Astarte pron.:
/æˈstɑrti/ (
Ancient Greek: Ἀστάρτη, "Astártē") is the Greek name of the
Mesopotamian (ie
Assyrian,
Akkadian,
Babylonian)
Semitic goddess Ishtar known throughout the Near East and Eastern Mediterranean from the early
Bronze Age to Classical times. It is one of a number of names associated with the chief goddess or female divinity of those peoples.
[1] She is found as
Ugaritic ʻṯtrt ("ʻAṯtart" or "ʻAthtart");
Phoenician "ʻštrt" (
ʻAshtart); and
Hebrew עשתרת (
Ashtoret, singular, or
Ashtarot, plural), and appears originally in
Akkadian as
D, the grammatically masculine name of the goddess
Ishtar; the form
Astartu is used to describe her age.
[2] The name appears also in
Etruscan as
Uni-Astre (
Pyrgi Tablets),
Ishtar or
Ashtart.
Astarte was connected with
fertility,
sexuality, and
war. Her symbols were the
lion, the
horse, the
sphinx, the
dove, and a
star within a circle indicating the planet
Venus. Pictorial representations often show her naked. She has been known as the deified
evening star.
[3]
Astarte (
Ishtar) was accepted by the
Greeks under the name of
Aphrodite or, alternatively,
Artemis. The island of
Cyprus, one of Astarte's greatest faith centers, supplied the name Cypris as Aphrodite's most common byname.
Astarte arrived in Ancient Egypt during the 18th dynasty along with other deities who were worshipped by northwest Semitic people. She was especially worshipped in her aspect as a
warrior goddess, often paired with the goddess
Anat.
In the
Contest Between Horus and Set, these two goddesses appear as daughters of
Ra and are given in marriage to the god
Set, here identified with the Semitic name
Hadad.
Astarte also was identified with the lioness warrior goddess Sekhmet, but seemingly more often conflated, at least in part, with Isis to judge from the many images found of Astarte suckling a small child. Indeed there is a statue of the 6th century BC in the
Cairo Museum, which normally would be taken as portraying Isis with her child
Horus on her knee and which in every detail of iconography follows normal Egyptian conventions, but the dedicatory inscription reads: "Gersaphon, son of Azor, son of Slrt, man of Lydda, for his Lady, for Astarte." See G. Daressy, (1905) pl. LXI (CGC 39291).
Plutarch, in his
On Isis and Osiris, indicates that the King and Queen of Byblos, who, unknowingly, have the body of Osiris in a
pillar in their hall, are
Melcarthus (i.e.
Melqart) and Astarte (though he notes some instead call the Queen
Saosis or
Nemanūs, which Plutarch interprets as corresponding to the Greek name
Athenais
