Bible Dictionary: Astarte

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Smith's Bible Dictionary

Astarte

[ASHTORETH]

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary

(n.) A genus of bivalve mollusks, common on the coasts of America and Europe.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

ASTARTE; ASTORETH

ash'-to-reth, ash-to reth (`ashtoreth; plural `ashtaroth; Astarte):

1. Name and Origin

2. Attributes of the Goddess

3. Ashtoreth as a Moon-Goddess

4. The Local Ashtaroth

1. Name and Origin:

The name of the supreme goddess of Canaan and the female counterpart of Baal.

The name and cult of the goddess were derived from Babylonia, where Ishtar represented the evening and morning stars and was accordingly androgynous in origin. Under Semitic influence, however, she became solely female, but retained a memory of her primitive character by standing, alone among the Assyro-Bab goddesses, on a footing of equality with the male divinities. From Babylonia the worship of the goddess was carried to the Semites of the West, and in most instances the feminine suffix was attached to her name; where this was not the case the deity was regarded as a male. On the Moabite Stone, for example, `Ashtar is identified with Chemosh, and in the inscriptions of southern Arabia `Athtar is a god. On the other hand, in Atar-gatis or Derketo (2 Macc 12:26), Atar, without the feminine suffix, is identified with the goddess `Athah or `Athi (Greek Gatis). The cult of the Greek Aphrodite in Cyprus was borrowed from that of Ashtoreth; whether the Greek name also is a modification of Ashtoreth, as has often been maintained, is doubtful.

2. Attributes of the Goddess:

In Babylonia and Assyria Ishtar was the goddess of love and war. An old Babylonian legend related how the descent of Ishtar into Hades in search of her dead husband, Tammuz, was followed by the cessation of marriage and birth in both earth and heaven, while the temples of the goddess at Nineveh and Arbela, around which the two cities afterward grew up, were dedicated to her as the goddess of war. As such she appeared to one of Assur-bani-pal's seers and encouraged the Assyrian king to march against Elam. The other goddesses of Babylonia, who were little more than reflections of the god, tended to merge into Ishtar who thus became a type of the female divinity, a personification of the productive principle in nature, and more especially the mother and creatress of mankind. The chief seat of the worship of Ishtar in Babylonia was Erech, where prostitution was practiced in her name, and she was served with immoral rites by bands of men and women. In Assyria, where the warlike side of the goddess was predominant, no such rites seem to have been practiced, and, instead, prophetesses were attached to her temples to whom she delivered oracles.

3. Ashtoreth as a Moon-Goddess:

In Canaan, Ashtoreth, as distinguished from the male `Ashtar, dropped her warlike attributes, but in contradistinction to Asherah, whose name and cult had also been imported from Assyria, became, on the one hand, the colorless consort of Baal, and on the other hand, a moon-goddess. In Babylonia the moon was a god, but after the rise of the solar theology, when the larger number of the Babylonian gods were resolved into forms of the sun-god, their wives also became solar, Ishtar, the daughter of Sin the moon-god, remaining identified with the evening-star. In Canaan, however, when the solar theology had absorbed the older beliefs, Baal, passing into a sun-god and the goddess who stood at his side becoming a representative of the moon--the pale reflection, as it were, of the sun- -Ashtoreth came to be regarded as the consort of Baal and took the place of the solar goddesses of Babylonia.

4. The Local Ashtaroth:

Hence there were as many Ashtoreths or Ashtaroth as Baals. They represented the various forms under which the goddess was worshipped in different localities (Judges 10:6; 1 Samuel 7:4; 12:10, etc.). Sometimes she was addressed as Naamah, the delightful one, Greek Astro-noe, the mother of Eshmun and the Cabeiri. The Philistines seem to have adopted her under her warlike form (1 Samuel 31:10 the King James Version reading Ashtoreth, as Septuagint), but she was more usually the moon-goddess (Lucian, De Dca Syriac., 4; Herodian, v.6, 10), and was accordingly symbolized by the horns of a cow. See ASHTEROTH-KARNAIM. At Ashkelon, where Herodotus (i.105) places her most ancient temple, she was worshipped under the name of Atar-gatis, as a woman with the tail of a fish, and fish were accordingly sacred to her. Elsewhere the dove was her sacred symbol. The immoral rites with which the worship of Ishtar in Babylonia was accompanied were transferred to Canaan (Deuteronomy 23:18) and formed part of the idolatrous practices which the Israelites were called upon to extirpate.

