Astarte

Astarte, also Ashtoreth or Istar, was a goddess in Phoenician mythology, worshiped as the goddess of fertility and sexual love. She was the female divinity of the Phoenicians, as Baal was the male, these two being representative respectively of the conceptive and generative powers of nature, and symbolised, the former, like Artemis or Diana, by the moon, and the latter, like Apollo, by the sun. She corresponds to the Babylonian and Assyrian goddess Ishtar. She is sometimes identified with Urania and sometimes with Venus; and also with the Egyptian Isis, the Greek Aphrodite, and others. The rites connected with her worship were of a lascivious nature.

Nearby pages
Astatic, Aster, Aster of Amphipolis, Asterism, Astern, Asteroids