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Osiris was drowned in a chest created by his envious brother Seth, who tore the corpse into 14 pieces and scattered them over Egypt. Isis and Nephthys found all of Osiris pieces and with the help of Anubis, Thoth, and Horus resurrected Osiris where he remained in the underworld as ruler and judge. This violent death and resurrection are a trait of a Dying God.

Osiris is a playable character in the game Smite with powers reflecting his mythological role as the Egyptian god of the afterlife, resurrection, and judgment. His power includes preventing healing while his Judgement Tether stuns his enemies.

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Osiris, one of the most important gods of ancient Egypt. The origin of Osiris is obscure; he was a local god of Busiris, in Lower Egypt, and may have been a personification of chthonic (underworld) fertility. By about 2400 bce, however, Osiris clearly played a double role: he was both a god of fertility and the embodiment of the dead and resurrected king. This dual role was in turn combined with the Egyptian concept of divine kingship: the king at death became Osiris, god of the underworld; and the dead king's son, the living king, was identified with Horus, a god of the sky. Osiris and Horus were thus father and son. The goddess Isis was the mother of the king and was thus the mother of Horus and consort of Osiris. The god Seth was considered the murderer of Osiris and adversary of Horus.

According to the form of the myth reported by the Greek author Plutarch, Osiris was slain or drowned by Seth, who tore the corpse into 14 pieces and flung them over Egypt. Eventually, Isis and her sister Nephthys found and buried all the pieces, except the phallus, thereby giving new life to Osiris, who thenceforth remained in the underworld as ruler and judge. His son Horus successfully fought against Seth, avenging Osiris and becoming the new king of Egypt.

Osiris was not only ruler of the dead but also the power that granted all life from the underworld, from sprouting vegetation to the annual flood of the Nile River. From about 2000 bce onward it was believed that every man, not just the deceased kings, became associated with Osiris at death. This identification with Osiris, however, did not imply resurrection, for even Osiris did not rise from the dead. Instead, it signified the renewal of life both in the next world and through one's descendants on Earth. In this universalized form Osiris's cult spread throughout Egypt, often joining with the cults of local fertility and underworld deities.

The idea that rebirth in the next life could be gained by following Osiris was maintained through certain cult forms. In the Middle Kingdom (1938-c. 1630 bce) the god's festivals consisted of processions and nocturnal rites and were celebrated at the temple of Abydos, where Osiris had assimilated the very ancient god of the dead, Khenty-Imentiu. This name, meaning "Foremost of the Westerners," was adopted by Osiris as an epithet. Because the festivals took place in the open, public participation was permitted, and by the early 2nd millennium bce it had become fashionable to be buried along the processional road at Abydos or to erect a cenotaph there as a representative of the dead.

Osiris festivals symbolically reenacting the god's fate were celebrated annually in various towns throughout Egypt. A central feature of the festivals during the late period was the construction of the "Osiris garden," a mold in the shape of Osiris, filled with soil. The mold was moistened with the water of the Nile and sown with grain. Later, the sprouting grain symbolized the vital strength of Osiris.

At Memphis the holy bull, Apis, was linked with Osiris, becoming Osiris-Apis, which eventually became the name of the Hellenistic god Serapis. Greco-Roman authors connected Osiris with the god Dionysus. Osiris was also identified with Soker, an ancient Memphite god of the dead.

The oldest known depiction of Osiris dates to about 2300 bce, but representations of him are rare before the New Kingdom (1539-1075 bce), when he was shown in an archaizing form as a mummy with his arms crossed on his breast, one hand holding a crook, the other a flail. On his head was the atef- crown, composed of the white crown of Upper Egypt and two ostrich feathers.

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Osiris | Description, Myth, Symbols, & Facts

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Osiris, one of the most important gods of ancient Egypt. Osiris was both a god of fertility and the embodiment of the dead and resurrected king. This dual role was in turn combined with the Egyptian concept of divine kingship: the king at death became Osiris, god of the underworld.

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Adonis, a hunter beloved by Aphrodite, was killed by a wild boar in Artemis's domain. Devastated by the loss of her lover, Aphrodite pleaded with Zeus to restore his life. In response, Zeus declared that Adonis would spend half of each year with her and the other half in the underworld with Persephone. Adonis's tragic end and resurrection fall into the archetype of the Dying God.

"The central idea of the myth is that of the death and resurrection of Adonis, which represent the decay of nature every winter and its revival in spring. He is thus viewed by modern scholars as having originated as an ancient spirit of vegetation" (The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica).

