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Glite Dictionary
👸 Ancient goddess 🪵 Religious object
Asherah

Asherah

1 9.9
An ancient goddess in the Near East who protects mothers and crops
  • proper noun
  • Literature
: Asera
  • He removed the high places, smashed the sacred stones, and cut down the Asherah poles.

And there are inscriptions in the Sinai that state, you know, this is our God Yahweh and his consort Asherah.

Examples

  • One daughter of the king's house has always tended a shrine of Asherah.

    Fiction book (2001)

  • And Asherah was just one of the many names given to the Great Goddess of the ancient Near East, identical with the Mesopotamian Ishtar, whom the Greeks called Astarte and identified with their own Aphrodite.

    Blog text (10)

  • Spoken for by the goddess Asherah.

    Fiction book (2001)

  • But to be a priestess of Asherah was the highest work of all.

    Fiction book (2001)

  • I take it you mean Asherah, who most biblical scholars accept was the wife of Yahweh.

    Blog text (14)

  • Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones, and cut down their Asherah poles.

    Academic text (1997)

  • The Biblical text describes them as "the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel's table."

    Blog text (10)

  • It has been suggested that the queen mother (gebira) in ancient Israel "may have carried out official religious and political functions," including influencing the royal succession and being involved in the Canaanite Asherah cult.

    Academic text (1997)

  • There is debate as to what the term Asherah precisely signifies; but, in any event, we know from 2 Samuel and 1 Kings that many other deities were worshipped in David's and Solomon's Jerusalem.

    Academic text (1991)

  • Many ancient Near Eastern communities worshipped the goddess Asherah as a deity of fertility.

Surface Forms

Asherah main

Etymology

Asherah comes from ancient Semitic languages and names a 'mother' and 'fertility' goddess, and in old Ugaritic texts she appears as Athirat. So Asherah means the goddess who brings life, children, and protection.