Chapter 8: Ashtaroth — Goddess of the Sidonians

Ashtaroth — Goddess of the Sidonians — Called "God" by the Hebrews — Worshipped by the Philistines — A town of this name — Images in the shape of sheep — Groves of Ashtaroth — Astarte — Atergatis — Derceto — Concerning Queen Gatis, and the phrase "besides Gatis" — Abstinence from fish; origin of the superstition — The form of the image of Astarte — Queen of heaven — The moon — Heavenly goddess of heaven — The sun, lord of heaven — The moon, queen — Gad and Meni (Isaiah 65:11) — Who Gad is — The opinion of Jerome — The host of heaven — The gods of Damascus — Maacah, a terror — Other matters.

I. It remains for us to treat of Ashtaroth, and a few other unnamed gods that remain. Ashtaroth is called the god of the Sidonians at (1 Kings 11:5, 33) — "god" rather than "goddess," since the Hebrews have no word to express a deity in the feminine gender. She is first mentioned at (Judges 2:18), and again at (Judges 10:6; 1 Samuel 7:3). That this idol was worshipped not only by the Sidonians but also by the Philistines, and indeed by all who inhabited the seacoast, is shown by (1 Samuel 31:10).

II. There was also a town by this name (Deuteronomy 1:4; Joshua 9:10), which can be doubted by no one to have derived its name from the worship of this idol; conversely, names were very often given to idols from the places where superstitious worship was rendered to them.

III. The Jews commonly maintain that Ashtaroth designates idols fashioned in the likeness of sheep, for they say the Hebrew word denotes "a ewe." Others hold that the idol received its name from the multitude of sacrifices offered from sheep and cattle (1 Samuel 7:4). The Septuagint renders the Hebrew word for Ashtaroth as "groves of Ashtaroth," joining to it another word of nearly the same sound; for the Hebrew word in question signified "grove." Hence some think that this idol was worshipped in groves.

IV. This idol was also known by other names: Astarte, the most renowned Syrian goddess, and Atergatis, and Derceto — all of which are established to have flowed from the other. For vain are the things which Athenaeus, in his Deipnosophistae, book 7, produces from Antipater the Stoic concerning this goddess, and why she was called Atergatis. He invents a certain queen named Gatis, who promulgated an edict that no one should eat fish "besides Gatis," that is, except Gatis herself. Hence, he says, the name Atergatis arose among the ignorant common people — a foolish explanation, and in keeping with the manner of the Greeks in investigating the origins of the names of their gods; for everyone can see that the name Atergatis is a corrupted form of the Hebrew word for Ashtaroth.

V. From this arose the most absurd conjecture that abstinence from fish was part of her worship. Diogenes of Erythrae assigns an equally absurd reason for this custom among the Syrians, as recorded in Hyginus's Poetic Astronomy. "He writes," it says, "that at a certain time Venus, along with"

— his son Cupid, came to Syria to the river Euphrates, and that in that very place the giant Typhon suddenly appeared; that Venus thereupon threw herself with her son into the river, and there changed her form into the shape of fish, by which act they were freed from danger. And so afterward the Syrians who live closest to those places refrained from eating fish, fearing to catch them, lest for a similar reason they might seem either to assail the protection of the gods or to capture the gods themselves." Nothing is more foolish than these things. Most say that the image of the idol was fashioned in the shape of a fish from the thighs down to the very feet, while the rest of the body was that of a woman. The origin of the image is uncertain, but it is almost certain that it gave occasion to the religious reverence for fish. Nicetas, in his commentary on Gregory, says it was a statue of Venus. I have no doubt that she was the same as the "queen of heaven" so often mentioned by Jeremiah. She was the moon, who was for others both Venus and Diana and Juno Lucina; called by the Hebrew name on account of her many names and the multitude of sacrifices. Lucian affirms that he believes the Syrian goddess, who is Astarte, is the moon. Jerome agrees that the moon, dominant among the stars, is designated by this name, in his commentary on Jeremiah chapter 7. Thus the poet describes her: "She shines among all

the Julian star, as the moon among the lesser fires." — Hor. Car. lib. i. Od. xii. 46. And Epod. xv. 1: —

"It was night, and the moon was shining in a clear sky among the lesser stars."

