Astarte

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Astarte
Goddess of war, hunting, love
Statuette Goddess Louvre AO20127.jpg
Statuette figurine of a goddess with a horned headdress, Louvre Museum, possibly Ishtar, Astarte or Nanaya. From the necropolis of Hillah, near Babylon.
Major cult centerUgarit, Emar, Sidon, Tyre
Planetpossibly Venus
Symbolslion, horse, chariot
ParentsPtah or Ra (in Egyptian tradition)
Consortpossibly Baal (Hadad)[1][2]
Equivalents
Greek equivalentAphrodite
Roman equivalentVenus
Mesopotamian equivalentIshtar
Sumerian equivalentInanna
Hurrian equivalentIshara;[3] Shaushka[4]

Astarte (/əˈstɑːrt/; Greek: Ἀστάρτη, Astártē) is the Hellenized form of the Ancient Near Eastern goddess Ashtart or Athtart (Northwest Semitic), a deity closely related to Ishtar (East Semitic), worshipped from the Bronze Age through classical antiquity. The name is particularly associated with her worship in the ancient Levant among the Canaanites and Phoenicians, though she was originally associated with Amorite cities like Ugarit and Emar, as well as Mari and Ebla.[5] She was also celebrated in Egypt, especially during the reign of the Ramessides, following the importation of foreign cults there. Phoenicians introduced her cult in their colonies on the Iberian Peninsula.

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Astarte was a prominent goddess of both the Canaanite and the Phoenician pantheon, derived from an earlier Syrian deity. She is recorded in Akkadian as As- WIKI