Ancient Near Eastern deities
Levantine deities
Adonis | Anat | Asherah | Ashima | Astarte | Atargatis | Ba'al | Berith | Chemosh | Dagon | Derceto | El | Elyon | Eshmun | Hadad | Kothar | Melqart | Mot | Moloch | Qetesh | Resheph | Shalim | Yarikh | Yam | YHWH
Mesopotamian deities
Adad | Amurru | An/Anu | Anshar | Ashur | Abzu/Apsu | Enki/Ea | Enlil | Ereshkigal | Inanna/Ishtar | Kingu | Kishar | Lahmu & Lahamu | Marduk | Mummu | Nabu | Nammu | Nanna/Sin | Nergal | Ningizzida | Ninhursag | Ninlil | Tiamat | Utu/Shamash
Egyptian deities
Amun | Ra | Apis | Bakha | Osiris | Ptah
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Asherah (from Hebrew אשרה), generally taken as identical with the Ugaritic goddess Athirat (more accurately transcribed as ʼAṯirat), 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). The Ancient Near East refers to early Civilizations within a region roughly corresponding to the modern Middle East: Mesopotamia (modern Iraq See also Names of the Levant The Levant (lə'vænt is a geographical term that denotes a large area in Western Asia, roughly bounded on the north by the Ancient Semitic religion spans the Polytheistic religions of the Semitic speaking peoples of the Ancient Near East. Adonis (Άδωνης also Άδωνις is a figure of West Semitic origin where he is a central cult figure in various Mystery religions, who enters Anat, also ‘Anat is a major northwest Semitic goddess ‘Anat in Ugarit In the Ugaritic Ba‘al / Hadad cycle ‘Anat In the Hebrew Bible, Ashima is one of several deities protecting the individual cities of Samaria who are mentioned specifically by name in 2 Kings 1730 Astarte (from Greek Ἀστάρτη ( Astártē) is the name of a Goddess as known from Northwestern Semitic regions cognate in name origin For the metal band see Atargatis (band. Atargatis, in Aramaic ‘Atar‘atah, was a Syrian deity "the great Ba'al (pronounced; Hebrew בעל (ordinarily spelled Baal in English is a Northwest Semitic title and honorific meaning "master" or "lord" In his euphemistic account of the Phoenician deities Sanchuniathon says In their time is born a certain Elioun called "the Most High" and a female Chemosh (ˈkimɑʃ (from Hebrew כמש, pronounced /χeˈmoʃ/ was the God of the Moabites (Num Dagon was a major northwest Semitic god reportedly of grain and agriculture For the metal band see Atargatis (band. Atargatis, in Aramaic ‘Atar‘atah, was a Syrian deity "the great Eli (Hebrew אל is the Northwest Semitic word and name either translated into English as "god" or "God" or left untranslated as Eli, depending The name or epithet or word ‘Elyōn ( Masoretic pronunciation of Hebrew עליון) is traditionally rendered in Samaritan Hebrew as illiyyon Eshmun (or Eshmoun, less accurately Esmun or Esmoun) was a Phoenician god of healing and the tutelary god of Sidon. Haddad בעל הדד (in Ugaritic Haddu) was a very important northwest Semitic storm and rain god, cognate in name and origin with the Kothar-wa-Khasis (כושר וחסיס is a Canaanite god whose name means "Skillful-and-Wise" or "Adroit-and-Perceptive" or "Deft-and-Clever" Melqart, properly Phoenician Milk-Qart "King of the City" less accurately Melkart, Melkarth In Ugaritic Mot 'Death' (spelled mt) is personified as a god of death Moloch, Molech, Molekh, or Molek, representing Hebrew מלך mlk, (translated directly into king is either the name of a In Egyptian mythology and Canaanite religion, Qetesh (also Qadesh Quetesh Kadesh Qatesh Qadeshet Qudshu Qodesh) referred to a Goddess or Goddesses Resheph or Reshef (Canaanite/Hebrew sem-Latn ršp he רשף was a Canaanite deity of plague and war. Shalim is the king of dusk in the pantheon of Ugarit. He is the twin brother and counterpart of Shahar the king of dawn Yarikh, in Canaanite mythology Yarkhibol in Phoenician, also written as Jerah, Jarah, or Jorah (Hebrew spelling ירח Yamm, from the Canaanite word Yam, meaning "Sea" is one name of the Ugaritic god of Rivers and Sea See also Yahweh Tetragrammaton (from the Greek, meaning ' of four letters' (tetra "four" + gramma (gen Dingir is the Sumerian for " Deity " It is written