Goddess Astarte

Astarte is the Greek name of the Assyrian, Akkadian, and Babylonian Semitic goddess Ishtar. 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 also been known as the deified evening star.

She worshiped in the Phoenician city states of Sidon, Tyre, and Byblos; as well as Syria and Canaan, beginning in the first millennium BC. She came from the same Semitic origins as the Mesopotamian goddess Ishtar. Her worship spread to Cyprus. Greeks in classical, Hellenistic, and Roman times occasionally equated Aphrodite with Astarte, in keeping with their frequent practice of synchronizing other deities with their own. Other faith centers were Cythera, Malta, and Eryx, in Sicily, from which she became known to the Romans as Venus.

Astarte arrived in Ancient Egypt during the 18th dynasty. She appeared as daughter of Ra, and are given in marriage to the god Set.

She was usually depicted full faced and naked, except for some ornamental jewelry. Astarte also appeared holding her breasts in her hands. Her thighs were rounded, which was considered to be extremely feminine in that particular culture, while her legs, from her knees down through her ankles to her feet, were pressed closely together.

Ishtar

Easter, the celebration of Jesus's resurrection, is the most sacred day of the Christian year. In ancient Babylon, around the spring solstice, people celebrated the resurrection of their god Tammuz, who was brought back from the underworld by his mother/wife Ishtar (pronounced “Easter” in most Semitic dialects). Flowers, painted eggs, and rabbits were the symbols of the holiday then, as now.

Edward Henry Corbould (1815-1905), "Astarte"

Inanna, another aspect of Ishtar, was a Goddess of Sensual and Sexual Love, and her followers practiced what has been referred to as “sacred prostitution.” Ishtar was also known as the Lady of Battles, and it was in this particular aspect that she sported a full beard, which fell all the way to her breasts. She rode in a chariot which was similar to Astarte’s and like Astate's, it was drawn by seven lions. Ishtar's symbols were the Moon, Venus, the eight-pointed star, a lion and a scorpion.

Nude With Purple Iris, 1919 by Charles Allen Winter (1869-1942)by Catherine La Rose

Salome: Dance of the 7 Veils is also thought to have originated with the myth of the fertility goddess Ishtar (Astarte) of Assyrian and Babylonian religion.

Astarte Syriaca - Rossetti, 1877

I AM BABYLON. I AM INNIN I AM INANNA I AM NANAEA I AM ISHTAR I AM ASTARTE. I AM the purest heart. The holiest place in existence is my sacred womb. Only love can reside there. Death is left below me; it is not permitted within me. For although I welcome and guide the dead I AM Mother of ALL life. I AM the cleanser. I AM the purifier. No unclean thoughts can pass through the gates to my temple, No loveless lust can enter into my presence

Eástre by Jacques Reich

In the bible, Ishtar is called Ashtoreth, the supreme goddess of Caanan and the female counterpart of the gods called Baal or Bel. "The immoral rites with which the worship of Ishtar in Babylonia was accompanied were transferred to Canaan and formed part of the idolatrous practices which the Israelites were called upon to extirpate," says BibleStudyTools.com. Among those pagan, idolatrous practices was the burning of incense, thought to be cannabis (caneh bosm,meaning sweet or good cane, mistranslated as "calamus" in the bible).


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