Polyvalent Astarte in the first millennium BC Mediterranean? : a consideration of the functions of a Near Eastern goddess from the archaeological context of inscriptions bearing her name

Abstract

This dissertation examines the epigraphic evidence known to date with specific reference to the Levantine goddess Astarte, to document the material expressions and to identify the role and function of the goddess diachronically, specifically in the Phoenician and Punic Mediterranean during the Iron Age up and until the Graeco-Roman period. Previous scholarship on the deity has been descriptive of her numerous permutations wherever she was epigraphically attested. The variety of roles and functions ascribed to the goddess across a wide temporal and spatial range, is a quandary that scholars have had to grapple with. Astarte’s ephemeral existence, within the cosmogony of the Phoenician and Punic pantheon, during the first millennium BC, appears as a direct result of the colonial and trade activities during this period. The sites chosen for this study were driven by the inscriptional evidence, based on the selection of 38 artefacts. The dissemination of her cult from the homeland across to the Mediterranean Phoenician settlements is to be understood not as a linear cultural evolution but rather as a form of organic social solidarity glued together by the commonalities of the regional cosmogeny and the basic human need for divine intervention in the different spheres of life and death. This study shows that there were no clear regional distinctions for the role and function of Astarte, whereas the goddess’ identity was adapted and assimilated in every region where she was attested where her veneration brought people of different cultures together, under whose auspices their prayers might be heard.