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The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica | View Edit History

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Adonis, in Greek mythology, a youth of remarkable beauty, the favorite of the goddess Aphrodite (identified with Venus by the Romans). Traditionally, he was the product of the incestuous love Smyrna (Myrrha) entertained for her own father, the Syrian king Theias.

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In the Norse tale, the gods amused themselves by throwing objects at Balder, knowing that he was immune from harm. The blind god Höd, deceived by the evil Loki, killed Balder by hurling mistletoe, the only thing that could hurt him. His tragic end and unsuccessful resurrection due to Loki's meddling make Balder a Dying God.

"Though, if you ask the other gods, they'll point out something very interesting, isn't Loki, who's the worst, a shapeshifter And have you ever seen him and Thokk in the same to room? Just Saying. These are the reasons Loki Is the worst" (CrashCourse 5:28).

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Balder, Old Norse Baldr, in Norse mythology, the son of the chief god Odin and his wife Frigg. Beautiful and just, he was the favourite of the gods. Most legends about him concern his death. Icelandic stories tell how the gods amused themselves by throwing objects at him, knowing that he was immune from harm. The blind god Höd, deceived by the evil Loki, killed Balder by hurling mistletoe, the only thing that could hurt him. After Balder's funeral, the giantess Thökk, probably Loki in disguise, refused to weep the tears that would release Balder from death.

Some scholars believe that the passive, suffering figure of Balder was influenced by that of Christ. The Danish historian Saxo Grammaticus ( c. 1200), however, depicts him as a warrior engaged in a feud over the hand of a woman.

Amy Tikkanen.

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Balder, Old Norse Baldr, in Norse mythology, the son of the chief god Odin and his wife Frigg. Beautiful and just, he was the favourite of the gods. Most legends about him concern his death. Icelandic stories tell how the gods amused themselves by throwing objects at him, knowing that he was immune from harm.

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Jesus has one of the most well-known dying and resurrection stories. In Jesus's violent death, he was stripped and then nailed to the cross; above him at the top of the cross was placed the condemnatory inscription stating his crime of professing to be King of the Jews. His violent death and resurrection categorizes Jesus into the Dying God category.

Jesus's presence in pop culture can be seen in movies and television like The Son of God" (2014), "Killing Jesus" (2015), "Last Days in the Desert" (2015), "Risen" (2016), "The Young Messiah" (2016), and "Mary Magdalene" (2018) are some examples of films that have featured Jesus in various ways.

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crucifixion, an important method of capital punishment particularly among the Persians, Seleucids, Carthaginians, and Romans from about the 6th century bce to the 4th century ce. Constantine the Great, the first Christian emperor, abolished it in the Roman Empire in the early 4th century ce out of veneration for Jesus Christ, the most famous victim of crucifixion.

Punishment

There were various methods of performing the execution. Usually, the condemned man, after being whipped, or "scourged," dragged the crossbeam of his cross to the place of punishment, where the upright shaft was already fixed in the ground. Stripped of his clothing either then or earlier at his scourging, he was bound fast with outstretched arms to the crossbeam or nailed firmly to it through the wrists. The crossbeam was then raised high against the upright shaft and made fast to it about 9 to 12 feet (approximately 3 metres) from the ground. Next, the feet were tightly bound or nailed to the upright shaft. A ledge inserted about halfway up the upright shaft gave some support to the body; evidence for a similar ledge for the feet is rare and late. Over the criminal's head was placed a notice stating his name and his crime. Death ultimately occurred through a combination of constrained blood circulation, organ failure, and asphyxiation as the body strained under its own weight. It could be hastened by shattering the legs ( crurifragium) with an iron club, which prevented them from supporting the body's weight and made inhalation more difficult, accelerating both asphyxiation and shock.

Crucifixion was most frequently used to punish political or religious agitators, pirates, slaves, or those who had no civil rights. In 519 bce Darius I, king of Persia, crucified 3,000 political opponents in Babylon; in 88 bce Alexander Jannaeus, the Judaean king and high priest, crucified 800 Pharisaic opponents; and about 32 ce Pontius Pilate had Jesus of Nazareth put to death by crucifixion.

