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Mythos Atlas

Canaanite Pantheon (Ugarit)

Athtart (Astarte)

ʿṯtrt(ʿAṯtartu)

Also known as Astarte, Ashtart, Name of Baal (šm bʿl)

Illustration of Athtart (Astarte), a deity of the Canaanite Pantheon (Ugarit)
Illustrative imageIllustration of Athtart (Astarte). Generated with an AI image model; not a historical artifact. About our images
  • war
  • hunting
  • love (in later Phoenician cult)

A warrior and hunting goddess who, with Anat, holds Baal back from attacking Yam's messengers and then urges him to finish Yam off; better known in later centuries as the Phoenician Astarte.

About Athtart (Astarte)

Holding Baal back

In the Baal Cycle, when Yam's messengers demand that Baal be surrendered, Baal seizes a weapon to strike them, and two goddesses restrain him: Anat takes his right hand and Athtart his left (KTU 1.2 I). They remind him that messengers are not to be harmed.

Urging him on

After Baal's second club fells Yam, it is Athtart who calls out to Baal, rebuking him or urging him to "scatter" the defeated Sea, since Yam is now their captive (KTU 1.2 IV). The passage is damaged and translators differ on its exact tone, but it shows her as a warrior at Baal's side.

A hunter

In a separate Ugaritic text (KTU 1.92) Athtart goes hunting in the steppe, and she appears in Ugaritic ritual texts with an equestrian aspect. In Egyptian New Kingdom texts she is a war goddess associated with horses and chariots.

Astarte

In the first millennium BCE, Athtart became Astarte, a major goddess of the Phoenician cities, especially Sidon and Tyre, where the royal inscription of Eshmunazar calls her "Astarte, name of Baal". Greek writers identified her with Aphrodite. The Ugaritic Athtart is a less prominent and more martial figure than that later goddess.

Across traditions

Parallel figures

Figures who play a role like Athtart (Astarte)'s in other traditions.

In the atlas

Where Athtart (Astarte) appears

Sources and further reading

Source notes

These references are recorded in the catalog. Their passage wording and translation have not been checked, so quotations are not displayed here.

  • Baal Cycle, KTU 1.2 I

    Catalog date: tablets of the late 13th or early 12th c. BCE

Appears in

Ancient and classical works featuring this figure.

  • The Baal Cycle (KTU 1.1-1.6)Anonymous Ugaritic poet(s); tablets copied by the scribe Ilimilku

    restrains Baal and later urges him to finish Yamm (KTU 1.2 I, IV)

Further reading

  • The Baal Cycle (KTU 1.1-1.6)Anonymous Ugaritic poet(s); tablets copied by the scribe Ilimilku · Tablets of the late 13th or early 12th c. BCE; the poem is older · Ancient text

    Athtart in the conflict with Yam

    Recommended translations: Mark S. Smith (in Ugaritic Narrative Poetry, ed. S. B. Parker) (1997), Nicolas Wyatt (Religious Texts from Ugarit) (2002)

An editorial selection, not a full bibliography. Browse every text on the Sources page.

About this entry

By Elizabeth Stein for Mythos Atlas. . Editorial notes are grounded in the site's cited sources and can be challenged through the contact page.

Parallels are editorial comparisons across traditions: a shared role does not, by itself, establish a shared origin.

Genealogy

Family tree

Athtart (Astarte)'s parents, consorts, children and rivals, as recorded in the atlas.

Open the full tree