Astarte

“ They produce them, I am told, in houses of glass, and they force their foreign faith in the same manner; but, though they have temples, and churches, and mosques, they confess they have no miracles; they admit that they never produced a prophet; they own that no God ever spoke to their people, or visited their land; and yet this race, so peculiarly favoured by celestial communication, aspire to be missionaries!'
'I have much misapprehended you,' said Astarte; 'I thought you were both embarked in a great cause.'
'Ah, you learnt that from Darkush!' quickly replied Fakredeen. ”

“ In the morning the hawks, or a visit to some green valley, which was blessed with a stream and beds of oleander, and groves of acacia or sycamore. Fakredeen had no cause to complain of the demeanour of Astarte towards him, for it was most gracious and encouraging. Indeed, he pleased her; and she was taken, as many had been, by the ingenuous modesty, the unaffected humility, the tender and touching deference of his manner; he seemed to watch her every glance, and hang upon her every accent: his sympathy with her was perfect; he agreed with every sentiment and observation that escaped her. ”

“ Astarte set out for Babylon with Zadig’s servant, promising, immediately upon her arrival, to send a courier to inform him of all that had happened. Their parting was as tender as their meeting. The moment of meeting and that of parting are the two greatest epochs of life, as sayeth the great book of Zend. Zadig loved the queen with as much ardor as he professed; and the queen loved him more than she thought proper to acknowledge.
Meanwhile Zadig spoke thus to Ogul: “My lord, my basilisk is not to be eaten; all its virtues must enter through thy pores. ”

“ Queen Astarte and the famous minister Zadig were extremely fond of them.”
Zadig, transported, said, “What, knowest thou nothing of the queen’s fate?”
“No, my lord,” replied the fisherman; “but I know that neither the queen nor Zadig has paid me for my cream cheeses; that I have lost my wife, and am now reduced to despair.”
“I flatter myself,” said Zadig, “that thou wilt not lose all thy money. I have heard of this Zadig; he is an honest man; and if he returns to Babylon, as he expects, he will give thee more than he owes thee. Believe me, go to Babylon. ”

“ But the Astarte will be watched every minute she’s in harbour. They searched us for Jakoub, sir, and for this little lot. Your friend will have heard of it by now.”
Captain Welfare smiled, a regrettably unrepentant smile. But many a man who has changed sides has a temporary hankering for the old colours.
“You say you could manage if you had it on the Astarte?” Edmund asked suddenly. ”

“ A figure appears occasionally in the sculptures, in which some have sought to recognize Astarte, one at Palenque being described as follows: “It is a female figure moulded in stucco, holding a child on her left arm and hand, just as Astarte appears on the Sidonian medals.” I find it impossible to see that this figure has any resemblance whatever to the Phœnician goddess. They are not alike either in dress, posture, or expression. Dupaix describes it correctly in saying it represents a person apparently “absorbed in devotion”—a worshiper, and not a goddess. ”

“ Zadig directed his course along the frontiers of Assyria, still musing on the unhappy Astarte, and reflecting on the severity of fortune which seemed determined to make him the sport of her cruelty and the object of her persecution.
“What,” said he to himself, “four hundred ounces of gold for having seen a spaniel! condemned to lose my head for four bad verses in praise of the king! ready to be strangled because the queen had shoes of the color of my bonnet! reduced to slavery for having succored a woman who was beat! ”

“ She is generally described as the “fish-goddess.” The name is a compound of two divine names; the first part is a form of the Himyaritic ʽAthtar, the equivalent of the Old Testament Ashtoreth, the Phoenician Astarte (q.v.) , with the feminine ending omitted (Assyr. Ishtar) ; the second is a Palmyrene name ʽAthe (i.e. tempus opportunum) , which occurs as part of many compounds. As a consequence of the first half of the name, Atargatis has frequently, though wrongly, been identified with Astarte. The two deities were, no doubt, of common origin, but their cults are historically distinct. ”

“ Then turning abruptly, she looked Tancred full in the face, with a glance of almost fierce scrutiny. His clear brow and unfaltering eye, with an expression of sympathy and even kindness on his countenance, met her searching look.
'No,' she said; 'it is impossible that you can be false.'
'Why should I be false? or what is it that mixes up my name and life with these thoughts and circumstances?'
'Why should you be false? Ah! there it is,' said Astarte, in a sweet and mournful voice. 'What are any of us to you!' And she wept. ”