as an Ideogram in the Cuneiform script (Borger 2003 nr This article is about the Sumerian god Adad also known as Ishkur. Amurru (or Martu) are names given in Akkadian and Sumerian texts to the god of the Amorite /Amurru people often forming part of personal In Sumerian mythology and later for Assyrians and Babylonians Anu (also An; (from Sumerian *An = sky heaven was a sky-god In Sumerian mythology and later for Assyrians and Babylonians Anu (also An; (from Sumerian *An = sky heaven was a sky-god In Akkadian mythology, Anshar (also spelled Anshur) which means "sky pivot" or "sky axle" is a Sky God. Aššur (also Ashur, Assur; written A-šur, also Aš-šùr, in Neo-Assyrian often shortened to Aš) was the head of the Assyrian Enki ( Sumerian: dENKI(G 𒂗𒆠 was a Deity in Sumerian mythology, later known as Ea in Babylonian mythology Enlil ( EN = Lord + LIL = Loft "Lord of the Open" or "Lord of the Wind" was the name of a chief deity listed and written about in ancient Sumerian In Mesopotamian mythology, Ereshkigal ( D EREŠ. KI. GAL, lit Inanna ( D INANNA B153ellstpng|100x20px|INANNA]]) is the Sumerian goddess of sexual love fertility and warfare Ishtar ( D IŠTAR 𒀭𒌋𒁯 is the Assyrian and Babylonian counterpart to the Sumerian Inanna and to Kingu, also spelled Qingu meaning unskilled laborer was a god in Babylonian mythology and — after the murder of his father — the consort of the goddess Tiamat In the Akkadian epic Enuma Elish, Kishar is the daughter of Lahmu and Lahamu, the first children of Tiamat and Apsu Laḫmu (also romanized Lakhmu) is a deity from Akkadian mythology, first-born son of Apsu and Tiamat. Lahamu was the first-born daughter of Tiamat and Apsu in Akkadian mythology. Marduk ( Sumerian spelling in Akkadian: AMARUTU 𒀫 𒌓 "solar calf" perhaps from MERI Mummu Vizier of primeval gods Apsu, the fresh water and Tiamat, the salt water Nabu is the Babylonian god of Wisdom and Writing, worshipped by Babylonians as the son of Marduk and his consort Sarpanitum, In Sumerian mythology, Nammu (more properly Namma) is the Sumerian creation goddess Sin (Akkadian Sîn, Suen; Sumerian Nanna) is a Sumerian God in Mesopotamian mythology. Sin (Akkadian Sîn, Suen; Sumerian Nanna) is a Sumerian God in Mesopotamian mythology. The name Nergal (or Nirgal, Nirgali) refers to a Deity in Babylonia with the main seat Ningishzida ( sum dnin-ǧiš-zi-da) is a Mesopotamian deity of the Underworld. In Sumerian mythology, Ninhursag (NINURSAG was the earth and mother- Goddess, one of the seven great deities of Sumer. In Sumerian mythology, Ninlil (𒀭𒊩𒌆𒆤 D NIN.LÍL"lady of the open field" or "Lady of the Air" first called In Babylonian mythology, Tiamat is the sea personified as a Goddess, and a monstrous embodiment of Primordial chaos. This article refers to the Sumerian Deity. For other uses see Utu (disambiguation. For the Canaanite sun godess see Shemesh Shamash was the common Akkadian name of the Sun-god and god of justice in Babylonia Ancient Egyptian religion was Polytheistic and often Zoomorphic. Amun, reconstructed Egyptian Yamānu (also spelled Amon, Amoun, Amen, and rarely Imen, Greek Ἄμμων Ra (pronounced Rah and sometimes as Rê, is an Ancient Egyptian sun god. In Egyptian mythology, Bakha (also spelt Bakh, Buchis, and Bukhis) was the Manifestation of the a deification of Ka (power/life-force Osiris ( Greek language, also Usiris; the Egyptian language name is variously transliterated Asar, Aser, Ausar, Ausir In Egyptian mythology, Ptah (also spelt Peteh) was the deification of the primordial mound in the Ennead Cosmogony, which was more literally Ugarit ( Ugaritic: ʼugrt; Hebrew:; Arabic:) (modern Ras Shamra رأس شمرة ("top/head/cape of the wild Fennel In Linguistics and Ethnology, Semitic (from the Biblical " Shem " Hebrew שם translated as "name" Arabic: ساميّ A mother goddess is a Goddess, often portrayed as the Earth Mother who serves as a general Fertility deity the bountiful embodiment of the Earth. The Hittites were an ancient Anatolian people who spoke a language of the Anatolian branch of the Indo-European language family and established