That is, the queen of heaven. Tertullian, in Apol. cap. 24, connects her with Syria's Astarte and Africa's Caelestis. By Caelestis, or Ourania, Venus is commonly understood, as is evident from Lucian. But that Venus is none other than the moon has been shown elsewhere. There are, however, those who think that the queen of heaven was the sun. For they demonstrate by examples that the sun is sometimes of the feminine gender; whereas the word that denotes the moon, as the other denotes the sun, is never so. Hence among the Chaldeans the lunar deity was called masculine. But I would hardly believe that this grammatical argument prevailed; rather, just as they called the sun "lord of heaven" and even "king," so by the name "queen of heaven" they meant to designate the moon.

VI. Philastrius, Heres. xv., affirms that the Jews worshipped Fortune, the Hebrew Gad: "Preparing a table for the demon and filling the cup for Fortune." And in the Latin translation of the Greek text found in Jerome, the word for Fortune corresponds to Gad; while the word for demon corresponds to Meni. The Vulgate translates not Gad but Meni as Fortune, and uses Meni merely as a particle: "You who set a table for Fortune and pour a libation upon it." And so likewise Symmachus, according to Jerome, renders it "without me." Junius renders the force of the words as follows: "You who prepare a table for that troop and fill a libation for those numbers." For Gad signifies a troop, and Meni appears to be derived from the root meaning to number. Our own translators follow him: "That prepare a table for that troop, and that furnish the drink-offering to that number" — though they relegate Gad and Meni to the margin. Arias Montanus: "Preparing a table for Jupiter and filling a libation for Meni." In such variety, it is not easy to say what is most satisfying. It is certain that the queen of heaven is not meant here; learned men heap up many things about this passage — about the star of Jupiter, about Mercury, about the constellation of the stars, about good fortune, about the horoscope, a favorable ascending planet, auspiciously placed, about the idols of the Edomites, and other things, all uncertain. Although none of them fully satisfies on every point, I must confess that what the most learned Jerome once noted on this passage appeals most to my mind. "There is," he says, "in all cities and especially in Egypt and in Alexandria an ancient custom of idolatry: on the last day of the year and of the last month, they set a table laden with various kinds of food and a cup mixed with honey wine, taking augury for the fertility either of the past year or the future. And this the Israelites also did, venerating the monstrous idols of every kind."

VII. Together with the sun and moon they also worshipped the whole host of heaven, that is, all the stars. Jerome writes, in his commentary on Isaiah xv., that Chemosh, mentioned in 1 Kings xi. 33, was the same as Baal-Peor. More truly, he is identified with Molech, as can be seen from Judges xi. 24.

VIII. There remain unnamed gods. Among these occur the gods of Damascus, to whom King Ahaz sacrificed (2 Chronicles xxviii. 28), and built an altar in the very house of God (2 Kings xvi. 11-13). Maacah, grandmother of King Asa — who is called his mother — set up a particular idol for worship in a grove (2 Chronicles xv. 16), making a mipletzeth. The Vulgate renders it, "An image of Priapus." Others, "a horrible statue." The LXX reads Astarten. The word signifies a "terror" or fright. Hence Castalio translates it "Pan," who was accustomed to strike terror into men in the groves. I judge rather that this vain terror alludes to the Holy Spirit. IX. What is said about Ob and Iadoni and other kinds of ventriloquism, and about chiromancy, augury, geomancy, sortilege, Pythians, and conjurers, does not pertain to our present purpose. It is sufficient to have briefly touched upon the chief, if not all, of those idols which the apostates superstitiously worshipped with wicked crime, having forsaken the true God.