Asherah

Asherah (also Asherah, asera ) is a Syrian- Canaanite goddess of the sea.

Name

Your name ( ATRT Ugaritic, probably to vocalize as Atirat, Old Hebrew asera ) is derived by Albright and others from the Semitic ATR (holy ) place from. Adored it was inter alia in the form of a cult pile.

History

The goddess is already taken from the Ebla texts, played here but apparently no important role. As Day points out, none of these texts has been published. Day and Hadley want, following the Ugaritic gods list, equate the goddess Ašratum Old Babylonian texts with asera. In a letter of Guli -Adad to Rewassa, the ruler of Tanach at Megiddo, asks Guli -Adad this. Around a diviner of the dA -si - rat who desperately want interpret sign him The letter dates from the 15th century. A amurritischer king named Abdi- Ashirta ( " servant of the Asirat " ) wrote two Amarna letters.

Ugarit

The Ugaritic ʿ Atirat, the wife of the creator god El, is often equated with the biblical Asherah.

After the Keret epic Atirat also had temples in Sidon and Tyre.

Asherah in the Bible and in Israel

The term " Asherah " is about forty times in the Bible, as the name of the goddess and as the name of their cult pile.

In Ri 6.25 EU can be read as the angel of the Lord commanded Gideon to knock the grove of Joash his father, and to build a new altar to the living God YHWH. Only then Gideon of YHWH is needed to free the people of Israel from the burden of Midian. 1 Kings 15:13 EU mentioned that Queen mother Maacah the Ashera has built a still image. King Manasseh also ( 2 Kings 21.7 EU) put up a cult image of Asherah. 400 prophets Ascheras ate at Jezebel's table (1 Kings 18,19 EU). King Josiah removed from the temple ( 2 Kings 23.4 EU ) items, " which had been made ​​for Baal, Asherah, and for all the host of heaven. " 2 Kings 23 EU describes the elimination of Ascherakultes.

Archaeological evidence suggests that Asherah was worshiped in Israel as the wife of YHWH. So found himself in the caravan station Kuntillet ' Adschrud a stock jug ( pitcher A) from the 8th to the 7th century with the following inscription:

... I have blessed you by YHWH and his Asherah. Amaryo said to his master: ... I have blessed you by YHWH and his Asherah. May He bless you, and may he watch over you, and may he be with my Lord

On another pithos (B ) Yahweh is mentioned by Teman his Asherah.

Uriyahu, the rich man, wrote this: A Blessed is Uriyahu by YHWH - from their afflictions he has saved him by Ashera. By Onyahu.

In an Aramaic inscription it is called a goddess of Teman. This is interesting because it says in Hab 3.3 EU:. " God comes from Teman ago," If you follow Jer 49,7.20 EU, it is the same city with Teman in Edom meant.

To date, it has been found next to about 1,000 female clay figures and inscriptions in tombs and private houses from the period between the 8th and 6th centuries, in which in addition to YHWH and Asherah is worshiped. In the North and in the southern kingdom of YHWH had therefore probably a divine partner and it is likely that the portraits of these two gods even - until its destruction by Nebuchadnezzar - stood together in the Jerusalem temple. Only in the time of the exile, the magic of the divine couple is focused on one God and, probably invented as a result of the break with tradition by the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple, the general prohibition of pictorial representations. Only the returnees from Babylon bring this monotheism and the strict prohibition of images from Babylon back to Jerusalem.

Punic

In Carthage Asherah was further honored, but supplanted in popularity by Tanit. An inscription from Sarepta, tnt ASRT, equating the two deities could occupy.

Egypt

Asherah was identified iconographically with the goddess of Qudschu type ( QDs). This holds in her arms angled snakes and papyrus or lotus flowers as symbols of fertility. My shoulder-length hair is reminiscent of the curls of the Egyptian Hathor. She is shown standing on an animal, often a lion, sometimes a horse. However, the identification of Asherah and Qudschu has not proved durable.

Reception

The asteroid (214 ) Ashera Ashera is named after.

In the science fiction novel Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson Ashera is responsible for a meta - virus that in Sumer people back into mindless creatures, the work remotely via Me, transformed. Your opponent is the Sumerian god En -Ki, Neal Stephenson a Neurolinguistics hackers. Modern tongues is there associated with a revived "cult of Asherah ."

Furthermore, the novel was published in 2002 to Mary Magdalene by Margaret George, in which the young Mary Magdalene at the roadside is an idol and kept secret. Throughout her life, this deity is recognized as Asherah, speaks to her, the seemingly barren Mary gives a child who demands loyalty and drives Mary almost to madness.