Re: The Solar Goddess.

Dear Stephanie,

Thank you for the interesting information concerning Semitic godesses. It's even
better that your data contradict in many positions the source I use - more space
for thinking.

I must correct myself in one position. Asirat was the Great Mother Goddess (the
mother of gods and people), and when I spread this function on all her direct
developments I was not exact and thorough.

As for Astar (male), maybe making a strong statement you did not take into
account Yemen mythology? In all the states there (Sabaea, Ma'in, Quataban) Astar
was the supreme diety and the god of war (+ defender, + irrigation and fertility
god).

Can you supply me with your information concerning especially Asirat (as the
root of the godesses bunch)? Or maybe you have another view on the position of
this diety? What is your opinion on her genetical connection with Isida (on the
commom Afroasiatic level)?

You ment Ishhara. Do you think she belongs genetically to the group we discuss?
Or you mentioned her just as a functional parallel to Ishtar?

If you belive that Ares is an IE diety could you give his name etymology and
cognates (not necessary god names, maybe just sacral terms) in other IE
mythologies (except Thracian)?

Thank you,

Alexander

----- Original Message -----
From: Stephanie Budin <sbudin@...>
To: <cybalist@egroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, December 07, 1999 7:01 PM
Subject: [cybalist] Re: The Solar Goddess.


>
> Alexander Stolbov wrote:
> >
> > As far as I know Aphrodite (+ male Ares) was imported from West Semitic
(Astarta
> > + male Astar) where she was the Great Mother Goddess. The most early (again,
as
> > far as I know) representation of this personage in Old Semitic was Asirat
I
> > guess cognate to Egyptian Isida), who produced Akkadian Ishtar, Ugaritic
Asirtu,
> > Ashera in Ivrit and was exported not only in Greece but also in Hittite as
> > Ashertu and in Hurritic as Ashtabi (a male variant - initially the
> > husband-servant the of the Great Goddess like Astar and Ares). By the way,
in
> > Southern Arabia mainly male gods of this origin were spread (Astar).
> >
> > Alexander
>
>
> Actually, Aphrodite is a Cypriote creation (so to speak). It was
> only later in Greek history that the Greeks associated their Aphrodite
> with the Levantine Astarte, and then reinterpreted Astarte as a sex
> goddess. In reality, in both Bronze Age and Iron Age texts, Levantine
> 'Ashtart (Astarte) is a goddess associated with war-fare, royalty and
> divine justice; it's only in the Greek texts that she's associated with
> sex. Originally, they were linked due to their common role as "Goddess
> of Cyprus."
> I believe that Aphrodite emmerged on Cyprus due to a mixing of
> Levatine influence (mainly from the goddess Ishhara, the Mesopotamian
> goddess of sex and war-fare, possibly a sub-section of Ishtar, who also
> contributed to Aphrodite) and some Minoan iconography. The reason that
> her name never seems accurately to relate to anything either Greek/I-E or
> Semitic is because it is probably heavily influenced (at least) by
> Eteo-Cypriot.
> By the bye, neither Aphrodite, Astarte, nor Ishhara or Ishtar are
> mother goddesses. Of the lot, only Aphrodite has children (Ishtar has
> one child, named Sharra, in the myth of the Anzu Bird, but never again),
> and these children, and motherhood in geneeral, are not a source of
> Aphrodite's power in the same as, for example, Demeter and Hera. Sex,
> fertility and maternity were separate concepts in ancient Greece and the
> Near East, and it is a modern mis-conception (no pun intended) that all
> goddesses, especially the really powerful ones, are "Mother Goddesses."
> The Mother goddesses of the ancient Near East are Asherah (in Ugarit) and
> Ninhursag in Mesopotamia. Asherah and Astarte are completely different
> goddesses (atrt vs 'ttrt in Ugaritic).
> Ares is an I-E deity, to the best of my knowledge. The theories
> as to why he wound up with Aphrodite are:
> 1) Opposites attract (the structuralist approach, I guess)
> 2) Ares was seen by the Greeks to parallel the warrior-god
> worshiped on Cyprus along side Aphrodite, a deity also associted with
> metallurgy, thus the connection with Hephaistos as well...
> 3) There may have been an early warrior element to Aphrodite,
> recorded in the art but not the literature (at Kythera, Sparta and
> Corinth her cult statues were armed.)
>
> 'Athtar/Ashtar (the male equivalent of Astarte) was quite a minor
> deity in the Bronze Age texts, most likely associated with the morning
> star, and definately not a warrior!
>