The account of Jesus Christ's crucifixion in the Gospels begins with his scourging. The Roman soldiers then mocked him as the "King of the Jews" by clothing him in a purple robe and a crown of thorns and led him slowly to Mount Calvary, or Golgotha; one Simon of Cyrene was allowed to aid him in carrying the cross. At the place of execution he was stripped and then nailed to the cross, at least nailed by his hands, and above him at the top of the cross was placed the condemnatory inscription stating his crime of professing to be King of the Jews. (The Gospels differ slightly in the wording but agree that the inscription was in "Hebrew," or Aramaic, as well as Latin and Greek.) On the cross Jesus hung in agony. The soldiers divided his garments and cast lots for his seamless robe. Various onlookers taunted him. Crucified on either side of Jesus were two convicted thieves, whom the soldiers dispatched at eventide by breaking their legs. The soldiers found Jesus already dead, but, to be certain, one of them drove a spear into his side, from which poured blood and water. He was taken down before sunset (in deference to Jewish custom) and buried in a rock-hewn tomb.

Crucifixion in art

The representation of Christ on the cross has been an important subject of Western art since the early Middle Ages. Concerned primarily with simple symbolic affirmations of salvation and eternal life, and repelled by the ignominy of the punishment, the early Christians did not represent the Crucifixion realistically before the 5th century; instead, the event was symbolized first by a lamb and, after the official recognition of Christianity by the Roman state in the early 4th century, by a jewelled cross. By the 6th century, however, representations of the Crucifixion became numerous as a result of current church efforts to combat a heresy that Christ's nature was not dual-human and divine-but simply divine and therefore invulnerable. These early Crucifixions were nevertheless triumphant images, showing Christ alive, with open eyes and no trace of suffering, victorious over death. In the 9th century, Byzantine art began to show a dead Christ, with closed eyes, reflecting current concern with the mystery of his death and the nature of the Incarnation. This version was adopted in the West in the 13th century with an ever-increasing emphasis on his suffering, in accordance with the mysticism of the period.

Giraudon/Art Resource, New York

Parallel to this development in the representation of Christ himself was the growth of an increasingly complex iconography involving other elements traditionally included in the scene. The principal mourners, the Virgin Mary and St. John the Apostle, are frequently the only other figures included in the composition. In various expanded versions of the theme, however, there are several other pairs of figures, both historical and symbolic, that traditionally appear to the right and left of the cross: the two thieves, one repentant, who were crucified with Christ; the centurion who pierced Christ's side with a lance (and afterward acknowledged him to be the Son of God) and the soldier who offered him vinegar on a sponge; small personifications of the Sun and Moon, which were eclipsed at the Crucifixion; and allegorical figures of the church and the synagogue. Other figures might include the soldiers who cast lots for Christ's garments and St. Mary Magdalene.

With the growth of devotional art at the end of the Middle Ages, depictions of the Crucifixion became vehicles for the portrayal of Christ's sufferings; calculated to inspire piety in the viewer, this spectacle became the main concern of artists, who often depicted the scene with gruesome realism and sometimes included the horror of a mass of jeering spectators. Some of the Crucifixions from this period include the figure of St. John the Baptist, pointing to Christ and his sacrifice as he had earlier heralded his coming. Renaissance art restored a calm idealization to the scene, however, which was preserved, with a more overt expression of emotion, in the Baroque period. Like most of Christian religious art, the theme of the Crucifixion suffered a decline after the 17th century; some 20th-century artists, however, created highly individual interpretations of the subject.
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Melissa Petruzzello, Associate Editor.

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crucifixion | Description, History, Punishment, & Jesus

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Crucifixion, an important method of capital punishment particularly among the Persians, Seleucids, Carthaginians, and Romans until about the 4th century CE. The most famous victim of crucifixion is Jesus Christ. Learn more about the history of crucifixion, the death of Jesus, and its depiction in art.

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As an infant, Dionysus was torn to pieces, cooked, and eaten by the evil Titans. Athena saved his heart, allowing Zeus, through Semele, to resurrect Dionysus. Zeus then struck the Titans with lightning, consuming them in fire. His violent birth and death, followed by his resurrection make him a Dying God.

"Athena managed to save the child’s heart and brought it to Zeus, who swallowed it. Zeus punished the Titans for their crime by blasting them into soot with his thunderbolts" (The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica).

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Zagreus | Son of Zeus, Dionysus, Underworld | Britannica

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Zagreus, in Orphic myth, a divine child who was the son of Zeus (as a snake) and his daughter Persephone. Zeus intended to make Zagreus his heir and bestow on him unlimited power, but Hera out of jealousy urged the Titans to attack the child while she beguiled him with toys. The Titans, who were

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In Toltec mythology, Quetzalcóatl is linked with the brightest star (Venus) in the ancient sky that appeared to “rise” from the Sun, like Quetzalcóatl rising from his funeral pyre. Quetzalcóatl is the god of death and rebirth, who descended to the underworld to collect the bones necessary to make the first human beings.

