Difference between revisions of "Ashtoreth"

<p> The chief goddess of the Phoenicians, as [[Baal]] was the male. By the plural (ASHTAROTH, Baalim: &nbsp;Judges 10:6; &nbsp;1 Samuel 7:4) different phases of the same deity, according to the different places of worship, are indicated. Always plural until under Solomon Ashtoreth or [[Astarte]] of [[Zidon]] was introduced (&nbsp;1 Kings 11:5; &nbsp;1 Kings 11:3). She appears among the Philistines as the idol in whose temple they hung up Saul's armor (&nbsp;1 Samuel 31:10). She is identified as Ishtar or Nana, the planetary Venus among the [[Assyrian]] gods in inscriptions. Her name appears also in [[Cyprian]] and Carthaginian monuments; and on the sarcophagus of a king Esmunazar, who restored her temple at Zidon, along with his mother her priestess, Am-ashtoreth. She partly represents the planet Venus, partly the moon, "the queen of heaven" (&nbsp;Jeremiah 7:18; &nbsp;Jeremiah 44:17-18). (See [[Ashteroth-Karnaim]] </p> <p> Our "star," Greek " '''''Aster''''' ," Latin '''''Stella''''' , is akin. Her worship was most licentious and abominable; closely connected with that of (See [[Asherah]] , [["The Grove"]]  Ashtoreh is the goddess, asherah "the grove," the image or the symbol of the goddess, of wood; '''''Asher''''' , '''''Yashar''''' , "to be straight," a straight stem of a tree living, or fixed upright (&nbsp;1 Kings 18:19; &nbsp;2 Kings 21:7; &nbsp;2 Kings 23:6; &nbsp;2 Kings 23:13-14; &nbsp;2 Kings 23:15; &nbsp;Judges 6:25; &nbsp;Judges 6:30). The "bringing out the asherah from the house of the Lord," and the "cutting down," suit such a symbol, not a grace in our sense. The active and passive powers of nature, generative and receptive, suggested the male and female deities, Baal and Ashtoreh. The ewes of a flock were called Ashteroth on this principle, propagating the flock (&nbsp;Deuteronomy 7:13). </p> <p> The earliest worship of apostasy was that of the sun, moon, etc. This naturally was grafted on idol worship, Baal sometimes being the sun god, sometimes distinct (&nbsp;2 Kings 23:5). So Ashtoreh and the moon. The stone pillar was the symbol of Baal, as the sacred tree was the symbol of Ashtoreh; stone marking his strength as the male, the tree her fruitfulness (&nbsp;Deuteronomy 16:21). The sacred tree constantly accompanies the gods in the Assyrian monuments. In the [[Moabite]] [[Dibon]] stone the male form Astar is prefixed to Chamos or Chemosh, answering to the female Astarte. Identical with Athtar or Athtor of the Himyeritic inscriptions, and Estar of the [[Ninevite]] inscriptions; the [[Canaanite]] form of the male Aphroditos answering to the female Aphrodite. </p>

<p> ''''' ash´to ''''' - ''''' reth ''''' , ''''' ash ''''' - ''''' tō reth ''''' ( עשׁתּרת , <i> ''''' ‛ashtōreth ''''' </i> ; plural עשׁתּרות , <i> ''''' ‛ashtārōth ''''' </i> ; Ἀσταρτῆ , <i> ''''' Astartḗ ''''' </i> ): </p> <p> 1. Name and Origin </p> <p> 2. Attributes of the [[Goddess]] </p> <p> 3. Ashtoreth as a Moon-Goddess </p> <p> 4. The Local Ashtaroth </p> 1. Name and Origin <p> The name of the supreme goddess of Canaan and the female counterpart of Baal. </p> <p> The name and cult of the goddess were derived from Babylonia, where Ishtar represented the evening and morning stars and was accordingly androgynous in origin. Under Semitic influence, however, she became solely female, but retained a memory of her primitive character by standing, alone among the Assyro-Bab goddesses, on a footing of equality with the male divinities. From Babylonia the worship of the goddess was carried to the Semites of the West, and in most instances the feminine suffix was attached to her name; where this was not the case the deity was regarded as a male. On the Moabite Stone, for example, 'Ashtar is identified with Chemosh, and in the inscriptions of southern Arabia 'Athtar