It Soiom. Keel. UilL U. 6; Zoaimus, 1. S8,— cited by Barton, p. 8'Z.
Heaven,' to whom, in Jeremiah's daj', the women of Judah ofl'ered cakes (cj.;, a peculiar term) and other sacrifices (Jer 7" 44""'), was either the AssjT. Ishtar,* or her Phocn. counterpart 'Ashtart. ' Celestial,' now, is an epithet applieJ to 'Ashtart elsewhere. Sanchoniathon (p. 80) speaks of Astarte as daughter of Ovpafds ; and Sozomen remarks that the Ajihrodite mentioned above as worshipped at Aphaka, was called then Ovpanla. The temple of Qvpavia 'A(ppo5lTTi, also, il Aslikelon, mentioned by Herodotus (i. 105), and stated by him to be the oldest of that goddess of which he could learn, can hardly beany other than the temple of Ashtart, referred to in 1 S 31'°.t All this becomes clearer if we supplement the some- what scanty notices which we po.ssess of Ashtart herself by the more abundant materials relating to Aphrodite. For not only did Aphrodite correspond in general character to Ashtart, but nothing is more certain than that her attributes were largely moulded upon those of 'Ashtart, and that many elements in her cult were of Plucn. origin. Already Homer frequently speaks of Aphrodite as Ki^xpis (//. V. 330, et<:.) and KvOipeia (Od. viii. '288, etc.), and alludes to her temple at Paplios,J which, then and afterwards, was so celebrated that no term is more frequently applied to Venus by classical writers than Paphia or Cypria. Cyprus, however, is known independently to have been not only colonised from Phoenicia, but also (see above) to have been devoted to the worship of Ashtart ; and according to Herodotus (^c), the Cyprians them- selves declared their temple (at Paplios) to have been founded from that of Ovpavia 'AippoSiTi] at Ashkelon ; while the temple of the same deity in Cythera, the island off the S. coast of Lacedieniou, reputed to be the oldest and most sacred of Aphro- dite in Greece (Pausan. iii. '23. 1), is stated likewise hy Herodotus (i6.) to have been a Pliten. founda- tion. Cicero also speaks (N. D. iii. § 59) of four distinct Venuses, one being ' Syria Cyproque con- cepta, qux Astarte vocatur, (luam Adonidi nupsisse proditum est.' That Aphrodite was the goddess of sexual passion, needs, of course, no proof ; and Cyprus was the chief centre, whence her worship was dilfu.sed through the Gr. world. But, secondly, she often bore in Greece also the title Ovpavla ; temples of 'A^poS/rij Oi'payia are thus mentioned, not only at Cythera, but also at Athens, Argos Corinth, Thebes, and elsewhere ;§ and sjieaking ot the one at Athens, Pausanias expres.sly remarks (i. 14. 7) that Ovpavla was reverenced first by the Assyrians, then by the Pa|ihians of Cyprus, and the Phicnicians dwelling in Ashkelon, from whom
• See the essays on the 'Queen of Heaven ' by Schrader in the Berichte of the Berlin Academy, ISSti, p. 481* f.. ami in tlie /. fur Attnyr. 1888, pp. :l,'.tJ-3C0; and by Kuenen in his Alihaudlunnen, 1894, p. 206. Tht-'.i- scholars point to an Inncription in which amoni; 20 titles or • the lady {hilU) of cotmtnes, the queen iituUkatu), Ishtar,' there actually occurs that of ' queen (rmiU'a(tx) of heaven. Schrader further remarks that there Is inde)H'ndent evidence of an 'Ashtar, conceived spe<-ially as a celestial jfofldess, tieinjf prominent at the same time in the name ''Athar of Heaven,' mentioned in the inscriptions of Asshur- banipal, as the ttfxidess of a N. Arabian tribe {KA '[^ on Jer 71" ; on Athar— 'Anhtar, see below). Cf. also Sayce, Uihb. L. pp 201, 20ftf. (— Jeremias. (.c fl2(.).
t Cf. how, on a bilinifual votive tablet found at Athens {CIS L I. llfi>, an Ascjfclonit« 'Abd'athtnrt (-j'^prK mnpin^v) '• called in the Or. text ' Kit^VtrtH. Certain type* of the coins of Ashi^L'lon also exhibit the head of Astart« : B. V. Hea/1, //>>(. Hxnnnrum. 1887, p. fi79f.; De Saulcv, Nuinitrmatviiu *lr In Terre Sainte, 1874. lip. I7nf.,2n2 (No. IS), tm (No. ■>). The dnve. which (see below) was sacred to 'Ashtart, Is also a standiiij: feature on the imperial coins of Ashlfelon ; see l>e Saulcy, I.e. p. 171), Nos. (1 and l(l(lioth with head of the KO<ldess), 189-101 (Anirustus), N'os. 8, 10_, 11, IS, etc^ and Plate Ix 5, fl.
t Od. 8, .302 :, n y kfx Ki^fitt is«,i fij^uuAi^itt 'A*^fl3»ni 'E# rifffsi, U0» it ««' rii*i*t( i3affA4i rt 8vni,e ; cf. .f-.'n. I. 416 417.
{ I>au». I. 14. 7, 111. 2 : U. 23. 8 ; vl. 20. fl. 2.'). 1 ; viil. 32. 2 ; ix. 16. 3. The On-eks often understood Ou«s»,« to be the jfoddes* of loftier, nurer love, as opposed to 'A.-^»J.tii m*tittu*i. who representen the merely sensual passion (Xsn. Symp. viil. d I'aus. ix. Ifl. 4. Bekk.l.
170
ASHTORETH
ASHTORETH
her cult was introduced into Cythera. Then, thirdly, Ishtar, as showii above, was also a martial goddess. From the mere fact that Saul's armour was deposited by the Philistines in the temple of Ashtart at Ashkelon, it could hardly be inferred that Ashtart bore there a martial character (for trophies of a victory might be dedicated to any deitj') ; but there are some other indications which su|iport this supposition. In the temple of Cythera, which, as we have seen, was founded from Phcenicia, if not from Ashkelon, the statue of the goddess was afiavov uirXuriiivoy (Pans. iii. 23. 1). At Corinth and Sparta also there was an 'AtppoSlTtj wTrXifffiivri {ib. ii. 5. 1; iii. 15. 10, Bekk.); several epigrams in the anthology (Jacobs, ii. 677-679) describe Aphrodite as armed with helmet and spear ; she also receives the epithet nK-riipipos, and is reoresented with the weapons of Ares (as in the well-'known statue called the Venus of Capua).* Nor was the influence of the Phoen. 'Ashtart con- fined to the Gr. world. The worship of the Kom. Venus, originally a goddess of springtime, of gardens, of blossoming vegetation, assimilated many elements from her cult. Mention has been made already of the great Phoen. temple of 'Ashtart at Eryx in Sicily ; and this seems to have formed a centre as influential for the diflusion of her rites in Italy as Paphos or Cythera had been for their diflusion in Greece. That the goddess worshipped at Eryx was identified by the Romans with Venus, can be readily sho^^•n : who does not recollect Horace's ' Erycina ridens, Quam Jocus circumvolat et Cupido ' {Carm. i. 2. 33 f.), or the passage in which Virgil connects her with the Venus of Cyprus, ''Tum vicina astris Erycino in vertice sedes Fundatur Veneri Idalise' (^n. v. 759f.)?t Venus Victrix and Venus Genetrix, also, just develop ideas which we have already seen com- bined in 'A^poSLrri Ovpavta, viz. that of the martial goddess of victory, and that of the fertile mother ol aM.X