"In general, he is considered the god of wisdom, the god of the Aztec ritual calendar, the god of corn and maize, and oftentimes a symbol of death and resurrection" (Kerkhof).

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Quetzalcoatl: The Feathered Serpent Deity of Ancient Mesoamerica

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Are you still looking for a being that caused a solar eclipse? Well, look no further, because Quetzalcoatl is your guy. While at first a fully zoomorphic feathered serpent, Quetzalcoatl would later be represented in his human form. The worship of Quetzalcoatl is wide-reaching, has a rich history, an…

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Lemminkainen is killed with a hollow reed, but in other versions, he is killed with a snake. In all tales, he is killed with the only weapon against which he is defenseless. After his death, his mother goes to great lengths to retrieve his body. She succeeds in retrieving his body, but her attempts to revive him are only successful in a few versions.

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Lemminkainen | Epic, Hero, & Facts | Britannica

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Lemminkainen is a hero of Finnish traditional songs in which he is described as traveling to an otherworldly place. There he overcomes many obstacles. He must also succeed at a series of tests and defeat his host in a wizard’s contest. He then dies, and his mother goes to great lengths to retrieve his body.

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Ganesha is the patron deity of intellectuals, bankers, scribes, and authors. He embodies the traits of a Dying God, as he is reborn in a new form, as described in the quote below.

"One of the best-known myths, however, begins with Parvati taking a bath and longing for someone to keep Shiva from barging in on her, as was his habit. As she bathes, she kneads the dirt that she rubs off her body into the shape of a child, who comes to life. But when Shiva sees the handsome young boy—or when the inauspicious planet Saturn (Shani) glances at him, in some variants of the myth that attempt to absolve Shiva of the crime—he or one of his attendants cuts off the child’s head" (Doniger).

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Ganesha, also spelled Ganesh, also called Ganapati, elephant-headed Hindu god of beginnings, who is traditionally worshipped before any major enterprise and is the patron of intellectuals, bankers, scribes, and authors. His name means both "Lord of the People" ( means the common people) and "Lord of the Ganas" (Ganesha is the chief of the ganas, the goblin hosts of Shiva). Ganesha is potbellied and generally depicted as holding in his hand a few round Indian sweets, of which he is inordinately fond. His vehicle ( vahana) is the large Indian bandicoot rat, which symbolizes Ganesha's ability to overcome anything to get what he wants. Like a rat and like an elephant, Ganesha is a remover of obstacles. The 10-day late-summer (August-September) festival Ganesh Chaturthi is devoted to him.

Many different stories are told about the birth of Ganesha, including one in which Parvati makes her son out of a piece of cloth and asks her consort, Shiva, to bring him to life. One of the best-known myths, however, begins with Parvati taking a bath and longing for someone to keep Shiva from barging in on her, as was his habit. As she bathes, she kneads the dirt that she rubs off her body into the shape of a child, who comes to life. But when Shiva sees the handsome young boy-or when the inauspicious planet Saturn (Shani) glances at him, in some variants of the myth that attempt to absolve Shiva of the crime-he or one of his attendants cuts off the child's head. When Shiva cuts off an elephant's head to bestow it on the headless Ganesha, one of the tusks is shattered, and Ganesha is depicted holding the broken-off piece in his hand. According to this version of the myth, Ganesha is the child of Parvati alone-indeed, a child born despite Shiva's negative intervention. Yet Ganesha is traditionally regarded as the child of both Shiva and Parvati.

In some parts of India Ganesha is depicted as celibate, but in others he is said to be married to both Buddhi ("Intelligence") and Siddhi ("Success"). Yet other traditions give him a third wife, Riddhi ("Prosperity").

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Ganesha, elephant-headed Hindu god of beginnings, who is traditionally worshipped before any major enterprise and is the patron of intellectuals, bankers, scribes, and authors. He is a remover of obstacles. The 10-day festival Ganesh Chaturthi is devoted to him. Learn more about Ganesha.

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Ishtar is the mother goddess of fertility, who mourned her lover Tammuz. Tammus was the god of fertility, embodying the powers for new life in nature in the spring. For six months, Ishtar ventured into the realm of the dead, causing the earth to lose its fertility. Tammuz followed his lover, dying each winter. In spring, the underworld goddess Allatu permitted their resurrection with the Water of Life, once again restoring life and vegetation to earth. Nature's seasonal cycle of death and rebirth, along with the death and resurrection of the couple, fall into the Dying God archetype.

"The texts suggest that in Assyria (and later among the Sabaeans), Tammuz was basically viewed as the power in the grain, dying when the grain was milled" (The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica).

