Astarte

The earliest record of the Northwest Semitic feminine form of ʿAṯtar is from Ebla in the 3rd millennium BC, where her name is attested in the forms 𒀾𒁯𒋫 (Aštarta) and 𒅖𒁯𒋫 (Ištarta).[5]

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 𒀭𒀸𒁯𒊏𒀜 (ᴰAštarat).[5]

The main cult centre was still the city of Mari during the Amorite period, when her name is attested as a theophoric element in personal names such as 𒀭𒀸𒁯𒋫𒍣 (ᴰAštart-azi, lit. 'ʿAṯtart is my strength'). However, her name was otherwise written using ideograms and without the feminine suffix -t, in the forms 𒀭𒀸𒁯 (ᴰAŠ-DAR) and 𒀭𒈹 (ᴰINANNA).[5]

ʿAṯtart was worshipped in the Amorite city of Emar under various hypostases, such as ʿAṯtart ša abī (lit. 'ʿAṯtart of the Sea'), ʿAṯtart ša tāḫāzi (lit. 'ʿAṯtart of Battle'), and ʿAṯtart ša duriši (lit. 'ʿAṯtart of Trampling'), and, like at Mari, name of the goddess was written in cuneiform using ideograms and without the feminine suffix -t, in the forms 𒀭𒀸𒁯 (ᴰAŠ-DAR) and 𒀭𒈹 (ᴰINANNA), while also appearing in ritual texts and onomastica there, for example as a theophoric element in the personal name 𒍪𒀸𒋻𒋾 (Zū-ʿAṯtarti, lit. 'The one of ʿAṯtart').[5]

The worship of ʿAṯtart in the Middle Euphrates region, including at Emar, lasted until the Late Bronze Age.[5]

At Ugarit, 𐎓𐎘𐎚𐎗𐎚 (ʿAṯtart) is often mentioned in Ugaritic ritual texts, but she played a minor role in mythological texts.[5]

In one passage, she is called 𐎓𐎘𐎚𐎗𐎚𐎟𐎕𐎆𐎄𐎚 (ʿAṯtart ṣawwādatu, lit. 'ʿAṯtart the huntress'), with the next line mentioning her as 𐎚𐎍𐎋𐎟𐎁𐎎𐎄𐎁𐎗 (tlk bmdbr, lit. 'going to the desert'). 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, with a text from Emar referring to 𒄿𒈾 𒌋𒐋 𒌓𒈪 𒍝𒁺 𒊭 𒀭𒀸𒁯 (ina 16 umi ṣadu ša ᴰAštart, lit. 'on the 16th day is the hunt of ʿAṯtart'), which parallels the Sabaic hallowed phrase 𐩺𐩥𐩣 𐩮𐩵 𐩮𐩺𐩵 𐩲𐩻𐩩𐩧 (ywm ṣd ṣyd ʿṯtr, lit. 'the day when he performed the hunt for ʿAṯtar'). This hunter aspect of ʿAṯtart later faded away by the 1st millennium B.[5]

At Ugarit, ʿAṯtart was sometimes associated with 𐎓𐎐𐎚 (ʿAnat), with both goddesses sharing common traits such as perfect beauty and the love of war, although ʿAṯtart did not yet possess the erotic traits of the later Canaanite ʿAštart. The Ugaritic ʿAṯtart was nevertheless present in hierogamy rituals whereby a statue or a woman representing the goddess was inserted in the alcove of Ugarit's royal palace, due to which Akkadian texts from Ugarit and Emar identified ʿAṯtart with her Mesopotamian counterpart 𒀭𒀹𒁯 (ᴰIštar), who was herself the goddess of the planet Venus as well as the Mesopotamian feminine form of ʿAṯtar.[5]

One of the hypostases of ʿAṯtart attested in the Late Bronze Age was 𐎓𐎘𐎚𐎗𐎚𐎟𐎃𐎗 (ʿAṯtart ḫr), whose name means ʿAštart of the Cave, ʿAštart of the Vault, or ʿAštart of the Window, and was also recorded at Ugarit in Akkadian as 𒀭𒈹 𒄯𒊑 (ᴰʿAṯtart ḫurri), and as 𒀭𒀸𒁯 𒄯𒊑 and 𒀭𒀸𒁯 𒄷𒊑 (ᴰʿAṯtart ḫurri).[5]

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The cult of ʿAṯtart 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 hypostases, such as 𓉻𓂝𓊃𓍘𓇋𓂋𓏤 𓆼𓄿𓃭𓏤 (ꜥꜣstjr ḫꜣrw) and 𓉻𓂝𓋴𓏭𓍘𓇌 𓆼𓏲𓃭𓏤 (ꜥꜣsjtjj ḫꜣwrw), that is the same form of the goddess whose name in Ugaritic was ʿAṯtart ḫr.[5]

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 𓂋𓈙𓊪𓅱𓀮 (Rešep). During this period, some of the Levantine myths regarding ʿAṯtart were translated into Egyptian, as attested by the fragmented Papyrus of ʿAṯtart of the Sea.[5]

