Gnostradamus

What do we know of the goddess Ashtoreth?

She goes by many names, among them Astarte, Ishtar, Isis, Cybele, and Demeter. In addition to the Great Mother she also holds the title of Queen of Heaven as the following section from Jeremiah makes clear.

Then all the men which knew that their wives had burned incense unto other gods, and all the women that stood by, a great multitude, even all the people that dwelt in the land of Egypt, in Pathros, answered Jeremiah, saying, As for the word that thou hast spoken unto us in the name of the Lord, we will not hearken unto thee. But we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our own mouth, to burn incense unto the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto her, as we have done, we, and our fathers, our kings, and our princes, in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem: for then had we plenty of victuals, and were well, and saw no evil. But since we left off to burn incense to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto her, we have wanted all things, and have been consumed by the sword and by the famine. And when we burned incense to the queen of heaven, and poured out drink offerings unto her, did we make her cakes to worship her, and pour out drink offerings unto her, without our men?
Jeremiah 44:15-19

The following section from Ezekiel demonstrates another aspect of her worship.

Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the Lord's house which was toward the north; and, behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz.
Ezekiel 8:14

The mention of Tammuz forces us to list another incarnation of Ashtoreth, Inanna. Here is an excerpt from the Courtship of Inanna and Dumuzi (another form of the name Tammuz):

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My untilled land lies fallow.

As for me, Inanna,
Who will plow my vulva?
Who will plow my high field?
Who will plow my wet ground?

As for me, the young woman,
Who will plow my vulva?
Who will station the ox there?
Who will plow my vulva?

Dumuzi replied:
"Great Lady, the king will plow your vulva.
I, Dumuzi the King, will plow your vulva."

Inanna:
"Then plow my vulva, man of my heart!
Plow my vulva!"

At the king's lap stood the rising cedar.
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Tammuz ends up trapped in the underworld until freed by Inanna. This is but another form of the Isis-Osiris cycle, which has Isis searching for the scattered pieces of the body of Osiris. She reassembles his body with a substitute penis in place. It is likely that the wooden poles, the Asherah, were symbolic of this substitute member.

This brings up an interesting issue. Small clay pillar figures have been excavated in great numbers in Palestine/Israel. They are considered to be representations of the goddess Ashtoreth. If so, they served as personal Asherim.






The Asherahs all share a common form. Also note that their base has the shape of a handle. I propose that they served as a tool for invoking the goddess, that women used these in order to enter the kingdom of heaven. That they, in proper reverence, grasped the object around its base and, guided its head, to use the imagery of Inanna and Dumuzi, into their untilled land, their high field, their wet ground.

Gnostradamus

Dharma

Sacred dildos? You mean they were used in active sexual intercourse...?!

Gnostradamus

Um, intercourse, I believe, is between two people. Active sexual self-stimulation, would be more accurate, though I presume it was considered more along the lines of invoking the goddess.

Also from the design it seems likely that rather than intensive in and out motion, the head was inserted and then the column figurine was twisted or rolled back and forth between two hands. The prominent breasts then supplied the necessary clitoral stimulation.


Gnostradamus

Hnefi

You don't think the "handle-shaped base" can be more plausibly explained by the observation that this particular shape makes for a stable base, which enables one to place the object on a flat surface without it falling over?

RGD

You do realize that the whole "Great Mother" thing is nonsense, don't you? A combination of bad scholarship, poor sampling, and some really misplaced feminist thinking.

Julian

Very true, but Ashera/Astarte was real enough. Well, as real as gods get, anyways.

Julian

RGD

True. I wasn't disputing that part.

Julian

I don't think the OP was referring to the new age mother goddess concept, which is patently silly, although I can appreciate anything that helps empower women in our society, but rather doing what the Greeks and Romans did, which was to see all the gods of the various pantheons as aspects of the same divinity.

BTW, the first thing I thought of when I saw the personal Ashera were dildos. Not a scientific observation but a pleasing one, at least...

Julian

andrewcriddle

It is very doubtful that Inanna delivers Tammuz/Dumuzi from the underworld.

It is more probable that Tammuz/Dumuzi is carried off permanently into the underworld as a substitute for Inanna as part of the price Inanna must pay to be freed from her captivity in the realm of the dead.

Andrew Criddle

Gnostradamus

Quite true. I was using the later Akkadian version, with the ghosts of Isis and Osiris whispering in my ear. The older Sumerian version agrees with your statement above.

Thanks for the correction.


Gnostradamus