“ Edmund said. “I’ve been thinking while you’ve been talking. When you mentioned the Astarte, I saw the whole thing in a flash. We cheat Van Ermengen & Co. instead of buying them off, we hoodwink the police and get away, and we can sink the stuff in as many fathoms as we like.”
“For that matter we could drop it overboard from the felucca without bothering about the Astarte at all.”
“No,” Edmund argued, “some of the crew would talk. Jakoub will know what we’ve done within forty-eight hours of their coming back. ”

“ With the retirement of the goddess was connected the legend how her destructive power was overcome; it showed how Astarte could be worshipped in Tyre as the wife of Melkarth, as Milkath (Melecheth, i. e. queen) . [549] The wandering sun-god went in search of the lost goddess. At length he found her in the remote distance, and loosed her girdle; the goddess surrendered herself to him, and sacred marriage changed the warlike goddess into the friendly deity favourable to procreation, Astarte into Ashera, Dido into Anna, Artemis or Athena into Atargatis. ”

“ His capacious Soul now soar’d into Infinity, and he contemplated, with the same Freedom, as if she was disencumber’d from her earthly Partner, on the immutable Order of the Universe. But as soon as she cower’d her Wings, and resumed her native Seat, he began to consider that Astarte might possibly have lost her Life for his Sake ”

“ Thus a Roman poet can put into the mouth of a Carthaginian the invocation, "Goddess Astarte, power of gods and men, life and [Pg 370] safety, and again destruction, death, and dissolution." [542] We find that the Venus of Tyre was called Astarte, that at Ashtaroth Karnaim, the ancient seat of the worship of the horned Astarte, the maiden with the horns of the moon, there was a sanctuary of Atargatis, [543] and that fire-festivals were celebrated at Hierapolis in the sanctuary of Atargatis, which festivals belonged to Astarte; that the Urania, i. ”

“ Robertson Smith, too, argues that Astarte was originally a sheep-goddess, and points to the interesting use of “Astartes of the flocks” (Deut. vii. 13, see the comm.) to denote the offspring. To nomads, Astarte may well have been a sheep-goddess, but this, if her earliest, was not her only type, as is clear from the sacred fish of Atargatis, the doves of Ascalon (and of the Phoenician sanctuary of Eryx) , and the gazelle or antelope of the goddess of love (associated also with the Arabian Athtar) .
The literature is vast; see G.A. Barton, Amer. Journ. of Sem. Lang. vols. ”

“ He evaded an answer by asking rudely: "What is there in the giant that attracts you as a magnet draws iron?"
"Strength," said Astarte, impressively. "He could wrap you around his left arm with his right hand."
"I was strong enough, too," replied the Vandal, gloomily. "Africa and Astarte would suck the marrow out of a Hercules."
The whispering was interrupted by Thrasabad, who now, the tiger being silent, addressed the audience: "We will have brought out to fight before you six African bears from the Atlas, with six buffaloes from the mountain Valley of Aurasia! ”

“ Not devoid of that awe which is caused by the presence of the solemn and the beautiful, Tancred slowly traced his steps through the cavern sanctuary. No human being was visible. Upon his right was the fane to which Astarte led him on his visit of initiation. He was about to enter it, when, kneeling before the form of the Apollo of Antioch, he beheld the fair Queen of the Ansarey, motionless and speechless, her arms crossed upon her breast, and her eyes fixed upon her divinity, in a dream of ecstatic devotion. ”

“ I am so tired, she is saying to the nebulous goddess who has fashioned the years of her life into a love-tale. But who is Shelmerdene to beg a favour from Ishtar, who, in the guise of Astarte in Syria and Astaroth in Canaan, upset the gods and households of great peoples and debauched their minds, so that in later ages they were fit for nothing but to be conquered and to serve Rome and Byzantium as concubines and eunuchs? ”

“ The Queen had immediately summoned Fakredeen to her side, and there passed between them some hurried and perturbed explanations; subsequently she addressed some inquiries to Tancred, to which he replied without reserve. Soon afterwards, Astarte, remaining intent and moody, the court was suddenly broken up; Keferinis signifying to the young men that they should retire, while Astarte, without bestowing on them her usual farewell, rose, and, followed by her maidens, quitted the chamber. ”