The Egyptian goddess 𓐪𓂧𓈙𓏏𓆇𓏏𓆗 (Qdšt), who was depicted on 19th and 20th dynasty Egyptian stelae as a naked goddess with a Hathoric hairstyle, standing on a powerful lion and holding flowers or snakes in her outstretched hands, and often accompanied by 𓋉𓊾𓁤 (Min) and Rešep, was an Levantine-Egyptian hypostasis of ʿAṯtart.[5][22]

The cult of ʿAṯtart was 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 𓊪𓏏𓎛𓀭 (Pitaḥ). From at least as early as the 6th century BC, ʿAṯtart was identified with the Egyptian goddess 𓊨𓏏𓆇𓁐 (ꜣūsat), and a 7th century BC ivory box discovered at Ur and which had been dedicated to ʿAṯtart by the daughter of one 𐤐𐤈𐤀𐤎 (Peṭ-ʾIsi, lit. 'Given by ꜣūsat') might have originated in Egypt.[5][23]

ʿAṯtart was also worshipped at the Temple of Hibis in the Kharga Oasis, where she is depicted, under the name 𓂝𓊃𓍿𓏏𓆇𓁐 (ꜥsṯt), three times on a 5th century BC relief, followed by Rešep.[5]

During the Ptolemaic period, ʿAṯtart was depicted on a chariot in a relief from the Temple of Edfu, where she is called 𓂝𓊃𓍿𓂋𓂧𓏏𓆇𓁐 𓎛𓏌𓏏 𓊃𓐝𓊃𓐝𓃗𓏥 𓎟 𓅨𓂋𓇌𓏏𓆱 (ꜥsṯrdt ḥnwt smsmw nbt wryt, lit. 'ʿAṯtart, Mistress of Horses, Lady of the Chariot').[5]

During the 1st millennium BC, by the time that the Phoenician civilisation had emerged, the local variant of ʿAṯtart, the goddess 𐤏𐤔𐤕𐤓𐤕 (ʿAštart), who was a continuation of her Ugaritic form, had overshadowed the other Semitic goddesses in the Phoenician pantheon and had become the main personification of a less war-like and more sensual vitality.[5]

Like her East Semitic equivalent, 𒀭𒀹𒁯 (ᴰIštar), 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 𐤄𐤃𐤃 (Hadad), 𐤄𐤃𐤃 (Dāgon), or 𐤁𐤏𐤋 (Baʿl), who himself incarnated plant growth and presided over rain, water, springs, floods, and the sprouting and growth of cereals, and ʿAštart herself was.[24][5]

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 Sidon, the god 𐤀𐤔𐤌𐤍 (ʾEšmūn), 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 Ištar, was the lion.[5]

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.[5]

During the Hellenistic period, the Phoenicians identified their own goddess ʿAštart with the Egyptian goddess 𓊨𓏏𓆇𓁐 (ꜣūsat) due to the influence of the Egyptian Osiris myth on their own conceptualisations of the afterlife and salvation.[23]

Among the Phoenician and Punic personal names containing the name of ʿAštart were 𐤏𐤔𐤕𐤓𐤕𐤏𐤆 (ʿAštart-ʿaz, lit. 'ʿAštart is my strength', already attested in Amorite Mari as 𒀭𒀸𒁯𒋫𒍣, ᴰAštart-azi), and 𐤂𐤃𐤏𐤔𐤕𐤓𐤕 (Gidd-ʿAštart).[24]

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 Palestine 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.[5]

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.[5]

ʿAštart was often depicted with a "Hathoric" hairstyle, which connected her with the Phoenician ivory scultpures of the woman at the window and to amulets representing a goddess who was analogous to Qedešet.[5] ʿAštart was also sometimes depicted surrounded by twin gods in some Phoenician coins.[25]

Although the wooden throne upon which the Seville/El Carambolo Statuette rested had perished, its surviving bronze stool was inscribed with a dedication to 𐤏𐤔𐤕𐤓𐤕 𐤇𐤓‎ (ʿAštart ḥor), that is to the Phoenician form of the hypostasis 𐎓𐎘𐎚𐎗𐎚𐎟𐎃𐎗 (ʿṯtrt ḫr) already attested in pre-Phoenician times.[5]

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 Siyān.[5]

Another hypostasis of ʿAštart was 𐤏𐤔𐤕𐤓𐤕 𐤔𐤌 𐤁𐤏𐤋 (ʿAštart šm Baʿl), whose name means either "ʿAštart, Lamb of Baʿl," whereby Baʿl was the masculine principle of fertilisation; or "ʿAštart, Handle of Baʿl," where "the handle" referred to a weapon's handle, and was a reference to the warlike nature of the goddess.[5]

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.[5]

The royal family of Sidon worshipped ʿAštart, with several of its members bearing names in which the name of ʿAštart appears as a theophoric element, such as 𐤀𐤌𐤏𐤔𐤕𐤓𐤕‎ (ʾImmī-ʿAštart), 𐤁𐤃𐤏𐤔𐤕𐤓𐤕 (Bōd-ʿAštart), and 𐤏𐤁𐤃𐤏𐤔𐤕𐤓𐤕‎ (ʿAbd-ʿAštart), and her title of 𐤌𐤋𐤊𐤕 (milkōt, lit. 'Queen') being a theophoric element in the name of the 7th century BC Sidonian king ʿAbd-milkōt.[5]

Inscription dedicated to the goddess ʿAštart by the Sidonian king Bod-ʿAštart.