Contents 1 In Ugarit 2 In Egypt 3 In Israel and Judah 4 Ashira in Arabia 5 Asherah and `Ashurah 6 Asherah in fiction 7 See also 8 Notes 9 Related publications 10 External links

In Ugarit

In the Ugaritic texts (before 1200 BC) Athirat is three times called ʼaṯrt ym, ʼAṯirat yammi, 'Athirat of the Sea' or as more fully translated 'She who treads on the sea', the name understood by various translators and commentators to be from the Ugaritic root ʼaṯr 'stride' cognate with the Hebrew root ʼšr of the same meaning, and may have been equated with the Milky Way. The Milky Way (a translation of the Latin Via Lactea, in turn derived from the Greek Γαλαξίας (Galaxias sometimes referred to simply The sacred sea (lake) upon which Asherah trod was known as Yam Kinneret and is now called Lake Galilee. The Sea of Galilee, also Sea of Genneseret, Lake Kinneret or Lake Tiberias (Hebrew ים כנרת) (Arabic بحيرة طبريا)

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. Eli (Hebrew אל is the Northwest Semitic word and name either translated into English as "god" or "God" or left untranslated as Eli, depending She is not clearly distinguished from ʿAshtart (better known in English as Astarte), although Ashtart is clearly linked to the Mesopotamian Goddess Ishtar. Astarte (from Greek Ἀστάρτη ( Astártē) is the name of a Goddess as known from Northwestern Semitic regions cognate in name origin The Religions of the Ancient Near East were mostly Polytheistic, with some early examples of emerging Henotheism ( Atenism, early Ishtar ( D IŠTAR 𒀭𒌋𒁯 is the Assyrian and Babylonian counterpart to the Sumerian Inanna and to She is also called Elat (the feminine form of El; compare Allat) and Qodesh 'Holiness'. Mentioned in the Qur'an ( Sura 53:20 al-Lāt (Arabic اللَّات was a pre- Islamic Arabian Goddess who was one of the three

Among the Hittites this goddess appears as Asherdu(s) or Asertu(s), the consort of Elkunirsa and mother of either 77 or 88 sons.

In Egypt

In Egypt, beginning in the 18th dynasty, a Semitic goddess named Qudshu ('Holiness') begins to appear prominently, equated with the native Egyptian goddess Hathor. In Egyptian mythology and Canaanite religion, Qetesh (also Qadesh Quetesh Kadesh Qatesh Qadeshet Qudshu Qodesh) referred to a Goddess or Goddesses In Egyptian mythology, Hathor (Pronounced Hah-Thor ( Egyptian for house of Horus) was originally a personification of the Milky Way Some think this is Athirat/Ashratu under her Ugaritic name Qodesh. This Qudshu seems not to be either ʿAshtart or ʿAnat as both those goddesses appear under their own names and with quite different iconography and appear in at least one pictorial representation along with Qudshu.

But in the Persian, Hellenistic and Roman periods in Egypt there was a strong tendency towards syncretism of goddesses and Athirat/Ashrtum then seems to have disappeared, at least as a prominent goddess under a recognizable name. The Persian Empire was a series of Iranian empires that ruled over the Iranian plateau, the original Persian homeland and beyond in Western Asia This article focuses on the cultural aspects of the Hellenistic age for the historical aspects see Hellenistic period. Ancient Rome was a Civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC

In Israel and Judah

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):^[1]