“ It has poured into the fields, and groves, and river side. Lift up your eyes, man alive, open your ears, and let pleasure flow in. Be passive under the sweet breath of the goddess, and she will fill you with ecstasy.”
It was as Vitricus had said; the solemn feast-days of Astarte were in course of celebration; of Astarte, the well-known divinity of Carthage and its dependent cities, whom Heliogabalus had lately introduced to Rome, who in her different aspects was at once Urania, Juno, and Aphrodite, according as she embodied the idea of the philosopher, the statesman, or the vulgar ”

“ The difficulty was to obtain this audience of Astarte, for neither Fakredeen nor Keferinis was to be found, and no other means of achieving the result were obvious.
About two hours before noon, Baroni brought word that he had contrived to see Cypros, from whom he gathered that Astarte had repaired to the great temple of the gods. Instantly, Tancred resolved to enter the palace, and if possible to find his way to the mysterious sanctuary. That was a course by no means easy; but the enterprising are often fortunate, and his project proved not to be impossible. ”

“ Zadig’s mind was too much engrossed with the idea of Astarte not to elude this declaration; but he instantly went to the chiefs of the tribes, told them what had passed, and advised them to make a law, by which a widow should not be permitted to burn herself till she had conversed privately with a young man for the space of an hour. Since that time not a single woman hath burned herself in Arabia. They were indebted to Zadig alone for destroying in one day a cruel custom that had lasted for so many ages and thus he became the benefactor of Arabia. ”

“ Edmund put in impatiently, “we’ll have to get rid of the Astarte at Marseilles, and then disappear ourselves.”
[208] “Get rid of the Astarte?” I repeated. “Is that necessary?”
“I’m afraid it is, sir,” said Captain Welfare. “You see they won’t search us on the way because they will think we are going to pick up a fresh cargo. But we dare not leave the port in her again. This friend of yours knows too much, and he might get Jakoub while we are away.” ”

“ Zadig passed the night in the most violent perturbation. "What," said he, "did the king lose his senses? and is he killed? I cannot help lamenting his fate. The empire is rent in pieces; and this robber is happy. O fortune! O destiny! A robber is happy, and the most beautiful of nature's works hath perhaps perished in a barbarous manner or lives in a state worse than death. O Astarte! what is become of thee?" ”

“ All the slaves of kings and queens are so many spies over their hearts. They soon observed that Astarte was tender and that Moabdar was jealous. The envious man brought false reports to the king. The monarch now thought of nothing but in what manner he might best execute his vengeance. He one night resolved to poison the queen and in the morning to put Zadig to death by the bowstring. ”

“ The name still survives in the Shajarat al-Ashara, a clump of trees near the village Al-Ghajar (of the Gypsies?) at the foot of Hermon.
[FN#393] I am not quite sure that Astarte is not primarily the planet Venus; but I can hardly doubt that Prof. Max Mueller and Sir G. Cox are mistaken in bringing from India Aphrodite the Dawn and her attendants, the Charites identified with the Vedic Harits. Of Ishtar in Accadia, however, Roscher seems to have proved that she is distinctly the Moon sinking into Amenti (the west, the Underworld) in search of her lost spouse Izdubar, the Sun-god. ”

“ It is here worthy of note, that he does not, in this letter, call himself Abdi-Aširti, “servant of the Ashera,” but Abdi-Aštarti, “servant of Astarte,” using the Assyro-Babylonian ideograph for Ištar, the original of the goddess in question. On another document from him, the word is spelled out, Ab-di-aš-ta-ti, in which the scribe intended to write Ab-di-aš-ta-ar-ti, but omitted the last character but one. ”

“ And in accordance with the tendency above spoken of, the sun-god has a consort. Sometimes his consort is the earth; and then we have a sensuous and immoral worship such as that of the Canaanites. Sometimes it is the moon; her name is Astarte or Ashtoreth, and she is a very different being from the Ashera of Canaan; the names are not the same, and the characters are opposite. Ashtoreth, like the primitive Semitic goddess (see above) , is a chaste matron; she is represented robed and in stately attitude, and is a fit companion for the strict Moloch of the cities. ”