to amulets representing a goddess who was analogous to Qetesh. ʿAštart was also sometimes depicted surrounded by twin gods in some Phoenician coins.
ʿAštart Ḥor Although the wooden throne upon which the Seville/El Carambolo Statuette rested had perished, its surviving bronze stool was inscribed with a dedication to ʿAštart Ḥor (𐤏𐤔𐤕𐤓𐤕 𐤇𐤓), that is to the Phoenician form of the manifestation ʿAṯtartu Ḫurri already attested in pre-Phoenician times, or maybe associated with Aphrodite of the salt marshes. The cult of ʿAštart Ḥor held a certain importance, especially as part of royal rituals, and her domains were located at Šuksu, and at Ṣaʾu, a town belonging to the city-state of Siyannu.
As the "Name of Baal" Another manifestation of ʿAštart was "ʿAštart-Name-of-Baal" (𐤏𐤔𐤕𐤓𐤕 𐤔𐤌 𐤁𐤏𐤋, ʿAštart šim Baʿl), who was the Phoenician form of "ʿAṯtartu-Name-of-Baal" (𐎓𐎘𐎚𐎗𐎚𐎟𐎌𐎎𐎟𐎁𐎓𐎍, ʿAṯtartu šuma Baʿli) already attested in the Bronze Age at Ugarit. This name defined the identity of the goddess as being in relation to Baal.
At Sidon The worship of ʿAštart at the Phoenician city-state of Sidon dates from the Late Bronze Age, when her name was recorded in Hittite texts, Ugaritic epics, and evocatory formulae. The royal family of Ṣidōn worshipped ʿAštart, with several of its members bearing names in which the name of ʿAštart appears as a theophoric element, such