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Tammuz | God, Meaning, Mother, & Facts | Britannica

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Tammuz, in Mesopotamian religion, god of fertility embodying the powers for new life in nature in the spring. The earliest known mention of Tammuz is in texts dating to the early part of the Early Dynastic III period (c. 2600–c. 2334 BCE), but his cult probably was much older.

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Xipe Totec is the Aztec god of spring, fertility, and regeneration. He is the divine embodiment of life emerging from the dead land and of new plants sprouting from their seeds. Xipe Totec conveys the concept of death and rebirth by wearing the flayed skin of a sacrificial victim during the corn-planting festival, ritually enacting the death-and-renewal cycle of the earth. The cycle of death and rebirth makes Xipe Totec a Dying God.

"In this sculpture, the face of a living being is seen behind the mouth and eye openings of the sacrificial victim, whose skin is laced together by cords at the back of the wearer’s skull. Similar lacing is also seen on the chest, amid the vigorously articulated body covering. This clay sculpture of Xipe closely resembles Aztec stone figures in the smooth modeling, sturdy body, and rounded lips and eyes" (Xipe Totec: Kimbell Art Museum).

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Xipe Totec, the Aztec god of spring and regeneration, appears in many Mesoamerican cults. A fertility deity, Xipe Totec vividly conveys the concept of death and rebirth by wearing the flayed skin of a sacrificial victim. Meaning literally “our lord, the flayed one,” Xipe Totec is also associated with the arrival of spring, when the earth covers itself with a new coat of vegetation and exchanges its dead skin for a new one.

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Freyr is the Norse god of peace and prosperity, associated with male virility, sunshine, and fair weather. He is often depicted as the fairest of the gods, a noble warrior, and a romantic.

"Famous for his accoutrements, which included a magical ship, a golden boar, and sword that fought on its own, Freyr was fated to die in mortal combat during Ragnarök" (Apel).

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Freyr was the Norse god of peace and prosperity, celebrated at weddings and harvest feasts. One of the Vanir, he was originally brought to Asgard as a hostage, but earned his place in the pantheon through charm and goodwill.

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Marzanna represents the coming of winter and is one of three seasonal sisters representing the cycle of life and death. Marzanna is also a fate goddess whose arrival signifies misfortune, creates nightmares, and mischievously fiddles with a woman's spinning. Her connection to nature as a symbol of winter and death makes her a Dying God.

"As spring nears, the feast of Maslenitsa is held, in which people dress a straw maiden in rags, carry her through town into the fields, and burn her in effigy, or drown her in a river or pond. The effigy represents Marzanna, and the burning or destruction of the effigy represents the banishing of winter from the land. The drowning is her disappearance into the underworld" (Hirst).

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Marzanna, Slavic Goddess of Death and Winter

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The Slavic goddess of winter, Marzanna, has multiple guises and names. She is the goddess of death and winter, fate and torment, and spinning.

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Astarte is the goddess of love, sex, war, and hunting. She is often depicted with horses and chariots after her arrival in Egypt, and as a beautiful naked woman, sometimes with wings or horns, she is also associated with the dove, bee, and lion. Astarte is linked to the death and rebirth of nature. In some variations, she is associated with the seasonal death of vegetation and the subsequent rebirth of crops and fertility in spring.

"Astarte is the Greek form of the Canaanite Athart and the Phoenician Ashtart both of which derive from the Akkadian Asdartu referencing the goddess Ishtar" (Mark).

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Astarte is the Canaanite/Phoenician goddess of love, sex, war, and hunting who developed from the Mesopotamian deity Inanna/ Ishtar. She is usually associated with the storm god Baal but seems to have been much more popular. She traveled to Egypt through trade where she was adopted as a war deity and consort of Set.

She was associated with war in the Levant prior to her arrival in Egypt, but stories concerning her usually emphasize her skill in hunting and aspects of her relationship with Baal and the god El. She is often depicted with horses and chariots after her arrival in Egypt and as a beautiful naked woman, sometimes with wings or horns, as she was in Canaanite/Phoenician regions which also associated her with the dove, bee, and lion.

She traveled from Phoenicia and then Egypt via trade throughout the Mediterranean and was clearly quite popular based on the number of temples raised in her honor. She is thought to have informed the development of the Greek goddesses Artemis and Aphrodite, the Roman Venus, as well as the Hurrian goddess Sauska, among others. Astarte is also known as Ashtart, Athart, and in the Bible as Ashtoreth, consort of Baal, and is condemned along with him as a "false god" by the prophet Elijah as well as others, including Jeremiah, for drawing people away from the worship of Yahweh.

