Alexander Stolbov wrote:
>
> Do you agree that we can reconstruct (approximately) the image and the name of
> such a goddess on the Proto-Semitic level?
> The next question: Was it a proper Semitic creature or a result of development
> of a more ancient Proto-Afroasiatic (Hamito-Semitic) diety? To accept the second
> variant we have to find a "relative" of her in Berber, Cushitic, Chadic or
> Egyptian pantheons and to prove that she was not borrowed from or to there. The
> only candidate for such a comparison I could find was Egyptian Isis (Isida).
> What is your opinion about the probable common origin of Ashtar and Isis?
>
> Alexander
Greetings!
I think that a proto-Semitic deity could be reconstructed
(as we do with the P-I-E deities, such as the Dawn Goddess). Going into
a period pefore extant literature or artwork simply requires a focus on
the linguistics.
As for Ashtar and Isis, it doesn't strike me that there is much
of a possibility for a common origin. While it might look like there are
similaritites in the names (Isis - Ashtar), if I remember correctly the
actual Egyptian form of her name is Au Zet; Isis is the Greek form of her
name. As I said before, I'm no linguist, so I can't say what is the
probability that Au Zet might parallel Ashtar.
Then, there is the gender issue. Isis is female, Ashtar male.
While we can account for why Ashtar may have become female in Mesopotamia
(influence from Inanna, leading to a name Ishtar which is gramatically
masculine, and the forms Ashtar and Ashtart, which variations going east
through west in Syria at least. There is a similar example with the sun:
shpsh in the western Semitic, a female, colliding with UTU, the male
Sumerian sun god, leading to shmsh, the male Akkadian sun god in
Mesopotamia), I don't know of any reason why this would have occurred
between Egypt and Arabia, unless, as per the previous example, there was
already a goddess in Egypt (or a god in Arabia) which caused a shift in
gender. But that would also rather work against the theory of common
origin.
There is also a rather broad gap in function. Isis, originally a
cobra goddess if I remember correctly, is a mother and healer, queen of
the gods, wife of Osiris. Ashtar, in Arabia where he is at his best (so
to speak), is a warrior and stellar deity.
Finally, there is the fact that neither the Egyptians nor the
ancient Semites seem to have associated these two deities (the way that
at Ugarit, for example, they associated Ashtart with Ishtar). This
didn't even occur during the 18th and 19th dynasties, when Levantine
deities were adopted wholesale into the Egyptian pantheon. Ashtart and
Anat, Qudshu and Reshef suddently appear prominantly in the Egyptian
corpus, but they had little care for Ashtar.
Stephanie