Astarte | |
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Goddess of war, beauty, hunting, love | |
![]() Phoenician statuette figurine of ʿAštart from El Carambolo in Spain | |
Major cult center | Ugarit, Emar, Sidon, Tyre |
Planet | possibly Venus |
Symbols | lion, horse, chariot |
Parents | Epigeius/Ouranos and Ge/Gaea (Hellenised Phoenician tradition) Ptah or Ra (in Egyptian tradition) |
Consort | possibly Baal (Hadad)[1][2] |
Equivalents | |
Greek equivalent | Aphrodite |
Roman equivalent | Venus |
Mesopotamian equivalent | Ishtar |
Sumerian equivalent | Inanna |
Hurrian equivalent | Ishara;[3] Shaushka[4] |
Egyptian equivalent | Isis |
Deities of the ancient Near East |
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Religions of the ancient Near East |
Astarte (/əˈstɑːrtiː/; Ἀστάρτη, Astartē) is the Hellenized form of the Ancient Near Eastern goddess ʿAṯtart. ʿAṯtart was the Northwest Semitic equivalent of the East Semitic goddess Ishtar.[5]
Astarte was worshipped from the Bronze Age through classical antiquity, and her name is particularly associated with her worship in the ancient Levant among the Canaanites and Phoenicians, though she was originally associated with Amorite cities like Ugarit and Emar, as well as Mari and Ebla.[6] She was also celebrated in Egypt, especially during the reign of the Ramessides, following the importation of foreign cults there. Phoenicians introduced her cult in their colonies on the Iberian Peninsula.