ASTARTE: MEANING, ATTRIBUTES AND VENERATION - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2025

Astarte was the goddess of sensual and maternal love, fertility and war. In many of her representations, she was shown in the act of breastfeeding a small child for which she was associated with the great mother.

She was a goddess of great relevance to the peoples of different ancient civilizations that occupied the Mediterranean areas such as the Phoenicians, the Israelites and those belonging to Mesopotamia.

Source: wikimedia. Museum of Seville.

The cult of Astarte spread in various ancient civilizations in which various powers or functions were attributed to her and she was associated with other goddesses. The relevance of Astarte was demonstrated by the multiple temples that were built in her name in which various types of offerings were placed.

The cults to the goddess Astarte were carried out by burning branches, incense and, on some occasions, women made cakes to eat with the figure of the deity.

The men approached their temples to leave them the trophies obtained in the wars and they carried out animal or human sacrifices in their honor. These sacrifices were made according to the belief that the Goddess was being fed and in order to thank her for helping them win the battles.

Given its relationship with sensual or passionate love, rituals related to a kind of sacred prostitution were often performed in the temples of the goddess Astarte. These acts are severely criticized in the holy books, in which the goddess Astarte is associated with a pagan deity that the Israelites were forbidden to worship.

Meaning of Astarte

Astarte was one of the most important goddesses of the peoples of Aram, Phenicia, Babylon, Syria, Canaan, Assyria, as well as the territory of Mesopotamia.

As one of the most respected deities, important temples were erected in his honor in each of the cities, in which offerings were placed and numerous cults were rendered to him.

She was one of the main goddesses of the Mediterranean, to whom various functions were assigned, including that of mother goddess. Therefore it was related to fertility, maternal love and a source of life in general. Astarte also ruled passionate and sensual love.

For the Sumerians, Astarte received the name Ishtar and was in charge of ruling the heavens while in other peoples she was known as Anat, 'Goddess of war'.

In honor of Astarte as 'Goddess of war', trophies were placed in her temples and human or animal sacrifices were made in order to give her blood. In turn, to pay homage as 'Goddess of sensual love' rituals were carried out that included sexual encounters between the devotees inside the temples.

General attributes

The attributes that are granted to the goddess Astarte are diverse, which can be differentiated within the multiple cultures that worshiped her.

Among the main attributes that were associated with the goddess Astarte, one of the main representations of the ancient deity shows her as a mother in the act of nursing a baby.

This image was repeated in various towns where Astarte was considered a mother goddess who was closely related to fertility and love.

The animals that served as symbols of representation of the goddess Astarte and that have been found in many of the bronze statuettes of the time are the sheep, the dolphin as a sign of wisdom and the dove.

The lion is one of the animals that was commonly related to Astarte, since it was also represented through the image of a completely naked woman standing on this animal.

In these cases, the image of Astarte was related as the 'Regent Goddess of War' and it was possible that weapons and a beard were added. In addition, within the cults the warriors used to give her their trophies.

Another of Astarte's attributes were the sphinx and a circular figure with a star inside it representing the symbol of the planet Venus.

Source: wikimedia

One of Astarte's attributes was the Sphinx.

Worship in different civilizations

In phenicia

Regarding the religious aspect of the Phoenicians, Astarte was considered one of the most important deities, in fact within the Semites it represented the 'mother Goddess'.

Astarte was represented in the Phoenician culture in various ways in order to worship him, one of the ways in which he was shown was with dry branches or trees.

It could be depicted as a mother nursing her child or, as samples from the time were obtained in Cyprus, in the form of a naked woman standing on a lion.

This image of Astarte refers to the war, which was one of the functions attributed to him and whose worship was carried out around sacrifices or with gifts obtained in the war.

Likewise, Astarte as a goddess of sensual and passionate love was represented on many occasions as a naked woman with her hands on her belly.

In other cases, she wore an image of a naked woman, but her hands covered her pubis or breasts and could be accompanied by snakes, lotus flowers or lilies.

In most of the important temples of Astarte, sacred prostitution cults were continually performed in order to render accounts to the goddess.

In Egypt

It is known that within the religious aspect of Egyptian culture, the goddess represented a deity of great relevance, which was associated with several goddesses.

In Egypt, in a similar way to other civilizations, the goddess Astarte was conceived of various functions as a goddess of maternal and sensual love, war and fertility.

Astarte was considered a mother Goddess to the extent that she was capable of giving life and was associated with Isis who was represented on several occasions nursing a small child.

It was also granted the power to take life in the sense that it represented war, being also related to two deities: Anat and the lioness Sekhmet, to whom strength and power were attributed.

In Egypt, the goddess Astarte was generally depicted as a woman with a covered head, similar to the Egyptians who wore a long robe with a moon disk in her hands.

In judah

In the peoples of Israel, the cult had great preponderance in the periods before the spread of Christianity as a religion. Specifically, the goddess was given functions related to animal and plant life, love in its various manifestations, as well as fertility and war.

Unlike other cultures in which Astarte was one of the most significant deities, in Israel he performed his duties in the company of the god Baal, who according to some conceptions was the son of the goddess. Baal was the god in charge of the fertility of the earth and of men.

The representation of Astarte in Israel was associated with the female deity mother and warrior goddess at the same time. It also represented passionate love, so its symbolism was similar to that of other cultures.

In honor of the deity, multiple human sacrifices were carried out in order to help them and protect them in the midst of constant wars. The warriors used to deliver the trophies obtained in the war in the temples erected in honor of Astarte and they tended to offer him blood that they obtained through animal sacrifice.

Being the 'Goddess of love', the worship that was offered to her often in Israel revolved around sacred prostitution, which was carried out inside the temples.

Astarte in the bible

As a deity and an important authority figure in different peoples of Phenicia and Mesopotamia, he appears in the Bible as an abomination that goes against God's designs.

Originally, the Israelites called Astarte by the name of Astart, which in the holy scriptures the rabbis transformed by adding the vowels of the Hebrew term boset, which means shame.

Therefore, in the bible it receives the name of Astarot and together with the ancient God Baal it is part of the pagan deities to which the Israelites were forbidden to worship.

The Bible refers to Astarte as a Goddess of foreign origin who did not belong to Judah, but to the Phoenician peoples and narrates how the people of Israel were subjected and deprived of their freedom for practicing cults.

About the functions of the Goddess Astarte in the bible, it was mentioned that they were closely related to nature and the creation of life.

References

1. Astarte. Taken from ecured.cu
2. Encyclopedia Britannica. Astarte. Taken from britannica.com
3. Astarte. Taken from mythology.fandom.com
4. New World Encyclopedia. Astarte. Taken from newworldencyclopedia.org
5. worship. The Goddess Astarte. Taken from O-culto.blogspot.com