is a god. On the other hand, in Atar-gatis or Derketo (2 Macc 12:26), Atar, without the feminine suffix, is identified with the goddess 'Athah or 'Athi (Greek <i> ''''' Gatis ''''' </i> ). The cult of the Greek <i> ''''' Aphrodı́tē ''''' </i> in [[Cyprus]] was borrowed from that of Ashtoreth; whether the Greek name also is a modification of Ashtoreth, as has often been maintained, is doubtful. </p> 2. Attributes of the Goddess <p> In Babylonia and Assyria Ishtar was the goddess of love and war. An old [[Babylonian]] legend related how the descent of Ishtar into [[Hades]] in search of her dead husband, Tammuz, was followed by the cessation of marriage and birth in both earth and heaven, while the temples of the goddess at [[Nineveh]] and Arbela, around which the two cities afterward grew up, were dedicated to her as the goddess of war. As such she appeared to one of Assur-bani-pal's seers and encouraged the Assyrian king to march against Elam. The other goddesses of Babylonia, who were little more than reflections of the god, tended to merge into Ishtar who thus became a type of the female divinity, a personification of the productive principle in nature, and more especially the mother and creatress of mankind. </p> <p> The chief seat of the worship of Ishtar in Babylonia was Erech, where prostitution was practiced in her name, and she was served with immoral rites by bands of men and women. In Assyria, where the warlike side of the goddess was predominant, no such rites seem to have been practiced, and, instead, prophetesses were attached to her temples to whom she delivered oracles. </p> 3. Ashtoreth as a Moon-Goddess <p> In Canaan, Ashtoreth, as distinguished from the male 'Ashtar, dropped her warlike attributes, but in contradistinction to <i> ''''' Ashērāh ''''' </i> , whose name and cult had also been imported from Assyria, became, on the one hand, the colorless consort of Baal, and on the other hand, a moon-goddess. In Babylonia the moon was a god, but after the rise of the solar theology, when the larger number of the Babylonian gods were resolved into forms of the sun-god, their wives also became solar, Ishtar, "the daughter of Sin" the moon-god, remaining identified with the evening-star. In Canaan, however, when the solar theology had absorbed the older beliefs, Baal, passing into a sun-god and the goddess who stood at his side becoming a representative of the moon - the pale reflection, as it were, of the sun - A shtoreth came to be regarded as the consort of Baal and took the place of the solar goddesses of Babylonia. </p> 4. The Local Ashtaroth <p> Hence there were as "many Ashtoreths" or Ashtaroth as Baals. They represented the various forms under which the goddess was worshipped in different localities (&nbsp;Judges 10:6; &nbsp;1 Samuel 7:4; &nbsp;1 Samuel 12:10 , etc.). Sometimes she was addressed as Naamah, "the delightful one," Greek <i> ''''' Astro ''''' </i> - <i> ''''' noē ''''' </i> , the mother of Eshmun and the Cabeiri. The Philistines seem to have adopted her under her warlike form (&nbsp;1 Samuel 31:10 the King James Version reading "Ashtoreth," as Septuagint), but she was more usually the moon-goddess (Lucian, <i> De Dea [[Syriac]] </i> ., 4; Herodian, v.6, 10), and was accordingly symbolized by the horns of a cow. See [[Ashtaroth-Karnaim]] . At Ashkelon, where [[Herodotus]] (i.105) places her most ancient temple, she was worshipped under the name of <i> ''''' [[Atar]] ''''' </i> - <i> ''''' gatis ''''' </i> , as a woman with the tail of a fish, and fish were accordingly sacred to her. [[Elsewhere]] the dove was her sacred symbol. The immoral rites with which the worship of Ishtar in Babylonia was accompanied were transferred to Canaan (&nbsp;Deuteronomy 23:18 ) and formed part of the idolatrous practices which the Israelites were called upon to extirpate. </p>