Geography/Culture: Syro-Palestinian. Semitic: Syria. She had temples at Sidon (by the 4th c. BC. She had replaced Asherah as the Chief Goddess) and Tyre, from whence Her worship was transplanted to Carthage; Palestine, Solomon built a high place for Her in Jerusalem; Egypt, temple at Memphis; Phonecia; Philistine. As sea Goddess She had temples all along the Palestinian coast.
Description: Great Goddess of fertile abundance, sexuality, love, reproduction, fertility magic, {perhaps the moon}, the sea, the sky and immortality; Lady of Heaven; Most beautiful of heavenly bodies; She Who conceives but does not bear; Symbol of female fertility; Matron of the hunt; {perhaps also Goddess of war}.
Perhaps originally a Goddess of sheep.
The kings of Sidon were Her priests and their consorts Her priestesses.
She was adopted in Egypt as Goddess of war: She Who is clad in terror; Mistress of Horses; Mother of humanity; Shield of the Pharoah.
By the 18th Dynasty She had become also a Goddess of healing.
To Whom Sacred: lily; alder (used in rites for Astart and Her son); (in Egypt -- date-palm); snake; sheep; Astart's of the flock (ie lambs); gazelle (or antelope); lionness; horse; dove; the planet Venus; full moon and crescent (possibly a misinterpretation of Isis' sundisk and cows-horns).
Iconography: She is sometimes horned, which may signify the moon, but more probably rams horns. Plaques of clay, generally oval, bearing the impress (from a pottery or metal mold) of a nude figure, arms often upraised, grasping lily stalks, or snakes, or both. Head adorned with two spiral hathor ringlets, or She wears a Philistine helmet. Sometimes arms hanging down, or with hands clasped beneath Her protruding navel. Often portrayed with the head of a lionness surmounted by the sun disk. She stood on a chariot drawn by four horses. Sometimes protrayed as armed with shield and club, riding a horse.
Male Associates: consort, Il, {Lord}, (obviously a variant of El); son, the god of fire.

Titles/Variants, etc:
• Often closely associated with and perhaps, originally, a title of Anath, {Strength-of-Life}. It is not clear whether Astart and Anath are two Goddesses or one with two names.
• She bequested more than one of Her traits to Aphrodite, {Froth-of-Replication}, and perhaps, in a corrupted form, Her name.
• Daughter of Asherah, Lady-of-the-Sea, though sometimes Their names are used interchangeably.
• Variant: Ashtar, ----, below.
• Her full Sidonian name is Ashtart-Shem-Baal, Ashtart-of-the-Name-of-Baal.
• The biblical name for Her is Ashtoreth, ----below.
• The Egyptians sometimes referred to Her as: Astar-of-Syria.
• The variant Astarte is said to be the Greek form of Her name.
• She is also called Elat, Goddess, (Who is linked with Lat, Goddess), in Ras Shamrah texts.
• At Sidon She was called Europe, She-of-the-Broad-Face.
• At Corinth Hera, Our-Lady, was identified with Her.
• In Troy, as Goddess of the sea She was called: Hesione, Queen-of-Asia, below.
• She is said to be analogous in Her name and attributes to Ishtar, Light-giving.
• She is also called Kedeshet, ---, a variant of Qadesh, Holy-One, Who is linked with Anath, {Strength-of-Life}.
• Her worship influenced the worship of Mary, {Sea-Queen}.
• Her alternate Hebraic name, Naamah, Pleasant, is also an alternate name for Eve, Mother-of-All-Life, and as such Astart, Conceiving-Womb, became a demoness.
• See also Memphis, White-Walls, Who is linked with Egyptian Neith, World-Weaver. {I've lost the significance of this cross-reference.}
• Tamar, Date-Palm, to Whom the date-palm is also sacred, may be an aspect of Her.
• She was also worshiped in Carthage, and many suggest that Cathagian Tanith, {Goddess-of-Heaven}, from Phoenicia, is simply another name for Astart, Conceiving-Womb. But though Tanith may have assimilated some of Her qualities, there are notably differences between the two Goddesses.

Geography/Culture: Philistine, Greek.
Description: Goddess of sea-shore rocks and cliffs, the sea itself and perhaps, the moon under seige by the demon of darkness; Ancestress of the Persidae at Tiryns in Argos; She Who gives Herself in sacrifice for Her people.
To Whom Sacred: rock (or sea-cliff) to which She was chained); jewels; chain; the constellation Andromeda.
Male Associates: consort (and rescuer), Perseus, Destroyer; sons Alcaeus, Mighty-One, Electryon, Beaming, Heleus, The-Sun, Mestor, `Counsellor', Perses, Destroyer and Sthenelus, Strong-Forcer-Back.

