The antiquity of 'Ashtaroth (if the name be read and identified correctly) is attested independently by Egyp. and Assyr. inscriptions : an Astertu occurs in the list of places in Southern Syria conquered by Tahutmes III., of the 18th dynasty, in his twentv-second year (Tomkins, 'J'SDA ix. 262, and in JiP' v. 45, No, 28 ; W. Max Miiller, Asien u. Eur. nach altag. JJenkm. p. 162; cf. Wiedemann, Ag. Gesck. 348" f., 371); and an Ashtarti is mertioned in the correspondence, from Pal., with Ameni'iphia IV. (15th cent. B.C.) as having been in the possession of the Egyptians,
and being seized by rebels (Bezold and Badge, Th4 Tel el- A mama Tablets in the Brit. Mas., Nos. 43, 64 ; cf. Sayce, Patriarchal Age, 1895, pp. 133, 153). The writers named identify these places with 'Ashteroth-^Jamaim ; but they may equally well have been the later capital of 'Og, Ashtaroth (supposing thia to have been distinct).
S. R. Driver.
ASHTEROTH-KARNAIM {n-Pfl n\-yi:i]i Ashtaroth* of the two horTis). — This is given in the Sam. Targ. as Clip n'j'£y t ''Aphinith J^arnaim,' and in the Arab. VS of Sa'adya as ' E^-^anamain.' It is a site of hoary age. The Kephaim were there smitten by Chedorlaomer (Gn 14°). Under this name it is seen no more in canon. Scrip. ; but it appears aa ' Carnaim ' or ' Carnion ' in the Books of Alac. It is a city ' great and strong ' (1 Mao 5^). It is ' hard to besiege, and difficult of access, by reason of the narrowness of the approaches on all sides' (RV 2 Mac 12'"). Judas Maccabseus took the city by assault. The inhabitants took refuge in the great temple of Atargatis, an idol resembling Dagon of the Philistines ; by some also identiliea with the Gr. Astarte. There some five and twenty thousand were slain, and the temple itself was destroyed.
The distinction between Ashtaroth and Ajshteroth- Kamaim, indicated in the Onomasticon, is con- firmed by the existence of two sites bearing similar names. Tell 'Ashtera and Tell 'Ash'an. Eusebius and Jerome describe Ashteroth-Kamaim as vicus grandis in angulo Batanace, distin- guishing two villages of the same name, 9 miles apart, which lay inter Adaram et Abilatn civitiites. From Tell 'Ash'ari, Der'ah (Adara) is distant U miles to the S.E., and Abil (Abila) 14 miles to the S.W., while Tell 'Ashtera is about 5 miles N. Tell 'Ash'ari is a position of (jreat strength. On one side is the deep gorge o7 the Yarmuk, on the other extends a great chasm at the head of which is a waterfall. Built on this projecting headland the city was protected on the only side open to attack by a triple wall, traces of winch still remain. There are ruins of a temple beside a bridge which sjjana the Yarmuk lower down, possibly that destroyed by Judas. Tell 'Ashtera, standing in the plain, although once girt by mighty walls, could never have been a place of such strength as this. The question of identification can be settled only by excavation. The .Sam. Aphinith, which may be Afineh on Jebel llaur&n, not far from Bo^rah (Waddington, No. 2296-7), and the Arab. E§-Sanamain on the Ifaj road, south of Damascus, 20 m. N.N.E. of Tell 'Ashteri, are palpably impossible. W. EwiNa.
ASHTORETH (n-ih^^y, plur. nSij^is 'AahtSroth).— The i)rincipal goddess of the ^idonians (1 K U"-", 2 K 23'*), and a prominent goddess among the Phienicians generally, in whose honour Solomon built a high-place on the hills opposite the temple {ll.cc), who IS stated (by different Dent, writers) to have been worshipped previously by the un- spiritual Israelites, Jg 2" 10', 1 S 7'-^ 12'^— all plur., 'Ba'al (or the Ba'als) and the 'Ashtoreths,' I.e. 'Ashtoreths distinguished by the places at which they were worsliipped, or by special attri- butes,— and in whose temple at Ashfjelon (1 S 31'°)! the Philistines deposited the armour of Saul. The true pronunciation of the word was probably 'Ashtart (cf. LXX and other Or. writers, Aardfrrri) : 'Ashtoreth (cf. Molech for Milk) perhaps arose by malicious substitution of the vowels of
• Aa pointed hj the Muaorrt«8, AshtCrotk la tlw oonatraol aUto of AflhtAroth, the jihirol of AshtV\reIh.
t So PeUnnann's MS A : PcU^niuimi'i text, however, ba* a'rip nnrrv ; and Walton'a Polyitlott rfa<l8 n'Jip n'l'BV.
t Reiul_ 'houa* (<.«. temple) ol 'A$lu<lretJk' : at. LXJl ib W
168
ASHTORETH
ASHTORKTH
bfisheth, 'shame.' 'Ashtart is frequently mentioned in Pluen. inscriptions, and is an element in numer- ous Phccn. proper names. Tabnith, king of Sidon, styles both himself and his father Eshmun'azar I., priest of 'Ashtart ; and in his sepulchral inscription places his tomb under her protection, declaring that its violation would be an 'abomination to 'Ashtart ' (see the Inscr. in full in Driver, Notes on Samuel, p. xxvi). Eshmun'azar, son of the Tabnith just mentioned, and his mother Am'ashtart, ' priestess of 'Ashtart, our lady ([n^n),' state that they have built a house (temple) for 'Ashtart in §idon {CIS I. i. S"-'"). This was probably the great temple of 'Affrdpnj in Sidon, which Lucian Wsited (de Dea Syria, % 4). Besides, however, this temple which was dedicated to 'Ashtart, as jiatron-goddess of Sidon, Eshmun'azar and his mother built another in honour of a second Ashtart, bearing the title of Sjia op ' name of Ba'al ' (ib. 1. '*).* So again Bod'ashtart, another king of Sidon, builds a temple mmry'? '^«h ' to his god 'Ashtart' (ib. 4'). It is in accordance with the leading position thus accorded to 'Ashtart at Sidon that on Sidonian coins the goddess is often figured standing on the prow of a galley, with her right hand, holding a erown, stretched forward, as though pointing the vessel on its way.f