Her name has been connected to the Christian holiday of Easter, though this claim is repeatedly challenged. It is possible, however, that she informed later fertility goddesses whose festivals were Christianized, as many pagan celebrations were. In the present day, she remains a popular goddess among the Neo-Pagan and Wiccan movements who regard her, along with other ancient goddesses, as a source of personal empowerment and inspiration.

Name & Origins

Astarte is first mentioned in texts from the ancient city of Ugarit dating back to the mid-14th to late 13th centuries BCE.

Astarte is the Greek form of the Canaanite Athart and the Phoenician Ashtart both of which derive from the Akkadian Asdartu referencing the goddess Ishtar. Ishtar developed from the Sumerian goddess Inanna who is attested in writing from the 4th millennium BCE but whose worship is understood as much older. Inanna was the goddess of love, sexuality, sensuality, fertility, and war, and these attributes later characterized Ishtar.

Inanna was already a popular goddess in Sumer when she was identified with Ishtar by Enheduanna (l. 2285-2250 BCE), high priestess of the temple at Ur and daughter of Sargon of Akkad (r. 2334-2279 BCE), founder of the Akkadian Empire. Sargon credits Ishtar for military victories in his inscriptions, identifying her as a war deity during his reign. Scholar Stephen Bertman describes the goddess:

Inanna or Inanna/Ishtar (West Semitic: Astarte) was the most popular deity of ancient Mesopotamia [who] represented the power of sexual attraction and the carnal pleasure that proceeds from it. Focused on the immediate gratification of her own sensual needs, she was neither a goddess of marriage nor of childbirth. Her sexual appetite was inexhaustible and her relationships with men short term...Because of her savagery and her fierce determination to have her own way whatever the cost to others, Inanna/Ishtar was also a goddess of war and a patroness of ruling dynasties. Her animal was the lion and her symbol the star, signifying the morning and evening star Venus, with whom she was astrologically identified. (120)

She was adopted with these attributes by the Canaanites who added the bee, dove, and palm tree to her iconography. Her characteristics, prior to her arrival in Egypt, have been interpreted by scholars primarily from statuary and reliefs as she plays a minor role in the tales of the Canaanite gods. Baal's sister, Anat, is far more well-defined in Canaanite religious literature while Astarte seems to have been in Egypt. The two goddesses were paired as cultic figures in Egypt, though recognized as different deities, and in Canaanite mythology, they appear together in at least two tales.

The Ugaritic Texts

Astarte is first mentioned in texts from the ancient city of Ugarit (modern-day Ras Shamra, Syria) dating back to the mid-14th to late 13th centuries BCE, specifically the Baal Cycle and El's Drinking Party. The Baal Cycle is not a single work but a collection of tales concerning Baal's war with the sea god Yamm, his victory over death, and ascent as king of the gods.

Baal is the god of storms, rain, and war who was also associated with fertility and good harvests and was one of the more popular gods of the Canaanite pantheon. His power, and position as a prince, son of the Lord El, made him a natural choice as El's successor. The Baal Cycle opens, however, with Baal's disappointment at El's decision to choose Yamm as the new king instead of himself. Once Yamm is given the kingship, though, he enslaves his fellow gods who cry out to El's consort, Asherah, for help. Asherah offers Yamm various treasures if he will change his policy, but he refuses them, saying all he wants is to possess the queen. When Asherah returns to the council of the gods with this news and her acceptance of Yamm's condition, all gratefully accept her sacrifice on their part except Baal who swears he will kill Yamm.

When Yamm sends emissaries asking for the council to surrender Baal to him, the messengers behave arrogantly, and he moves to attack them but is restrained by Anat and Astarte:

Then Prince Baal was shaken
In his hand a striker,
In his left hand a slayer...
...Anat seizes,
His left hand Astarte seizes.

(Tablet 2, Column 1; Coogan & Smith, 113)

The text is badly damaged at this point, but the goddesses seem to warn him against killing messengers who are only obeying orders. El also ignores the bad behavior of the emissaries and promises Baal will be delivered and will come bearing gifts. At this point, the god of crafts, Kothar-wa-Khasis, forges two mighty clubs for Baal that will defeat Yamm. Baal meets Yamm in single combat, defeats him, and throws him back into the sea, afterwards assuming the kingship.

Following this sequence, Mot, the god of death, rises in rebellion against Baal and swallows him (or thinks he does as Baal has actually gone into hiding and sent a double in his place). Since he is a fertility god, his absence brings drought and famine. It would seem natural, at this point, that his consort Astarte would play a significant role in avenging him, but instead, it is his sister Anat who kills Mot, cuts him into pieces, and hurls him throughout the land. Afterwards, Baal reveals himself and resumes his reign, subdues Mot (who, as an immortal god, has returned to life), and the story ends.