The kings of Sidon from the 5th century BC, such as ʾEšmūnʿazar I and his son Tabnit I, included "priest of ʿAštart" as part of their royal titulatory, and Tabnit I's son, ʾEšmūnʿazar II, who died when he was 14 years old, did not hold the title of "priest of ʿAštart", but his mother ʾImmī-ʿAštart was "priestess of ʿAštart". Before his death, ʾEšmūnʿazar II and his mother ʾImmī-ʿAštart had built a sanctuary of ʿAštart at Ṣīdon ʾArṣ Yam (Sidon-Land-by-the-Sea), another sanctuary in the city's district of šmm ʾdrm (the Lofty Heavens), and a third sanctuary for ʿAštart šm Baʿl, with ʾEšmūnʿazar II's cousin and successor Bod-ʿAštart having expanded the sanctuary of Ṣīdon ʾArṣ Yam.[5]

As attested by three statuettes of children inscribed with dedications reading 𐤋𐤏𐤔𐤕𐤓𐤕 𐤋𐤀𐤃𐤍𐤉 𐤋𐤀𐤔𐤌𐤍‎ (lʿštrt lʾdny lʾšmn), which mention ʿAštart along with the god 𐤀𐤔𐤌𐤍 (ʾEšmūn), the 6th to 4th century temple of this god at Bustān aš-Šayḫ where these statuettes were found was in fact a common sanctuary of ʾEšmūn and ʿAštart.[5] A large shrine to ʿAštart was located on the eastern side of the sanctuaty, below the platform upon which the temple proper rested, and it contained a paved waterpool and a stone throne flanked with sphinxes decicated to the Sidonian ʿAštart, which itself rested against the background wall, which was decorated with hunting scenes.[26]

During the period of the middle Roman Empire, a Sidonian coin of the Roman empress Julia Cornelia Paula was issued bearing the image of ʿAštart crowned by the Roman goddess of victory, VICTORIA (Victoria), while she rests her right arm on a cross-headed standard and holds a ship's stern in her left hand.[5]

The temple of ʿAštart at Afqa, in the territory of the city-state of Byblos, was one of the most renowned sanctuaries in ancient Phoenicia, located at the source of the Adonis river, where, according to Melitōn of Sardis, was the tomb of Adonis, whose blood turned the river's water red when he died there; according to Pseudo-Melito, this was the location of the tomb of Tammuz; and this temple was believed in ancient times to have been built by the legendary Cypriot king Κινυρας Kinuras, and it contained a waterpool, as well as pipelines which were used for lustrations linked to the cultic practises, and sacred prostitution, which was a typical part of the cult of ʿAštart, was also performed there. [27]

ʿAštart of Afqa, who possessed erotic traits, was a goddess of the planet Venus as the Evening Star which brought together the sexes. This goddess later identified in Graeco-Roman times with the Greek goddess Αφροδιτη Ουρανια (Aphroditē Ourania, lit. 'the Celestial Aphroditē')[27]

The goddess 𐤁𐤏𐤋𐤕 𐤂𐤁𐤋 (Baʿlat Gubal, lit. 'the Lady of Byblos') has been tentatively suggested to have been a possibly Byblian hypostasis of ʿAštart, although this identification is still uncertain. Baʿlat Gubal had nevertheless become explicitly assimilated to ʿAštart, and therefore to the Greek Αφροδιτη (Aphroditē), with whom ʿAštart was herself equated, at Byblos, as well as at Afqa.[28][27]

According to Zōsimos, a phenomenon would take place at site of the temple of Afqa whereby a bright and fiery star-like object would be shot up from the top of a Lebanese mountain and would fall into the Adonis river. Pilgrims would gather at the temple on days of this occurrence, and would throw precious objects, such as gold- and silverworks or linen or sea silk into the waterpool of the temple as offerings: the offerings which sunk into the water were believed to have been accepted by ʿAštart while the ones which floated were considered to have been rejected by the goddess.[27]

The Roman emperor Constantine I ordered the destruction of the temple of Afqa, although Zosimus and Salamanēs Hermeias Sōzomenos in the 5th century AD recorded that pilgrims still gathered at the site of the temple to make offerings on the days when the luminous phenomenon would occur. The temple building itself was permanently destroyed in an earthquake during the 6th century AD, although it remained a popular sacred site connected to fertility until recent times.[27]

One of the hypostases of ʿAštart was 𐤕𐤍𐤕 (Tannīt), whose first attestation was from the city of Sarepta.[29]

