Dear Friends of ancient Mythology! I want to start with a coin of Diadumenian from Byblos in Phoenicia. This city was one of the centers of the Astarte cult and had the honouring name 'Byblos the Holy'. Today it is Jbal at the coast of Liban. In ancient times it was the main port for exporting papyros to Greece. Hence our name Bible for the Holy Book. 1st Coin: Diadumenian Caesar, May AD 218 - 8. Juni 218 AE 24, 10.81g, 180° obv. M OΠΔIAΔVMENIANOC KAI bust, cuirassed, bare-headed, r. rev. BVB - ΛOV / IEPAC Distyle temple, surmounted by arch of shell patern. Within Astarte, draped, wearing polos, standing right, holding spear, l. foot on prow, crowned by winged Nike standing on column. ref. BMC 40-43; Rouvier 399; Vismara 30-52; Mionnet Suppl. Vol. 8, No. 78; Leake p. 36 rare, about VF, red sand patina Background: (1) Astarte, Phoenician Ashtoreth, Ugaritic ‘ttrt, Akkadian As-tar-tú, was a major Northwest-Semitic goddess, cognate in name, origin, and functions with the East-Semitic goddess Ishtar. Astarte was connected with fertility, sexuality, and war. Her symbols were the lion, the horse, the sphinx, the dove, and a star within a circle indicating the planet Venus. Astarte was accepted by the Greeks under the name of Aphrodite. The island of Cyprus, one of Astarte's greatest cult centers, supplied the name Cypris as Aphrodite's most common byname. (2) Other major centers of Astarte's worship were Sidon, Tyre, and Byblos. Coins from Sidon portray a chariot in which a globe appears, presumably a stone representing Astarte. Other cult centers were Cytherea, Malta and Eryx in Sicily from which she became known to the Romans as Venus Erycina. A bilingual inscription on the Pyrgi Tablets dating to about 500 BC found near Caere in etruria equates Astarte with Uni, that is Juno. 2nd Coin: Phoenicia, Sidon, Elagabal, AD 218-222 AE 30, 20.23g, 0° obv. IMP CAESAR - M AV ANTONINVS bust, draped and cuirassed, laureate r. rev. AVR PIA - SID - COL MET Two-wheeled cult cart of Astarte r., with roof on four columns, two palms emerging from it; within holy stone (baetyl) from Sidon. ref. SNG Copenhagen 255; BMC 185, 245 var. (has SIDO) about EF, nice sand-patina pedigree: ex David Hendin A famous site in Byblos is the Temple of Obelisks (c.1900–1600 BC). The found bronze figurines show strong affinity with the deities found in the Anatolian Plateau among the Hurrians. And we see that the worshipping of baetyls has an old religious tradition. von www.astarte.com/au (3) At Carthage Astarte was worshipped along side the goddess Tanit. In Tutugi near Granada in Spain a statuette of Astarte was found dating to the 6th or 7th century BCE in which Astarte sits on a throne flanked by sphinxes holding a bowl beneath her breasts which are pierced. A hollow in the statue would have been filled with milk through the head and gentle heating would have melted wax plugging the holes, producing an apparent miracle. (4) Plutarch in his 'On Isis and Osiris' indicates that the king and queen of Byblos who unknowingly have the Osiris' body in a pillar in their hall are Melqart and Astarte. In the description of the Phoenician pantheon Astarte appears as a daughter of Sky and Earth and sister of the god El. After El overthrows and banishes his father Sky, Sky sends to El as some kind of trick his "virgin daughter" Astarte along with her sisters Asherah and the goddess who will later be called Ba'alat Gebul 'Lady of Byblos'. It seems that this trick does not work as all three become wives of their brother El. Astarte bears to El children who appear under Greek names as seven daughters called the Titanides or Artemides and two sons named Pothos and Eros. Later we see, with El's consent, Astarte and Hadad reigning over the land together. Astarte, puts the head of a bull on her own head to symbolize her sovereignty. Wandering through the world Astarte takes up a star that has fallen from the sky and consecrates it at Tyre. (5) The cult of Astarte was one of the main competitors to the early Hebrew monotheism. There is a serious basis for the opinion that the Greek goddess Aphrodite (especially Aphrodite Urania) is just another name for Astarte. Herodotos wrote that the cult of Aphrodite originated in Phoenicia and came to Greeks from there. He also wrote about the world's largest temple of Aphrodite, in one of the Phoenician cities. Connection to planet Venus is another similarity to the Aphrodite cult, apparently from the Mesopotamian goddess Ishtar. Sacrificing of doves is another. Literature: (1) Der kleine Pauly (2) Wikipedia (3) Donald Harden, The Phoenicians 1980 Best regards