Astarte's role throughout is minor, and scholars Michael D. Coogan and Mark S. Smith explain this as an expression of Ugarit's patriarchal society which informed its theology (7). There is no doubt that Ugaritic patriarchy informed the religious texts, but this does not explain why Asherah and Anat are given central roles while a popular goddess like Astarte only appears in the scene where she helps restrain Baal and then later when she votes with the other gods that Baal should have his own palace.

The Baal Cycle was discovered at Ugarit in 1929, and early scholarship solved this problem by claiming Astarte and Anat were conflated and so it is, in fact, Astarte who takes on the role of avenger. This claim has been dismissed, however, as it is clear the two goddesses are distinct, and there is no evidence they were ever conflated. In the myth El's Drinking Party, Anat and Astarte prepare the feast, go hunting together, and help El cure his hangover afterwards.

It is more likely that Anat is simply the more active agent of the two, choosing to take on the task herself, while Astarte may have been thought to inspire others to act for her. This would be in keeping with her origins as the Mesopotamian Inanna/Ishtar who repeatedly manipulates others to do her bidding. In The Epic of Gilgamesh, to give the most famous example, she calls on the Bull of Heaven to punish Gilgamesh after he has rejected her advances rather than dealing with the insult herself. It is possible, since the two goddesses were paired, that Anat was the active and Astarte the passive partner, at least before their arrival in Egypt.

Astarte in the Levant & Egypt

However she was portrayed in the texts, archaeological evidence attests to her popularity throughout the Levant. She was worshipped at Baalbek, Byblos, Sidon, and Tyre, and at Baalbek - the major center for Baal's cult - her shrines and temples outnumbered his. From the Levant, she traveled via trade to Cyprus, where she became equally popular, and the same paradigm is observed with Greece and Egypt.

She arrived in Egypt during the New Kingdom's 18th Dynasty (c. 1550-1292 BCE) and is referenced on the Sphinx Stela erected by Amenhotep II (r. 1427-1401 BCE) as being "well pleased" with his horsemanship. Along with Anat, who traveled with her, she was regarded as the divine protectress of the pharaoh in battle, specifically of his chariot and horses.

The tales of the Baal Cycle seem to have traveled with her, but according to scholar Richard H. Wilkinson, Astarte was given the role previously played by Anat:

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According to the fragmentary 19th dynasty story of Astarte and the Sea, the goddess seems to have been involved in thwarting the demands of the tyrannical sea god Yamm, though the details of this myth are lost to us. (138)

She was understood as the daughter of Ra (or perhaps Ptah) and consort of Set along with Anat. Her association with Set was explained through the popular tale The Contendings of Horus and Set, an account of the struggle of the two gods for kingship. The backstory of the action is the Osiris-Set cycle in which the rightful king, Osiris, is murdered by his jealous brother, Set, revived by his sister-wife Isis and her sister Nephthys, but because he is incomplete after his resurrection, he descends to the underworld to become Judge of the Dead. Isis raises their son Horus to maturity, at which point he challenges Set for the throne.

Astarte continued as a popular deity in the Levant & was a significant obstacle to the acceptance of the god Yahweh in the Kingdom of Israel.

In The Contendings of Horus and Set, Horus and Set appear before the council of the gods to make their cases for kingship, and it is decided they should resolve their differences through a series of contests. Most of the gods feel that Horus should rule as he is the son of Osiris, but Ra feels he is too young and inexperienced and that Set has the maturity to make a better king. The contests go on for 80 years until Isis intervenes and Ra is convinced, awarding the kingship to Horus.

Set was still regarded as an effective monarch, however, and so was given control of the foreign lands beyond Egypt's borders and the barren regions of the desert. As a consolation prize, since it was acknowledged these lands could not compare with the beauty of Egypt, he was also given Anat and Astarte as consorts. Although Set had lost the kingship and was portrayed as the villain in the Osiris-Set cycle, he was also worshipped during the New Kingdom of Egypt, and Astarte's popularity certainly did not suffer from her association with him. She was worshipped throughout Egypt in formal temples dedicated to her, at shrines, paired with Anat, and as a member of triads, appearing with Mut and Khonsu. Wilkinson comments:

She appears as a war goddess [in Egypt] and while the sexual aspect of Astarte does not seem to have been as pronounced in Egyptian religion as in her Canaanite homeland, it was probably not entirely absent in her Egyptian mythology. She was usually portrayed as a naked woman on horseback brandishing weapons and wearing an Atef crown or a headdress with bull's horns...A number of depictions of an otherwise unidentified goddess wearing a horned helmet - as on ostraca found at the workmen's village of Deir el-Medina - may well represent this goddess. (138-139)

She was appealed to, along with Anat, for healing, protection, and victory in battle, especially concerning horses and chariots.