"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 ( jirmɛ'jahu; Septuagint Greek: Ἰερεμίας was one of the 'greater prophets ' of the Hebrew Bible. The Kingdom of Israel ( ( KJV Israel in Samaria) was one of the successor states to the older United Monarchy (also often called the 'Kingdom of Israel' Judea is a term used for the mountainous southern part of the historic Land of Israel. For information about Yahweh see God in Abrahamic religions, which provides useful links Queen of Heaven is a title given to the Blessed Virgin Mary by Christians, mainly Catholics and Orthodox, to whom the title is a consequence "

—Jeremiah 7:17–18

". The Book of Jeremiah, or Jeremiah ( יִרְמְיָהוּ Yirməyāhū in Hebrew) is part of the Hebrew Bible, Judaism . . 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 . . . "

—Jeremiah 44:17

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. An ostracon ( Greek: ostrakon, plural ostraka) is a piece of Pottery (or stone usually broken off from a Vase or other This translates as: "I have blessed you by YHVH of Samaria and His Asherah", or ". . . by our guardian and his Asherah", if "Shomron" is to be read "shomrenu". Another inscription, from Khirbet el-Kom near Hebron, reads: "Blessed be Uriyahu by Yahweh and by his Asherah; from his enemies he saved him!". For information about Yahweh see God in Abrahamic religions, which provides useful links ^[2]

Main article: Asherah pole

The word asherah also referred to a sacred tree or pole that stood near shrines to honor the mother-goddess Asherah,^[3] pluralized as a masculine noun when it has that meaning. An Asherah pole is a sacred tree or pole that stood near Canaanite religious locations to honor the Ugaritic mother-goddess Asherah. In the Book of Judges, the Israelite judge Gideon orders an Asherah pole next to an altar to Baal to be cut down, and the wood used for a burnt offering. Book of Judges ( Hebrew: Sefer Shoftim ספר שופטים is a book of the Bible originally written in Hebrew. See also History of ancient Israel and Judah According to the Bible, the Israelites were the dominant group living in the Land of Israel. Ba'al (pronounced; Hebrew בעל (ordinarily spelled Baal in English is a Northwest Semitic title and honorific meaning "master" or "lord" Among the Hebrews' Phoenician neighbors, tall standing stone pillars signified the numinous presence of a deity, and the wooden asherahs may have been a rustic reflection of these. Numinous (ˈnjuːmɨnəs is a term coined by German theologian Rudolf Otto to describe that which is wholly other. Or asherah may mean a living tree or grove of trees and therefore in some contexts mean a shrine. These uses have confused Biblical translators. Many older translations render Asherah as 'grove'. There is still disagreement among scholars as to the extent to which Asherah (or various goddesses classed as Asherahs) was/were worshipped in Israel and Judah and the extent to which such a goddess or class of goddesses is identical to the etymologically connected goddess Athirat/Ashratu.

Tilde Binger notes in her study, Asherah: Goddesses in Ugarit, Israel and the Old Testament (1997, p. 141), that there is warrant for seeing an Asherah as, variously, "a wooden-aniconic-stela or column of some kind; a living tree; or a more regular statue. Aniconism is the practice or belief in avoiding or shunning the graphic representation of divine beings or religious figures or in different manifestations any human beings or living A stele (from Greek:, stēlē, ˈstiːli plural stelae,, stēlai, ˈstiːlaɪ also found Latinised singular stela " A rudely carved wooden statue planted on the ground of the house was Asherah's symbol, and sometimes a clay statue without legs. Her cult images— "idols"— were found also in forests, carved on living trees, or in the form of poles beside altars that were placed at the side of some roads. In the practice of Religion, a cult image is a man-made object that is venerated for the Deity, spirit or Daemon that it embodies or represents A forest is an area with a high density of Trees There are many definitions of a forest based on various criteria A tree is a perennial Woody plant. It is most often defined as a woody plant that has many secondary branches supported clear of the ground on a single main stem or Asherah poles are mentioned in the books of Exodus, Deuteronomy, Judges, the Books of Kings, the second Book of Chronicles, and the books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Micah. Exodus ( Greek: έξοδος eksodos = "departure" is the second book of the Jewish Torah and of the Christian Old Testament. Deuteronomy (Greek deuteronomion, Δευτερονόμιον "second law" is the fifth book of the Hebrew Bible and of the Old Testament Book of Judges ( Hebrew: Sefer Shoftim ספר שופטים is a book of the Bible originally written in Hebrew. The Books of Kings ( Sefer Melachim, ספר מלכים are a part of Judaism 's Tanakh, the Hebrew Bible. The Books of Chronicles ( Hebrew Divrei Hayyamim, דברי הימים Greek Paraleipomêna) are part of the Hebrew Bible (Jewish The Book of Isaiah ( Hebrew: Sefer Y'sha'yah ספר ישעיה is a book of the Bible traditionally attributed to the Prophet Isaiah, who lived The Book of Jeremiah, or Jeremiah ( יִרְמְיָהוּ Yirməyāhū in Hebrew) is part of the Hebrew Bible, Judaism The Book of Micah (Hebrew ספר מיכה is one of the books of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament, traditionally attributed to Micah the The term often appears as merely אשרה, Asherah; this is translated as "groves" in the King James Version and "poles" in the New Revised Standard Version, although no word that may be translated as "poles" appears in the text. The New Revised Standard Version ( NRSV) of the Bible, released in 1989, is a thorough revision of the Revised Standard Version (RSV Scholars have indicated, however, that the plural use of the term Asherahs, as Asherim or Asherot, provides ample evidence that reference is being made to objects of worship rather than a transcendent figure. ^[4]