ʿAštart held high importance in the religious system of the city-state of Akko, where she was identified with the Greek goddess Aphroditē in Graeco-Roman times, when she was the patron-goddess of the city's public baths.[30]

ʿAštart of Akko was depicted as Aphrodite on coins of the city from the 3rd century AD, where she was represented with a cādūceus to her right, and the Greek god Ερως (Erōs), the son of Aphroditē, riding a dolphin to her left.[30]

The goddess was however most often depicted on the coins of Akko under the traits of the Greek goddess Τυχη (Tukhē) in the latter's role as the patron goddess of a municipality, in which capacity she was represented as seated on a rock, wearing a crown made of crenellated towers, and placing one foot on the shoulder of a young swimmer who personnified the river Orontes, although the swimmer in the coins of Akko stood for the river-god Belus, that is the present-day Nahr al-Naʿāmayn, and he held a reed and leans over an amphora, with a crocodile beneath him.[30]

Under the reign of the Roman Emperor Publius Licinius Valerianus, ʿAštart was depicted coins similarly to a Syrian goddess, with a calathus hat, and seated between two lions like Atargatis, with her right hand in a blessing position and her left one holding a flower.[30]

The goddess ʿAštart held high prestige in the city-state of Tyre, where she was a dynastic goddess, as attested by the names of the 10th to 9th century BC Tyrian kings ʿAbd-ʿAštart, Mattan-ʿAštart, and Astarymos; the king Ḥirōm I allegedly built a new temple for ʿAštart and Melqart, and the later king Ito-Baʿl II held the title of "priest of ʿAštart" before he ascended to the throne of Tyre.[5]

At Tyre, ʿAštart was closely associated to the god Melqart and was his consort, a custom which was carried on by the colonists who set out from Tyre to establish themsselves throughout the Mediterranean sea.[5]

At the site of Ḫirbat aṭ-Ṭayibā, to the south of Tyre, a stone throne was dedicated to ʿAštart in a sacred site located in the middle of the fields of the one who offered the dedication.[5][31]

In the Tyrian town of Ḥamon, ʿAštart formed a triad with the god 𐤌𐤋𐤊𐤏𐤔𐤕𐤓𐤕 (Milk-ʿAštart) and the 𐤌𐤋𐤀𐤊 𐤌𐤋𐤊𐤏𐤔𐤕𐤓𐤕 (Malʾāk Milk-ʿAštart),[32] and the city's sanctuary of Milk-ʿAštart contained a dedication to ʿAštart.[5]

In the 7th century BC, the warlike aspect of ʿAštart was invoked in the treaty between the Assyrian king Aššur-aḫa-iddina and the Tyrian king Baʿl I in a line reading 𒀭𒊍𒋻𒌓 𒀸 𒋫𒄩𒍣 𒆗𒉌 𒄑𒉼𒆪𒉡 𒇷𒅖𒄵 𒀸 𒉺𒅁𒆷𒉽𒆪𒉡 𒀸 𒇷𒊺𒅆𒅁𒆪𒉡 (ᴰAstartu ina tāhāzi danni qaštakunu lišbir ina šapla nakrikunu lišēšibkunu, lit. 'May ʿAštart break your bow in the thick of battle, and have you crouch at the feet of your enemy').[5]

The association between ʿAštart and Melqart at Tyre continued until the Roman period, and an inscription from the Severan dynasty mentions the goddess "Λευκοθέα" (Leukothea), that is ʿAštart, along with "Ηρακλης" (Hēraklēs, that is Melqart).[5]

ʿAštart was sometimes worshipped at Tyre under the name of 𐤏𐤔𐤕𐤓𐤍𐤉 (ʿAštarōniy), which was a form of her name where the feminine suffix -t had been replaced by the adjectival suffix 𐤍𐤉- (-ōniy).[5]

According to the 6th century AD Neoplatonist scholarch Damaskios, ʿAštarōniy was the "mother of the gods," and had fallen in love with a young hunter, ʾEšmūn of Berytus, who castrated himself to escape her, but whom the goddess resurrected.[5]

The name of ʿAštarōniy was given to a Tyrian port, and she is mentioned in a Tyrian inscription from the 1st century AD after "Hēraklēs," that is Melqart). The name ʿAštarōniy is also recorded from Rhodes in the eastern Mediterranean, and from Carthage in the western Mediterranean.[5]

Due to the influence of the Egyptian Osiris myth, the Phoenicians who lived in Egypt during the Hellenistic period continued the identification of ʿAštart with ꜣūsat, in which capacity they worshipped this latter goddess.[23]

The worship of ʿAštart is widely attested in ancient Cyprus, where she had been assimilated to the Greek goddess Αφροδιτη (Aphroditē) from early times, due to which many early shrines of Aphroditē in Cyprus showed partial Phoenician influence.[5]

The Cypriot ʿAštart was already depicted in Phoenician ivory sculptures and in the Book of Proverbs of the Bible, and was likely referred by the Greeks as παρακυπτουσα (parakuptousa) and by the Romans as the VENVS PROSPICIENS (Venus prōspiciēns) of Salamis.[5]