Astarte in the Bible

Astarte continued as a popular deity in the Levant and elsewhere and, according to the Bible, was a significant obstacle to the acceptance of the god Yahweh in the Kingdom of Israel. She is referred to as Ashtoreth in the biblical narratives and condemned as a false god by the prophets of Yahweh in I and II Kings, Jeremiah, and elsewhere. The Bible also references her by her epithet Queen of Heaven, which she inherited from Inanna/Ishtar, and makes clear how popular she was in a passage from the Book of Jeremiah.

After the prophet Jeremiah has told the people that Yahweh would destroy them unless they humble themselves, reject other gods, and worship him alone, the people reject his warnings, claiming their lives were better when they worshipped the goddess:

Then all the men who knew that their wives were burning incense to other gods, along with all the women who were present...said to Jeremiah, "We will not listen to the message you have spoken to us in the name of the Lord! We will certainly do everything we said we would: We will burn incense to the Queen of Heaven and will pour out drink offerings to her just as we and our ancestors, our kings and our officials, did in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. At that time, we had plenty of food and were well off and suffered no harm. But ever since we stopped burning incense to the Queen of Heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have had nothing and have been perishing by sword and famine." (Jeremiah 44:15-18)

Jeremiah responds by telling them that their problems are all being caused by the worship of false gods like Astarte and, if they persist, Yahweh will punish them severely. The struggle between the cult of Baal/Astarte and that of Yahweh serves as the plot device to show Yahweh's superiority here as well as in the famous story of the prophet Elijah's contest with the priests of Baal in I Kings 18-19.

Conclusion

Elijah's war on the foreign gods forms the basis for his struggle against the Phoenician queen Jezebel, who encourages the worship of Baal and Astarte in Israel. Jezebel, like the goddess she worshipped, is presented as a villain in the Hebrew Scriptures and continued to be understood in this role once these became the Old Testament of the Christian Bible.

Although Astarte is often confused with Asherah in biblical commentary, the two were distinct goddesses, and the Asherah referenced in the Bible is the fertility pole (or sacred tree) of the goddess, not an allusion to Astarte, though some translations of the Bible seem to suggest this. Astarte continued to be villainized throughout the early development of Christianity and was understood as a representative of pagan belief systems who should be rejected.

By the Middle Ages, Astarte, like Baal, was associated with the Christian devil and was transformed in medieval works on demonology into the male demon Astaroth, part of an evil trinity with Beelzebub (derived from Baal) and Lucifer. Among certain Christian denominations in the present day, Astaroth continues to be understood in this same role, while Astarte is dismissed as an ancient false goddess whose clergy were defeated by the power of Yahweh. Modern Neo-Pagan and Wiccan adherents, however, counter this claim in continuing to venerate the goddess as she was honored in the past, finding in her a source of strength and personal empowerment.

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Astarte is the Canaanite/Phoenician goddess of love, sex, war, and hunting who developed from the Mesopotamian deity Inanna/Ishtar. She is usually associated with the storm god Baal but seems to have...

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In the myth, Jarilo was born as the snows melted and the world began to bloom in the spring. He was hidden away in the criminal underworld for a long time, maturing into a powerful Slavic god and was said to be very attractive. Jarilo's connection to nature and experience of the natural cycle of life and death drop him into the dying god archetype.

"As the summer drew to a close and the leaves began to fall, Jarilo was ripped asunder by his envious father. His remains were dispersed across the landscape, and his soul had gone to the underworld to spend the long, dark winter months there" (Mplgmp).

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Jarilo: Mythology of Slavic God of Vegetation and Fertility - TRIDENT MYTH

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Jarilo is the name of this god, and his narrative is one of love, sacrifice, and rebirth. One ancient Slavic god was especially linked to the cycles of life, death, and reincarnation.

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Eshmun has a great origin tale as a young man, and in an attempt to escape Astarte's advances, he mutilated himself and died. Astarte did not like this and used her vital heat to bring him back to life with the attributes of a god. His death and resurrection gave this healing god the role of a fertility and vegetation god that dies and is reborn annually.

This connection to nature and fertility, along with his tragic death and resurrection, makes him a dying god.