The majority of the forty references to Asherah in the Hebrew Bible derive from the Deuteronomist, always in a hostile framework: e. The Deuteronomist (D is one of the sources of the Torah postulated by the Documentary Hypothesis g. , Deuteronomy 16:21 reads: "Do not set up any [wooden] Asherah '[pole]'^[5] beside the altar you build to the LORD your God. " The Deuteronomist judges the kings of Israel and Judah according to how rigorously they uphold Yahwism and suppress the worship of Asherah and other deities: King Manasseh, for example is said to have placed an Asherah pole in the Holy Temple, and was therefore one who "did evil in the sight of the Lord" (2 Kings 21:7); but king Hezekiah "removed the high places, and broke the pillars, and cut down the Asherah", (2 Kings 18. Manasseh of Judah was the king of Judah and only son and successor of Hezekiah. Etymology The Hebrew name given in Scripture for the building is Beit HaMikdash or "The Holy House" and only the Temple in Jerusalem is referred to by this name The Books of Kings ( Sefer Melachim, ספר מלכים are a part of Judaism 's Tanakh, the Hebrew Bible. Hezekiah (or Ezekias) ( Hebrew: Ḥizqiyyāhu Khizkiyahu or Yəḥizqiyyāhu Y'khizkiyahu " the {{LORD}} has strengthened" compare 4), and was numbered among the most righteous of Judah's kings before the coming of the monotheistic reformer Josiah, in whose reign the Deuteronomistic history of the kings was composed. Josiah or Yoshiyahu ( was king of Judah, and son of Amon and Jedidah, the daughter of Adaiah of Bozkath.

Asherah In the Book of Kings Ta'anach Text 1 - Letter from Guli-Adad to Talwashur of Ta'anach Date of Discovery: c. 1903 - Excavator: Ernst Sellin Language Akkadian - Clay Tablet

Line 21 - "Furthermore, if there is a diviner of Asherah, then let him discern our fortunes and the omen and the interpretation send to me. "

1 Kings 18:19 The four hundred prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel's table

• Rogers, Robert William. Cuneiform Parallels to the Old Testament. New York: Eaton & Mains, 1912.
• Albright, W. F. "A Prince of Taanach in the Fifteenth Century B. C. " Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 94 (1944) 12-27.

Ashira in Arabia

A stele, now at the Louvre, discovered by Charles Huber in 1883 in the ancient oasis of Tema (modern Tayma), southwestern Arabia, and believed to date to the time of Nabonidus's retirement there in 549 BC, bears an inscription in Aramaic which mentions Ṣalm of Maḥram and Shingala and Ashira as the gods of Tema. The Louvre Museum (Musée du Louvre located in Paris is the world's most visited art museum a historic monument and a national museum of France Tayma (تيماء also transliterated Tema) is a large Oasis with a long history of settlement located in northeastern Saudi Arabia Nabonidus ( Akkadian Nabû-nāʾid) was the last king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, reigning from 556-539 BCE Aramaic is a Semitic language with

This Ashira might be Athirat/Asherah. Since Aramaic has no way to indicate Arabic th, corresponding to the Ugaritic th (more pedantically written as ṯ), if this is the same deity, it is not clear whether the name would be an Arabian reflex of the Ugaritic Athirat or a later borrowing of the Hebrew/Canaanite Asherah. The Canaanite languages or Hebraic languages are a subfamily of the Semitic languages, which were spoken by the ancient peoples of the Canaan region

The Arabic root ʼṯr is similar in meaning to the Hebrew indicating "to tread" used as a basis to explain the name of Ashira as "Lady of the sea", specially that the Arabic root ymm also means "sea".