A shrine of ʿAštart stood at the Bamboula site in ancient Kition, which has yielded a 4th century BC alabaster tablet on which were recorded the expenses of the shrine over the course of a whole month as well as a mention of ʿAštart by her common title of 𐤌𐤋𐤊𐤕 𐤒𐤃𐤔𐤕‎ (mlkt qdšt, lit. 'Holy Queen').[5]

The inhabitants of the Kition identified ʿAštart with the Greek goddess Aphroditē Ourania.[27]

In Cyprus, ʿAštart was identified during the 3rd century BC with the Greek goddess Αφροδιτη Παφια (Aphroditē Paphia), who was worshipped at Paphos, as recorded by a dedicatory inscription to 𐤏𐤔𐤕𐤓𐤕 𐤐𐤐 (ʿAštart Pp, lit. 'ʿAštart of Paphos').[5]

The goddess ʿAštart was the main deity of the city of Amathous, where stood one of the most famous temples of hers at the top of the acropolis of the city. The temple of ʿAštart of Amathous was erected in the 8th century BC, when the city was under Tyrian influence, with the presence of two Phoenician graffiti and Phoenician-type anthropoid sarcophagi at Amathous and Kition attesting of the existence of a Phoenician community living in these cities. The shrine of Amathous, like most Cypriot shrines of ʿAštart, thus exhibited partial Phoenician influences, such as worship halls, courtyards, and altars within a temenos, and it was only in the 1st century AD that it was replaced by a Greek-style temple. During the 6th and 5th centuries BC, local hand-made votive figurines were associated to Phoenician-type small moulded plates depicting ʿAštart as a naked standing goddess holding her breasts, as well as to small Greek-type korai.[5]

Two dedications offered by Androklēs, the last king of Amathous, some time between 330 to 310 BC, respectively to the goddesses Κυπρις (Kupris, lit. 'the Goddess of Cyprus') Κυπρια Αφροδιτη (Kupria Aphroditē, lit. 'the Aphrodite of Cyprus'), as well as two monumental limestone vases have been found at the site of the shrine of Amathous.[5]

Although Graeco-Roman authors had claimed that it was forbidden to spill blood in the temple of Amathous, remains of Hellenistic sacrifices provided evidence that goats and sheep were the main animals offered in sacrifice at the shrine ʿAštart.[5]

According to the Roman authors Publius Ovidius Naso, Pausanias, and Publius Cornelius Tacitus, the inhabitants of Cyprus considered the shrine of Venus (that is, ʿAštart) at Amathous as one of the three most reverend sites on Cyprus, along with Paphos and Salamis.[5]

The name of the goddess ʿAštart was used as a theophoric element in several personal names, attested at Athens, Aphrodisias, Delos, and Rhodes, in their Hellenised forms and including the element Στρατ- (Strat-, from ʿAštart).[5]

At Rhodes, the full title of one of the temple attendants who participated of the cult of Melqart, the 𐤌𐤒𐤌 𐤀𐤋𐤌 (miqim ʾelīm), bore the title of 𐤌𐤕𐤓𐤇 𐤏𐤔𐤕𐤓𐤍𐤉 (mtrḥ ʿAštarōniy, possibly meaning "ʿAštartean husband").[5]

A Sidonian woman is recorded as having honoured ʿAštart, assimilated to the Egyptian ꜣūsat, in the official Serapeum of Delos.[5]

At Kos, a Phoenician thiasote took ʿAštart and Ζευς Σωτηρ (Zeus Soter), that is 𐤁𐤏𐤋 𐤌𐤄𐤋𐤊 (Baʿl Mahalāk, lit. 'Baʿl of the Crossings (of the Sea)') as his patron deities, and a son of the Sidonian king Abdalonymus dedicated a piece of maritime art to the goddess ʿAštart-Aphroditē.[5]

In the late 8th century BC, Phoenicians repurposed an old Copper Age megalithic structure at Tas-Silġ on the island of Malta into a temple of ʿAštart where offerings were given to her by readjusting its walls, placing their alter on an older altar stone, building several shrines, and placing there large numbers of votive gifts, especially Hellenistic-style statues.[5]

The sanctuary of ʿAštart at Tas-Silg was of large dimensions, being 100 metres wide, and was renowned in antiquity for its great wealth. The Tas-Silġ temple has yielded many Punic inscriptions dating from the 5th to 1st centuries BC containing short dedications to ʿAštart, who was there identified with the Greek supreme goddess Ηρα (Hēra) and later with the Italic IVNO (Iūnō), due to which Cicero later referred to it as the FANVM IVNONIS (fānum Iūnōnis, lit. 'temple of Iūnō').[5]

A temple of ʿAštart also existed on the island of Gozo.[5]