Titles/Variants, etc:
• Variant: Andromena.
• A Greek version of Astart, Conceiving-Womb, as Goddess of the sea.
• In Her myth (in which She is portrayed as mortal), Andromeda, Ruler-of-Men, was transformed into the constellation Andromeda by Athene, I-Have-Come-From-Myself.
• Daughter of Cassiopeia, Cassia-Juice, below.
• Mother of Gorgophone, Gorgon-Death, {but isn't -phone more often translated as 'voice'? See also note about Andromeda, currently linked with Athene, I-Have-Come-From-Myself. Consider putting the main reference under Gorgones, and including the note there. At the moment the x-ref to Gorgophone from the Cyclopedia Index is to Astart, Conceiving-Womb, this file.}
• She appears to be equivalent to Hesione, Queen-of-Asia, below.
• There are similarities between Her myth and that of Psyche, World-Soul.
• It has been suggested that Her myth was deduced from a Palestinian icon of Marduk, ----, killing Tiamat, Primeval-Being.

Geography/Culture: Moabite. Mentioned on Moabite stone ca. 830 BC.
Linguistic Note: the absence of the feminine termination occurs similarly in Ishtar. The old South Arabian phonetic equivalent 'Athtar' is, however, a male deity.
Male Associate: consort Chemosh, ----.

Titles/Variants, etc:
• Possible variant: Mesopotamian Ashdar, 1$D*.
• I also find: Astar, 1ST*, ----. Mesopotamian.
• The name Atargatis, Opportune-Time, who is linked with Derceto, {Great-Whale}, may be related to the male Athtar.
• See also Hat-Hor, House-of-Horus, and Her name variants Athor, and Athyr.
• But Ashtar, Ashdar, Astar, Athtar and Atthar could equally well be various dialectic and or transliteration variants of Ishtar, Light-Giving, couldn't they?.

Geography/Culture: The town Ashtoreth-Karnim (or Ashtoresth-Qarnaim), ', in Gilead, is named after Her.
Linguistic Note: Ashtoroth, (some say Ashtaroth), is the plural of Ashtoreth. It is said that the vocalization suggests {Hebraic?} bosheth, shame.

Titles/Variants, etc:
• This is a title of Anath, {Strength-of-Life}.
• She is said to be the Syrian equivalent of Greek Aphrodite, Froth-of-Replication.
• Probable transliteration variant: Ashtaroth -- possibly the origin of Aphrodite's name.
• Biblical name of opprobrium for Astart, Conceiving-Womb, above.
• Compare with Belial, ----, a variant of Sumerian, Babylonian Belili, Great-Lady, Who is linked with Zarpanit, Silver-Shining.

Geography/Culture: Greek?
Description: She Whose boast that She and Her Daughters were fairer than the Nereides, Wet-Ones, provoked Poseidon, ----, to send a sea-monster, to ravage the coast of Ethiopia. It was to this monster that Andromeda, Ruler-of-Men, was offered as propitiary sacrifice.
To Whom Sacred: the constellation Cassiopeia.
Male Associates: consort Cepheus, Gardener, Ethiopian king of Joppa. Son, Atymnius, Insatiate-of-Heroic-Praise by Zeus.

Titles/Variants, etc:
• Mother of Andromeda, Ruler-of-Men, above.
• Variant, Cassiope.

Geography/Culture: Troy.
Linguistic Note: see Anna linguistic notes concerning the element -one. Thus one is left with the element hesi-, which is presumably etymologically related to the word Asia.
Male Associate: She is said to have been rescued from a sea-monster by: Hercules, ----. {Is this a reference to Hercules-Melkarth?}

Titles/Variants, etc:
• Perhaps equivalent to Andromeda, Ruler-of-Men, above.
• Perhaps to be identified with Roman Asia, Ag6, ----, though She, Asia, is described by Vermeule simply as a geographical personification.
• Title of Astart, (above), Conceiving-Womb, as Goddess of the sea.
• Daughter of masculinised Cotytto, Cup-of-Life, who is linked with Bendis, {Wave-of-the-Deep}.
• The Roman Asia, ----, may be related to Greek Asia, *SY1, ----, one of the Oceanides, Daughters-of-the-Swift-Queen, (Who are linked with Thetis, Disposer), Who may Herself be a belittled form of Hesione, Queen-of-Asia.