On the other hand, the Arabic word ʼAšira عشيرة meaning "clan" shares the same root ʼšr, resonating with a theory of a goddess mother clan. From the same root derive several words meaning both to "live with/socially know" and "copulate": عاشر/معاشرة.

Asherah and `Ashurah

For more details on this topic, see Day of Ashurah. The Day of Ashura ( ar عاشوراء, Ashura Ashoura and other spellings is on the 10th day of Muharram in the Islamic calendar and marks the climax

In the ancient lunar calendar that became the Islamic calendar, the Day of ʿAshurah, transliterated also as Aashurah, Ashura or Aashoorah, falls on the 10th day of Muharram. A lunar calendar is a Calendar that is based on cycles of the Moon phase. The Islamic calendar or Muslim calendar ( Arabic: التقويم الهجري at-taqwīm al-hijrī; Persian: تقویم هجری قمری ‎ The Day of Ashura ( ar عاشوراء, Ashura Ashoura and other spellings is on the 10th day of Muharram in the Islamic calendar and marks the climax On that day, in the year of the Hejira 61 (AD 680), Husayn bin Ali, the grandson of Muhammad was killed by Umayyad forces at the Battle of Karbala (now in Iraq). Ḥusayn ibn ‘Alī ibn Abī Ṭālib ( ar حسين بن علي بن أﺑﻲ طالب)‎ (third of Shaban 4 AH / 8th January 626 AD at Medina Karbala ( BGN: Al-Karbalā’; also spelled Karbala al-Muqaddasah) is a city in Iraq, located about southwest of Baghdad at Still called by its ancient name, the Day of Ashurah, it has been observed ever since as a day of mourning by Shī`ites. The Day of Ashura ( ar عاشوراء, Ashura Ashoura and other spellings is on the 10th day of Muharram in the Islamic calendar and marks the climax

The name `Ashurah is interpreted as meaning "ten" in Arabic. (The normal Arabic word for ten is `asharah cognate to the Hebrew root `śr = "ten", the differing forms of s being the normal correspondence found in cognate roots between Arabic and Hebrew. The root is the primary lexical unit of a Word, which carries the most significant aspects of semantic content and cannot be reduced into smaller constituents )

Some try to connect the Arabic :Ashurah instead to the goddess Athirath/Asherah through the Ashira of Tema. Tema, population 209000 ( 2005) is a city on the Atlantic Ocean coast east of the capital city of Accra, in the region of Greater Accra

Yet cognate Semitic roots display this switching between ain and alif, and some Arabian accents pronounced, and indeed still do pronounce `ain as a glottal stop (like the tribe of Tamim whose name is given to this way of pronunciation). Cognates in Linguistics are words that have a common origin They may occur within a language such as shirt and skirt as two English words descended from In Linguistics and Ethnology, Semitic (from the Biblical " Shem " Hebrew שם translated as "name" Arabic: ساميّ This article is about the sound in spoken language For the letter see Glottal stop (letter. This is not the Sub-clan of Quraish, for that see Banu Taim Banī Tamīm or Banu Tamim or Banu Tameem

