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| Background | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Asherah (from Hebrew אשרה), generally taken as identical with the Ugaritic goddess Athirat, was a major northwest Semitic mother goddess, appearing occasionally also in Akkadian sources as Ashratum/Ashratu and in Hittite as Asherdu(s) or Ashertu(s) or Aserdu(s) or Asertu(s). |
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| In the Ugaritic texts (before 1200 BC) Athirat is three times called, 'Athirat of the Sea' or as more fully translated 'She who treads on the sea'. The sacred sea (lake) upon which Asherah trod was known as Yam Kinneret and is now called Lake Galilee. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
In those texts, Athirat is the consort of the god El; there is one reference to the 70 sons of Athirat, presumably the same as the 70 sons of El. She is not clearly distinguished from Ashtart (better known in English as Astarte), although Ashtart is clearly linked to the Mesopotamian Goddess Ishtar. She is also called Elat (the feminine form of El; compare Allat) and Qodesh 'Holiness'. |
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Among the Hittites this goddess appears as Asherdu(s) or Asertu(s), the consort of Elkunirsa and mother of either 77 or 88 sons. |
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| Asherah in Egypt | |||||||||||||||||||||||
In Egypt, beginning in the 18th dynasty, Asherah under the name Qudshu ('Holiness') begins to appear prominently, equated with the native Egyptian goddess Hathor. This is Athirat/Ashratu under her Ugaritic name Qodesh. |
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Asherah in Israel and Judah |
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| The goddess Asherah, whose worship Jeremiah so vehemently opposed, was worshipped in ancient Israel and Judah as the consort of Yahweh and Queen of Heaven (the Hebrews baked small cakes for her festival): | |||||||||||||||||||||||
"Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto other gods, that they may provoke me to anger." —Jeremiah 7:17–18 |
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"... to burn incense unto the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto her, as we have done, we, and our fathers, our kings, and our princes, in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem ..." |
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Figurines of Asherah are strikingly common in the archaeological record, indicating the popularity of her cult from the earliest times to the Babylonian exile. More rarely, inscriptions linking Yahweh and Asherah have been discovered: an 8th century BCE ostracon inscribed "Berakhti et’khem l’YHVH Shomron ul’Asherato" was discovered by Israeli archeologists at Quntilat 'Ajrud (Hebrew "Horvat Teman") in the couse of excavations in the Sinai desert in 1975, prior to the Israeli withdrawal from this area. This translates as: "I have blessed you by YHVH of Sarmara and His Asherah", or "...by our guardian and his Asherah", |
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| Another inscription, from Khirbet el-Kom near Hebron, reads: "Blessed be Uriyahu by Yahweh and by his Asherah; from his enemies he saved him!". | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Asherah pole | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| An Asherah pole is a sacred tree or pole that stood near Canaanite religious locations to honor the Ugaritic mother-goddess Asherah. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| These sacred poles were used in sacred festivals and are the source of the famous May poles found in Britain. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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