ʿAštart worshipped in Sicily at the Mount Eryx, where stood a temple a goddess, on a rocky outcrop which domonates from its north-east the city of Eryx, which itself was a town which had once belonged to the Elymians and was an ally of the Phoenicians settled at Ṣiṣ and Moṭuʾa before becoming a Punic fort during the 4th to 3rd century BC. The temple of Mount Eryx was initially dedicated to an indigenous goddess named in Oscan inscriptions as 𐌇𐌄𐌓𐌄𐌍𐌕𐌀𐌔 𐌇𐌄𐌓𐌖𐌊𐌉𐌍𐌀 (Herentas Herukina), who was later identified with ʿAštart, and later to the Greek Aphroditē and the Roman VENVS ERYCINA (Venus Erycīna).[5]

The Romans themselves called the temple of Mount Eryx the VENERIS FANVM (Veneris fānum), and according to a Roman coin from the 1st century BC, it had four columns, the mountain itself was surrounded by a wall, so that the shrine could only reached by passing through a monumental gate. Claudius Aelianus recounted a legend, according to which the Veneris fānum possessed an open-air altar from which all the sacrifices offered to the goddess during the day would disappear during the night and would be replaced with dew and fresh herbs, which was similar to some characteristics of the cult of the Cypriot ʿAštart.[5]

Older coins depicted the goddess of Eryx with a dove, which was an attribute of the Levantine ʿAštart, as well as with the Greek Erōs, the son of Aphroditē, and a dog, which was commonly found within Phoenician religion and thus showed the presence of West Asian influences on her. Later coins represent her wearing a laurel wreath and a diadem.[5]

Another typically Levantine aspect of the cult of the ʿAštart of Eryx was the practise of sacred prostitution, which was carried out by the "servants" of the goddess. Sacred prostitution at the Veneris fānum was well-known enough in antiquity that Titus Maccius Plautus recorded an old man's advice to a pimp in which he mentioned that courtesans at the shrine would earn large amounts of money.[5]

The worship of this goddess later spread to the Graeco-Roman world, where her worship is attested at Rome, Herculaneum, Dikaiarkhia, Potentia, and Greece. In the Punic world, she was worshipped at Karalis, in Sardinia, at Carthage, where two inscriptions refer to the ʿAštart of Eryx, as well as at Thibilis, Cirta, Madaure, and Sicca Veneria, which was well known in ancient times for its practise of sacred prostitution,[5] which was performed there by the PVNICAE FEMINAE (Pūnicae fēminae, lit. 'Carthaginian women').[33]

Although the goddess ʿAštart held lesser importance in North Africa, she was worshipped at Carthage, where her cult was imported directly from Phoenicia, especially from Tyre and Sidon, as well as from Eryx.[5]

A 7th century BC golden medallion from Carthage mentioned the goddess ʿAštart alongside an individual named 𐤐𐤂𐤌𐤋𐤉𐤍 (Pygmalion to whom the medallion belonged.[5]

During the Punic period, ʿAštart was connected to the worship of ʾEšmūn, as she was in the Sidonian temple at Bustān aš-Šayḫ, and she was herself worshipped under the name of 𐤏𐤔𐤕𐤓𐤕 𐤄𐤀𐤃𐤓𐤕 (ʿAštart ha-ʾaddīrat, lit. 'Mighty ʿAštart'). ʿAštart, like Tannit, possessed a temple of her own in the city of Carthage, which was located in the city's centre. It was likely the warrior form of the goddess who was worshipped in this temple, since her weapons and chariot were kept there.[5]

The Punic general Ḥannī-Baʿl invoked ʿAštart, referring to her in Greek as Hēra, as one of the many deities he took as witness in the treaty he concluded with the king Philip V of Macedon.[5]

During the 3rd to 2nd centuries BC, a temple to the Egyptian goddess ꜣūsat, identified to ʿAštart, existed at Carthage.[23]

Following the destruction of Carthage and its annexation by the Roman Republic at the end of the Punic Wars, the Romans continued the worship of ʿAštart under the name of IVNO CAELESTIS (Iūnō Caelestis, lit. 'the Celestial Iūnō'), and when they rebuilt Carthage in 123 BC, they initially named it IVNONIA (Iūnōnia) after Iūnō Caelestis, that is after ʿAštart. The Romans also rebuilt the temple of ʿAštart and dedicated it to Iūnō Caelestis, who was thus a Roman continuation of the initial Punic cult of ʿAštart, and a distinct goddess from the native Roman IVNO REGINA (Iūnō Rēgīna). During the Roman period, ʿAštart was still worshipped under her Phoenician name at Thuburbo Maius, where she was identified with Iūnō Caelestis.[5]

The identification of ʿAštart with the Egyptian ꜣūsat continued in the formerly Punic territories of North Africa after the Roman conquest, and several Isea existed in the region under Roman rule.[23]

Roman writers mentioned that Africans worshipped IVNO POENA (Iūnō Poena, lit. 'the Punic Iūnō', who arrived from the East and whose favourite place to stay was Carthage; Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus in the 2nd century AD noted the parallels between the African Caelestis and the Levantine ʿAštart; Hērōdianos in the 2nd to 3rd century AD mentioned a goddess Ουρανια (Ourania, lit. 'the Celestial One'), who was worshipped by the Carthaginians and the Libyans, and whose name he recorded as Αστροαρχη (Astroarkhē, lit. 'Queen of the Stars'), which was both a deformation and reinterpretation of the name of ʿAštart; and Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis recorded that Punic people called Iūnō as "Astarte," that is ʿAštart.[5]