Asherah in fiction

In the science fiction book Snow Crash, by Neal Stephenson, Asherah is portrayed as a meta-virus brought to earth naturally or by alien broadcast. Snow Crash is Neal Stephenson 's third Novel, published in 1992 Neal Town Stephenson (born October 31, 1959) is an American writer known primarily for his Science fiction works in the Postcyberpunk genre Meta (from Greek: μετά = "after" "beyond" "with" "adjacent" is a prefix used in English in order to indicate a concept A virus (from the Latin virus meaning Toxin or Poison) is a sub-microscopic infectious agent that is unable The Sumerian figure Enki is a proto-hacker or as Stephenson puts it "a neurolinguistic hacker" who uses his ability to manipulate people through language to introducing sentience to mankind and save them from the restrictive dogma of Asherah. Mesopotamian mythology is the collective name given to Sumerian Akkadian Assyrian and Babylonian mythologies from the land between the Tigris Enki ( Sumerian: dENKI(G 𒂗𒆠 was a Deity in Sumerian mythology, later known as Ea in Babylonian mythology Neurolinguistics is the science concerned with the human brain mechanisms underlying the comprehension production and abstract knowledge of Language, be it spoken Modern day glossolalia is attributed to a resurgence of the "cult of Asherah" and the meta-virus in humanity. Glossolalia is commonly called "speaking in tongues" For other uses of "speaking in tongues" see Speaking in Tongues (disambiguation.

The worship of 'Asherat of the Sea' plays a large part in the plot of Jacqueline Carey's novel Kushiel's Chosen, placed in a fantasy version of Venice. Jacqueline Carey is the name of two authors For the author of The Crossley Baby, see Jacqueline Carey (II. Kushiel's Chosen is a Historical fantasy or alternate history by Jacqueline Carey.

In the video game, Fire Emblem 'Path of Radiance', Ashera is a goddess, worshipped by the entire world. Armor blessed by the goddess can only be penetrated by weapons that are also blessed.

The Mortal Kombat Character, Ashrah, is perceived as a holy character forced to fight her way out of 'Hell'.

Anita Diamant's book The Red Tent refers to Asherah the mother goddess and to the Asherah pole as part of the pre-Judaic pagan roots; the book indicates that the wives of Jacob worshipped Asherah and other gods and goddesses, and claims that Jacob's son Asher was named by his mother for the goddess. The Red Tent is a Novel by Anita Diamant, published in 1997 by St

See also

• Asherah pole
• El (god)
• Elohim
• The Hebrew Goddess

Notes

Related publications

• Tilde Binger: Asherah: Goddess in Ugarit, Israel, and the Old Testament (Sheffield Academic Press,1997) ISBN 1-85075-637-6.
• William G. Dever: Did God Have A Wife? Archaeology And Folk Religion In Ancient Israel (Wm. William G Dever is an American Archaeologist, specialising in the history of Israel and the Near East in Biblical times who was Professor of Near Eastern B. Eerdmans Publishing Company 2005)
• Judith M. Hadley: The Cult of Asherah in Ancient Israel and Judah (U of Cambridge 2000)
• Jenny Kien: Reinstating the Divine Woman in Judaism (Universal 2000)
• Asphodel P. Long: In a Chariot Drawn by Lions (Crossing Press 1993).
• Raphael Patai: The Hebrew Goddess (Wayne State University Press 1990 and earlier editions)
• William L. Reed: The Asherah in the Old Testament (Texas Christian University Press, 1949).
• Steve A. Wiggins: A Reassessment of "Asherah": A Study According to the Textual Sources of the First Two Millennia B. C. E. (Kevelaer: Verlag Butzon & Bercker; Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener Verlag, 1993). Second edition: (Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press, 2007) ISBN 1-59333-717-5.

External links

• Asherah
  • Asphodel P. Long, "The Goddess in Judaism - An Historical Perspective"
  • "Asherah, the Tree of Life and the Menorah"
  • Jewish Encyclopedia: Asherah
  • University of Birmingham: Deryn Guest: Asherah
  • El (god) in Ugarit. Eli (Hebrew אל is the Northwest Semitic word and name either translated into English as "god" or "God" or left untranslated as Eli, depending
  • Lilinah biti-Anat, Qadash Kinahnu Deity Temple "Room One, Major Canaanite Deities"
• Kuntillet inscriptions
  • Jacques Berlinerblau, "Official religion and popular religion in pre-Exilic ancient Israel" (Commentary on Yahweh's Asherah. )
  • ANE: Kuntillet bibliography
  • Jeffrey H. Tigay, "A Second Temple Parallel to the Blessings from Kuntillet Ajrud" (University of Pennsylvania) (This equates Asherah with an asherah. )
• Israelite Religion
  • David Steinberg, "Israelite Religion to Judaism: the Evolution of the Religion of Israel"
  • Asherah: Goddess of the Bible? (Cornell University course project)

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