Ashton, Wm. Easterly, a Baptist minister, was born May 18, 1793, in Philadelphia, licensed as a preacher in 1814, and was ordained pastor of the Bap- tist Church at Hopewell, N. J., the following year. In 1816 he removed to Blockley, Philadelphia count}', Pa., where he labored successfully for seven years. Mr. Ashton devoted part of his time to teaching, estab- lishing a female school in Philadelphia, which soon became very popular. In 1823 he accepted a call from the third Baptist Church in Philadelphia, which charge he held till the year before his death, when disease compelled him to relinquish it. He died July 26, 1836.— Sprague, Annals, vi, 631.
Ash'toreth (Heb. Ashto'reth, t-HvmS, 1 Kings xi, 5, 33; 2Kingsxxiii,13; Sept. 'AaTc'tpri)'), also in the plur. ASH'TAKOTH (Heb. Ashtaroth', m'lfil??, Sept. in Judg. x, 6 ; 1 Sam. vii, 4, 'AarapoiS ; in Jndg. ii, 13, at 'Aaraprcn ; in 1 Sam. vii, 3 ; xii, 10, to. uXcrij ;
ASHTOKETH
464
ASHTORETH
in 1 Sam. xxxi, 10, to 'AoTapriiov), the name of a goddess of the Sidonians (1 Kings xi, 5, 33), and also of the Philistines < 1 Sam. xxxi, 10), whose worship was introduced among the Israelites during the period of the judges (Judg. ii, 13; 1 Sam. vii, 4), was cele- lr.it. -d by Solomon himself (1 Kings xi, 5), and was finally put down by Josiah (2 Kings xxiii, 13). She is frequently mentioned in connection with Baal, as the corresponding fe- male Ah inity (Judg. ii, 13) ; and, from the ;. dition of the words "and all the host of hea en," in 2 Kings xxiii, 4 [see Asherah], it probable that she represented one of the celes- tial bodies. There is also reason to believe th;.t she is | meant by the "queen of heaven," in Jer. vii, 18; xliv, | 17; whose worship is there said to have been solemnized by burning incense, pouring libations, and offering cakes. Further, by comparing the two passages 2 Kings xxiii, 4, and Jer. viii, 2, which last speaks of the " sun and moon, and all the host of heaven, whom Un- served," we may conclude that the moojjwas worship- ped under the names of queen of heaven and of Ash- toreth, provided the connection between these titles is established. See Idolatry.
The worship of Astarte was very ancient and very widely spread. AYe find the plural Ashtaroth united with the adjunct Karnaim, as the name of a city, so early as the time of Abraham (Gen. xiv, 5), and we read of a temple of this goddess, apparently as the goddess of war, among the Philistines in the time of Saul (1 Sam. xxxi, 10). From the connection of this goddess with Baal or Bf.l, we should, moreover, nat- urally conclude that she would be found in the Assyr- ian Pantheon, and, in fact, the name Ishtar appears to be clearly identified in the list of the great gods of Assvria (Layard, Nin. and Bab. p. 352, 629 ; Rawlin- son," Early History "/Babylon, Lond. 1854, p. 23 ; Raw- linson, Herodotus, i, 634). There is no reason to doubt that this Assyrian goddess is the Ashtoreth of the Old Testament and the Astarte of the Greeks and Romans. The worship of Astarte seems to have extended wherev- er Phoenician colonies were founded. Thus we find her name in inscriptions still existing in the island of Cyprus, on the site of the ancient Citium, and also at Carthage (Gesenius, Mon. I'han. p. 125, 449), and not unfrequently as an element in Phoenician proper names, as "Aaraproc, 'Aftcaare'iproc, AtXttaarapToc (Joseph. Ap. i, 18). The name occurs, moreover, written in Egyptian hieroglyphics, as Astart (Gesenius, T/ies. s. v. For evidence of her wide-spread worship, see also Eck- hel, Doct. Num. iii, 369 sq.). It is worthy of remark that Rodiger, in his recently published Addenda to Gesenius' Thesaurus (p. 106), notices that in the in- scription on the sarcophagus of a king named Esmuna- zar, discovered in January, 1855 (see Robinson, Re- search's, new ed. iii, 36 note), the founding, or at least restoration of the temple of this goddess, at Sidon, is attributed to him and to his mother, Amashtoreth, who is farther styled priestess of Ashtoreth. Accordingto tli^ testimonies of profane writers, the worship of this goddess, under different names, existed in all coun- tries and colonies of the Syro-Arabian nations. She was especially tin- chief female divinity of the Phceni cians and Syrians— the Hani lis or female Baal ; Astarte tin Great, as Sanchoniathon calls her (ed. Orelli, p. 34). She was known to the Babylonians as Mylitta (i. e. possibly Xr":-", the emphatic state of the fern. participle act. Aphd of -;;-, genetrix) (Herod, i, 31); to the Arabians as Alitta or Alilat fllerod. iii, 8) (i. e. according t<, Pococke's etymology [Specim. p. 110], al- flahat, the goddess [which may, however, also mean tin- crescent moon — ee Freytag's /.'.-•. .!>•.]; or al- Hit&l, ill' moon; or, according to Kleuker's suggestion, aUWalid, genetrix [see Bergmann, D< Relig. A rati. An- tcislamka, Argentor. lt>34, p. 7] ). The supposed Punic
SiuouianMeihil of the Goddess Astaite.
name Tholath, TPP, which Munter, Hamaker, and others considered to mean genetrix, and to belong to this goddess, cannot be adduced here, as Gesenius has recently shown that the name has arisen from a false reading of the inscriptions (see his Monum. Ling. Phcenic. p. 114). But it is not at all open to doubt that this goddess was worshipped at ancient Carthage, and probably under her Phoenician name. The classi- cal writers, who usually endeavored to identify the irods of other nations with their own, rather than to discriminate between them, have recognised several of their own divinities in Ashtoreth. Thus she was considered to be Juno (Augustin. Queest. in Jud. xvi); or Venus, especially Venus Urania (Cicer. Nat. Dear. iii, 23; Theodoret, In Libr. iii, Beg. Queest. l ; and the numerous inscriptions of Bona Dea Coelestis, Venus Ccelestis, etc., cited in Miinter's Religion der Karihager, p. 75); or Luna (Herodian, v, 13, where she is "named ' A<jTpoap\i}\ Lucian, L)e Dea Syra, iv). A part of the Phoenician mythus respecting Astarte is given by Sanchoniathon (Euseb. De Prap. Evang. i, 10) : "As- tarte the most high, and Jupiter Demarous, and Adc- dus, king of the- gods, reigned over the country, with the assent of Saturn. And Astarte placed the head of a bull upon her own head, as an emblem of sover- eignty. As she was journeying about the world, she found a star wandering in the air, and having taken possession of it, she consecrated it in the sacred island of Tyre. The Phoenicians say that Astarte is Venus." This serves to account for the horned' figure under which she was represented, and af- fords testimony of a star consecrated as her symbol. Theyarfthat there is a connection between all these di- vinities cannot escape any student of ancient religions ; but it is not easy to discover the precise link of that connection. Ashto- Medal of Ashtoreth.