The worship of ʿAštart-Caelestis held an exceptional importance at Mididi, where she was called by her Phoenician-Punic name, and was called the "wife of Baʿl." Attesting of her primacy at Midid was a stela discovered there, with the goddess being depicted on its pediment, while on its lower level was the African Saturn (that is, Baʿl Ḥamōn), to whose right was the goddess Kubeleya seated on her lion, who was herself identified at Mididi with ʿAštart, and not with Tanit.[5]

The Roman temple of Iūnō Caelestis, according to the 5th century AD Bishop of Carthage, Quodvultdeus, was of large proportions, and was surrounded by shrines to various deities associated to the goddess, and the 5th century AD Bishop of Byzacena Victor Vitensis described it as being located near the Baths of Antoninus; the temple had already been desacrated under the reign of the Roman emperor Flavius Theodosius, and it was finally destroyed in 421 AD following unrest by the pagan population of the city.[5]

The Etruscans identified ʿAštart with their own goddess 𐌖𐌍𐌉 (Uni), as attested by the gold tablets discovered in 1964 at the site of renowned sanctuary built in the 6th century BC to the goddess Uni in the town of Pyrgi, the port of the Etruscan city-state of Cisra. Uni was associated to the god 𐌕𐌉𐌍𐌉𐌀 (Tinia), who was the Etruscan equivalent of the Greek Ζευς (Zeus) and was assimilated to Melqart, with the divine couple of Uni and Tinia being thus assimilated to the Phoenician-Punic divine couple of ʿAštart and Melqart.[5]

The gold tablets from the Pyrgi renowned were engraved with Etruscan and Phoenician-Punic inscriptions recording the dedication of a cult centre to ʿAštart by the king Tiberius Velianas of Cisra, who ruled around c. 500 BC, on "the day of the burial of the god (Melqart)." The practise of this cult to the Phoenician-Punic by an Etruscan king might have been the result of a possible treaty with Carthage, and the rites practised at the shrine of Pyrgi included sacred prostitution, performed by the SCORTA PYRGENSIA (scorta Pyrgensia, lit. 'the prostitutes of Pyrgi').[5]

The shrine of Pyrgi was a wealthy one, as evidenced by the 1500 talents which Dionysios I of Syracuse looted from it in 384 BC.[5]

As attested by the Seville/El Carambolo Statuette, imported from the Levant to Hispania, the Phoenician activities in the Mediterranean had spread the cult of ʿAštart till Hispania.[5]

The worship of ʿAštart also continued in Hispania after it was conquered by the Romans, with the goddess being there also called Iūnō, and the existence of a temple and an altar to "Iūnō," that is to ʿAštart, is mentioned by Artemidōros and Pomponius Mela. One Latin inscription from the Roman imperial period refers to a priest named Herculis whose father was named Iūnōnis, reflecting the Punic association of "Hercules" (Melqart) and "Iūnō" (ʿAštart).[5]

The "Islands of Hēra," or "Islands of Iūnō," located in the Strait of Gibraltar, as well as the island of Iūnōnia in the Atlantic Ocean and the "Cape of Hēra" or "Cape of Iūnō" (presently Cape Trafalgar), also owed their names to ʿAštart.[5]

Under the Roman Empire, the cult of ʿAštart had spread till the foot of Hadrian's Wall in Britannia, where she was invoked using her Phoenician name and associated to the "Tyrian Hēraklēs," that is to Melqart, thus being a continuation of the close connection between Melqart and ʿAštart, and attesting of the Phoenician origin of this cult.[5]

A typically Levantine aspect of the cult of ʿAštart was the practise of sacred prostitution,[5] which was performed by specific categories of her temples' clergy who were exercised this function on a permanent basis. The different categories of sacred prostitutes were the:[34][33]

• 𐤏𐤋𐤌𐤕 (ʿlmt, lit. 'nubile girls'), who were sometimes simply called 𐤀𐤌𐤕 𐤔 𐤏𐤔𐤕𐤓𐤕 (ʾmt š ʿAštart, lit. 'servants of ʿAštart');
• 𐤊𐤋𐤁𐤌 (klbm, lit. 'dogs'), who were male sacred prostitutes who engaged in homosexual intercourse;
• 𐤂𐤓𐤌 (grm, lit. 'young men' or lit. 'whelps'), who were later called 𐤏𐤁𐤃 𐤁𐤕 𐤏𐤔𐤕𐤓𐤕 (ʿbd bt ʿAštart, lit. 'servants of the Temple of ʿAštart').

