Astarte was a Middle Eastern goddess worshipped from the Bronze Age through classical antiquity, particularly in the ancient Levant among the Canaanites and Phoenicians. The name Astarte is sometimes also applied to her cults in the Mesopotamian cultures of Assyria and Babylonia.
Astarte was associated with fertility, sexuality, and war. 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 been known as the deified morning and evening stars.
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Worship of Astarte began in Syria and Canaan in the first millennium BC and was first mentioned in texts from Ugarit. She came from the same Semitic origins as the Mesopotamian goddess Ishtar. This reverence spread to Cyprus, where she merged with an ancient Cypriot goddess and eventually adopted into the Greek pantheon in Mycenaean and Dark Age times to form Aphrodite.
L.N. Thibos, Sculptor, guided by John Fisher
May, 2019
Limestone, 22" tall
Indiana Limestone, 22” tall. (Privately held)
Click on any image in the gallery to enlarge the view.
Click on any image in the gallery to enlarge the view.