A. H. Sayce

Strong's Hebrew

842. Asherah -- a Phoenician goddess, also an image of the same
... grove. Or masheyrah {ash-ay-raw'}; from 'ashar; happy; Asherah (or Astarte) a
Phoenician goddess; also an image of the same -- grove. Compare Ashtoreth. ...
/hebrew/842.htm - 6k

Library

The Rise of the Assyrian Empire
... While the nobles and citizens of Thebes were adopting the imported worship of Baal
and Astarte, and were introducing into the spoken and written language words ...
/.../chapter iithe rise of the.htm

Chapter xiv
... The name itself is that of the goddess Astarte, and Qarnayim means "of the two horns";
perhaps Astarte as goddess of the moon (whose crescent has two horns ...
//christianbookshelf.org/leupold/exposition of genesis volume 1/chapter xiv.htm

Three Decisive Steps
... Though the ark had returned, the people had gone away from their God, and had set
up the abominable worship of Baal and Astarte, the idols of the Phoenicians ...
/.../spurgeon/spurgeons sermons volume 37 1891/three decisive steps.htm

Jews and Gentiles in "The Land"
... But further particulars are scarcely necessary, for recent researches have everywhere
brought to light relics of the worship of the Phoenician Astarte, of the ...
/.../edersheim/sketches of jewish social life/chapter 2 jews and gentiles.htm

The First Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians
... extreme licentiousness. The patron deity of the Corinthians was Aphrodite,
who was no other than the foul Phoenician Astarte. Her ...
/.../pullan/the books of the new testament/chapter x the first epistle.htm

All Association with Idols is to be Avoided.
... they made a calf, as in the wilderness; [3049] sometimes they worshipped Baalpeor;
[3050] another time Baal, [3051] and Thamuz, [3052] and Astarte of Sidon ...
/.../constitutions of the holy apostles/sec ii all association with idols.htm

Argument: the Object of all Nations, and Especially of the Romans ...
... gods: as the Eleusinians worship Ceres; the Phrygians, Mater; [1730] the Epidaurians,
Æsculapius; the Chaldæans; Belus; the Syrians, Astarte; the Taurians ...
/.../felix/the octavius of minucius felix/chapter vi argument the object of.htm

This Whole Confession of These Beings, in which they Declare that ...
... god. Syria has Astarte, Arabia has Dusares, the Norici have Belenus, Africa
has its Cælestis, Mauritania has its own princes. I ...
/.../tertullian/apology/chapter xxiv this whole confession.htm

Antiquity of the Temple.
... years, and reigned 8 months. He was killed by Juthobalus, priest of Astarte,
who lived 40 years, and reigned 12. He was succeeded by ...
/.../theophilus/theophilus to autolycus/chapter xxii antiquity of the temple.htm

A Group of Miracles among a Semi-Heathen Population
... Their ancient monuments show, in which of them Zeus, Astarte, and Athene, or else
Artemis, Hercules, Dionysos, Demeter, or other Grecian divinities, were ...
/.../edersheim/the life and times of jesus the messiah/chapter xxxiv a group of.htm

Thesaurus

Astarte (2 Occurrences)
... Int. Standard Bible Encyclopedia. ASTARTE; ASTORETH. ash'-to ... extirpate. AH
Sayce. Multi-Version Concordance Astarte (2 Occurrences). 1 ...
/a/astarte.htm - 11k

Ashtoreth (3 Occurrences)
... She was the Ishtar of the Accadians and the Astarte of the Greeks (Jeremiah 44:17;
1 Kings 11:5, 33; 2 Kings 23:13). ... The Phoenicians called her Astarte. ...
/a/ashtoreth.htm - 14k

Golden (86 Occurrences)
... in Arabia, Moab, Phoenicia, Syria and elsewhere, while among the Semitic Canaanites
the bull was the symbol of Baal, and the cow of Astarte (see particularly ...
/g/golden.htm - 66k

Calf (39 Occurrences)
... in Arabia, Moab, Phoenicia, Syria and elsewhere, while among the Semitic Canaanites
the bull was the symbol of Baal, and the cow of Astarte (see particularly ...
/c/calf.htm - 49k

Astoreth
... Int. Standard Bible Encyclopedia ASTARTE; ASTORETH. ash'-to-reth, ash-to
reth (`ashtoreth; plural `ashtaroth; Astarte): 1. Name and ...
/a/astoreth.htm - 10k

Images (158 Occurrences)
... depended. They were also naturally associated with the cult of Astarte,
the female counterpart of all the Baals (see ASTARTE). In ...
/i/images.htm - 70k

Idolatry (14 Occurrences)
... will (1 Corinthians 10:14 Galatians 5:20 Colossians 3:5 1 Peter 4:3). The neighboring
gods of Phoenicia, Canaan, Moab-Baal, Melkart, Astarte, Chemosh, Moloch ...
/i/idolatry.htm - 21k

Astartes (5 Occurrences)

/a/astartes.htm - 8k

Jezebel (20 Occurrences)
... She brought the worship of the Phoenician Baal and Astarte with her into Hebrew
life, and indirectly introduced it into Judah as well as into the Northern ...
/j/jezebel.htm - 26k

Semites
... the language of the Phoenician, appropriated his art and conveniences, did traffic
in his ships, and in Ahab's reign adopted his Baal and Astarte, we are not ...
/s/semites.htm - 27k

Bible Concordance

Astarte (2 Occurrences)

1 Samuel 7:4 So the children of Israel gave up the worship of Baal and Astarte, and became worshippers of the Lord only.
(BBE)

1 Samuel 31:10 His war-dress they put in the house of Astarte; and his body was fixed on the wall of Beth-shan.
(BBE)

Subtopics

Astarte

Related Terms

Ashtoreth (3 Occurrences)

Golden (86 Occurrences)

Calf (39 Occurrences)

Astoreth

Images (158 Occurrences)