The practise of sacred prostitution is attested at the temple of ʿAštart in Byblos, and sacred prostitutes and "whelps" are recorded at the temples of ʿAštart at Afqa and Baalbek until the 4th century AD. The practise is also recorded in Cyprus, especially at Paphos, Amathous, and Kition, and in Sicily, at Eryx, from where two sacred prostitutes of Carthaginian origin are known by name: 𐤀𐤓𐤔𐤕𐤁𐤏𐤋 (ʾArišut-Baʿl, lit. 'Desired object of Baʿl') and her daughter 𐤀𐤌𐤕𐤌𐤋𐤒𐤓𐤕 (ʾAmot-Milqart, lit. 'Servant of Milqart').[33]

Sacred prostitution in the honour of ʿAštart was also practised at Carthage, as well as at Sicca Veneria, which was renowned for its sacred prostitution rituals, and sacred prostitution might have also been performed at some brothels.[33]

The Phoenician imagery of "the woman at the window," as well as the (parakuptousa of Cyprus, the Venus prōspiciēns) of Salamis, as well as the El Carambolo statuette depicting a naked ʿAštart and some specific feminine images were semantically connected to sacred prostitution performed in the honour of ʿAštart.[33]

Other ancient Mediterranean peoples considered ʿAštart to be the supreme goddess of the Phoenicians, due to which several of them identified her with their own supreme goddess, with the Greeks identifying her with Ηρα (Hēra), the Etruscans with 𐌖𐌍𐌉 (Uni), and the Romans with IVNO (Iūnō).

The Graeco-Romans Hellenised the name of ʿAštart as Ασταρτη (Astartē), which they in turn Latinised as ASTARTE (Astarte), and identified her with their own goddesses Αφροδιτη (Aphroditē) and VENVS (Venus) due to her erotic aspect.[5]

In the writings of the 1st century AD Roman poet Publius Vergilius Maro, the goddess Venus mentioned the Cypriot shrine of ʿAštart at Amathous among her most famous temples.[5]

ʿAštart's variant of ʿAštarōniy was Hellenised as Αστρονοη (Astronoē) under the influence of the Greek term αστρον (astron, lit. 'constellation'.[5]

Loukianos of Samosata identified ʿAštart with the Greek Moon-goddess Σεληνη (Selenē).[5]

The goddess 𐤏𐤔𐤕𐤓𐤕 (ʿAštart) was also worshipped in Palestine, where her cult enjoyed high prestige until the Graeco-Roman period.[5]

An Ammonite seal dedicated to 𐤏𐤔𐤕𐤓𐤕 (ʿAštart) was found in Sidon.[5]

The Hebrew Bible records that the Philistines displayed the armour of the dead Israelite king Šāʾūl in their temple of ʿAštart, due to her role as a goddess of war.[5]

The inhabitants of the Philistine city-state of ʾAšqalōn worshipped ʿAštart and identified her with the Greek goddess Αφροδιτη Ουρανια (Aphroditē Ourania).[27]

In some kabbalistic texts and in medieval and renaissance occultism (ex. The Book of Abramelin), the name Astaroth was assigned to a male demon bearing little resemblance to the figure known from antiquity. For the use of the Hebrew plural form ʿAštārōṯ in this sense, see Astaroth.

In the Baʿal Epic of Ugarit, Ashtart is one of the allies of the eponymous hero. With the help of Anat she stops him from attacking the messengers who deliver the demands of Yam[35] and later assists him in the battle against the sea god, possibly "exhorting him to complete the task" during it.[36] It's a matter of academic debate if they were also viewed as consorts.[37] Their close relation is highlighted by the epithet "face of Baal" or "of the name of Baal."[38]

A different narrative, so-called "Myth of Astarte the huntress" casts Ashtart herself as the protagonist, and seemingly deals both with her role as a goddess of the hunt stalking game in the steppe, and with her possible relationship with Baal.[39]

Fragmentary narratives describe Ashtart and Anat hunting together. They were frequently treated as a pair in cult.[40] For example, an incantation against snakebite invokes them together in a list of gods who asked for help.[41] Texts from Emar, which are mostly of ritual nature unlike narrative ones known from Ugarit, indicate that Ashtart was a prominent deity in that city as well, and unlike in Ugarit, she additionally played a much bigger role in cult followings than Anat.[42]

While the association between Ashtart and Anat is well attested, primary sources from Ugarit and elsewhere provide no evidence in support of the misconception that Athirat (Asherah) and Ashtart were ever conflated, let alone that Athirat was ever viewed as Baal's consort like Ashtart possibly was. Scholar of Ugaritic mythology and the Bible Steve A. Wiggins in his monograph A Reassessment of Asherah: With Further Considerations of the Goddess notes that such arguments rest on scarce biblical evidence (which indicates at best a confusion between obscure terms in the Book of Judges[43] rather than between unrelated deities in Canaanite or Bronze Age Ugaritic religion) sums up the issue with such claims: "(...) Athtart begins with an ayin, and Athirat with an aleph. (...) Athtart appears in parallel with Anat in texts (...), but Athirat and Athtart do not occur in parallel."[44] God lists from Ugarit indicate that Ashtart was viewed as analogous to Mesopotamian Ishtar and Hurrian Ishara,[3] but not Athirat.