The Seba library treats Astarte in 9 passages, across 6 authors (including Neumann, Erich, Campbell, Joseph, Harvey, Andrew; Baring, Anne).
Upper castration, or loss of the Jehovah power, leads to the hero's captivity among the Philistines, in the realm of Astarte. He lingers in the underworld, where he must 'tread the mill.'
Neumann reads Samson's blinding and captivity as psychological enslavement to the Astarte world — the Great Mother's domain — which the hero must overcome through a resurgence of solar, patriarchal power.
, The Origins and History of Consciousness (Princeton, 2019thesis
This clear proof of her witchcraft is tucked away, as a subsidiary detail, in the clandestine destruction of the children of Astarte, Queen of Byblos — with whom, however, Isis is always identified.
Neumann reveals that the terrible, destructive aspect of Isis is covertly encoded in her mythic role at the court of Astarte, Queen of Byblos, suggesting the two goddesses share an underlying archetypal identity.
, The Origins and History of Consciousness (Princeton, 2019thesis
In Babylonia and Assyria, she was called Ishtar. Farther to the west she was Astarte. As early as 4000 B.c. in Uruk, the principal site of her cult, Inanna was worshiped in her temple known as Eanna, or 'The House of Heaven.'
Campbell positions Astarte as the westernmost Levantine manifestation of the same Queen of Heaven archetype embodied by Inanna and Ishtar, tracing a continuous mythological lineage across the ancient Near East.
, Goddesses: Mysteries of the Feminine Divine, 2013thesis
In Babylonia and Assyria, she was called Ishtar. Farther to the west she was Astarte. As early as 4000 B.c. in Uruk, the principal site of her cult, Inanna was worshiped in her temple known as Eanna, or 'The House of Heaven.'
Harvey and Baring, paralleling Campbell, identify Astarte as the Phoenician-Canaanite iteration of the universal feminine cosmic principle, Queen of Heaven, whose cult spans millennia and geographies.
, The Divine Feminine: Exploring the Feminine Face of God Throughout the World, 1996thesis
On Cyprus, Astarte is the consort of the priest-king. Beside this there is the sacral prostitution in the Ishtar-Astarte cult, the presence of male and female prostitutes in the sanctuary, something also attested on Phoenician Cyprus.
Burkert documents the institutional cultic practices surrounding Astarte — sacred marriage with the priest-king and sacral prostitution — providing the historical-religious substrate for depth-psychological interpretations of the goddess.
, Greek Religion: Archaic and Classical, 1977supporting
Astarte and Yam ('Sea'): R. Dussaud, CRAI (1947) 208-12.
Burkert's scholarly apparatus places Astarte in relation to the Canaanite sea-god Yam, gesturing toward the mythological conflict between the goddess and chthonic-maritime powers that informs comparative studies.
, Greek Religion: Archaic and Classical, 1977supporting
Astarte (also Ashtoreth), 37, 60
Campbell's index equates Astarte with her Hebrew form Ashtoreth, situating the goddess within his comparative mythological framework alongside Artemis and Ishtar in a discussion of Babylonian mythology.
, The Inner Reaches of Outer Space: Metaphor as Myth and as Religion, 1986supporting
Astarte, 156
Jung's index entry for Astarte in The Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche indicates the term's presence in his broader comparative religious framework without elaborated analysis.
, The Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche, 1960aside
Astarte/Ahstaroth, 103, 108
Eliade's indexical pairing of Astarte with Ashtaroth places the goddess within his analysis of ancient Near Eastern cosmic cycles and ritual time without sustained psychological commentary.
, The Myth of the Eternal Return: Cosmos and History, 1954aside