ASHTORETH I Kings xi. 5; Sept.
'ArTdprs) is the name of a goddess of the Sidonians (t Kings xi. 5, 33), and also of the Philistines (I Sam. xxxi. to), whose worship was introduced among the Israelites during the period of the judges (Judg. ii. 13 ; I Sam. vii. 4), was celebrated by Solomon himself (1 Kings xi. 5), and was finally put down by Josiah (2 Kings xxiii. 13). She is frequently mentioned in connection with Baal, as the corresponding female divinity (Judg. ii. 13); and, from the addition of the words, 'and all the host of heaven,' in 2 Kings xxiii. 4 (although Asherah occurs there, and not 'Ashtoreth, which will be accounted for below), it is probable that she represented one of the celestial bodies. There is also reason to believe that she is meant by the queen of heaven,' in Jer. vii. 18; xliv. 17 ; whose worship is there said to have been solemnised by burning incense, pouring libations, and offering cakes. Further, by comparing the two passages, 2 Kings xxiii. 4, and Jer. viii. 2, which last speaks of the sun and moon and all the host of heaven, whom they served,' we may conclude that the moos: was worshipped under the names of queen of heaven and of 'Ashtoreth, provided the connection between these titles is established.
According to the testimonies of profane writers, the worship of this goddess, under different names, existed in all countries and colonies of the Syro Arabian nations. She was especially the chief female divinity of the Phoenicians and Syrians— the Baaltis (i. e., domina mea, equivalent to the Greek address, !) to Baal ; 'Ao-rdprn I!? ge-ylcrzn, as Sanchoniathon calls her (ed. Orelli, P• 34). She was known to the Babylonians as Mylitta e., possibly NIT610, the emphatic state of the feminine participle active of Aphel, g-enetrix), Herod. i. t31 ; to the Arabians as Alitta, or Alilat, Herod. iii. 8 (i e. , according to Pocock's etymology p. I to—al Ilahat, the goddess [which may, however, also mean the crescent moan—see Freytag's Lex. Ar.]; or al the moon; or, according to Kleuker's suggestion, al Walid, trix. See Bergmann, De Relig. Arab. lamica. Argentor, 1834, p. 7). The supposed Punic name Tholath, which Miinter Hama. ker, and others considered to mean genetrix, and to belong to this goddess, cannot be adduced here, as Gesemus has recently shewn that the name has arisen from a false reading of the inscriptions (see his llfonam. Ling. Phrenic. p. 114). But it is not at all open to doubt that this goddess was worshipped.
a At ancient Carthage, and probably under her Phoe nician name.
The classical writers, who usually endeavoured to identify the gods of other nations with their own, rather than to discriminate between them, have recognised several of their own divinities in Ash toreth. Thus she was considered to be yuna (BijX0ts ' AOpoarn, Hesychius; `Juno sine dubitatione a Pmnis Astarte vocatur,' Augus tin. Quasi. in 7ud. xvi.); or Venus, especially Venus Urania (Cicer. Nat. Dear. iii. 23; 'Aarciprn SF ECTTCP 4? ?rap' 7rpoaayopevokaym Theodoret. izz lily: iii. Reg. Quast. L.; and the numerous inscriptions of Bona Dea Ccelestis, Venus Ccelestis, etc., cited in Winter's Religion Kar Mager, p. 75); or Luna (Olimaday dpxnv dpoktd.bucre creXOnp dent OeXCIV T Es, Herodian, v. 13 ; Lucian De Dea iv.) The fart that there is a connection among all these divinities cannot escape any student of ancient re ligions ; but it is not easy to discover the precise link of that connection. Winer ingeniously sug
gests (LW. RealukYrt.) that Ashtoreth was con founded with Juno, because she is the female counterpart to Baal, the chief god of the Syrians— their Jupiter, as it were; and with Venus, because the same lascivious rites were common to her wor ship, and to that of Ashtoreth and her cognate Mylitta (Creuzer's Symbaik, ii. 23). But so great is the intermixture and confusion between the gods of pagan religions, ' pro diversitate nominis, non pro numinis varietate,' as Ambrose says, that Min ter further identifies Ashtoreth—due allowance being made for difference of time and place—with the female Kabir, Axiokersa, with the Egyptian Isis, with the Paphian Venus, with the Taurian and Ephesian Diana, with the Bellona of Comana, with the Armenian Anahid, and with the Samian, Mal tesian, and Lacinian Juno. She has also been con sidered to be the same as the Syrian fish-deities. [ATERGATIS.] As for the power of nature, which was wor shipped under the name of Ashtoreth, Creuzer and Winter assert that it was the principle of concep tion and parturition—that subordinate power which is fecundated by a superior influence, but which is the agent of all births throughout the universe. As such, Minter maintains, in his Relzgion der Baly lanier, p. 21, in opposition to the remarks of Gesenius in his 7esaias, iii. 337—that the original form under which Ashtoreth was worshipped was the moon ; and that the transition from that to the planet Venus (which we will immediately notice) was unquestionably an innovation of a later date. It is evident that the moon alone can be properly called the queen of heaven ; as also that the depen dent relation of the moon to the sun makes it a more appropriate symbol of that sex, whose func tions as female and mother, throughout the whole extent of animated nature, were embodied in Ash toreth. [BAAL.] The rites of her worship, if we may assume their resembling those which profane authors describe as paid to the cognate goddesses, in part agree with the few indications in the Old Test., in part complete the brief notices there into an accordant picture. The cakes mentioned in Jer. vii. IS, which are called in Hebrew c+= Kavvanim, were also known to the Greeks by the name xat363pes, and were by them made in the shape of a sickle, in reference to the new moon. Among animals the dove, the crab, and, in later times, the lion, were sacred to her ; and among fruits, the pomegranate. No blood was shed on her altar ; but male animals, and chiefly kids, were sacrificed to her (Tacit. Hist. ii. 3). Hence some suppose that the reason why Judah promised the harlot a kid, was that she might sacrifice it to Ashtoreth (see Tuch's note to Gen. XXXVIH. 17). The most prominent part of her worship, however, consisted of those libidinous orgies, which Augustine, who was an eye-witness of their horrors in Carthage, describes with such indignation (De Civil. Dei, ii. 3). Her priests were eunuchs in women's attire (the peculiar name of whom is ?4j-ip, sacri, i. e., cinwdi, Gai 1 Kings xiv. 24), and women (TIffilp, sacra', i. c., meretrices—Hos. iv. 14, whin term ought to be distinguished from ordinary harlots, rov), who, like the Bayaderes of India, prostituted themselves to enrich the temple of this goddess. The prohi bition in Dent. xxiii. 18 appears to allude to the dedication of such funds to such a purpose.