Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun An ancient Semitic goddess of love and war, being the Phoenician, Syrian, and Canaanite counterpart to Ishtar. In the Bible, her name sometimes appears in the plural, perhaps referring to a group of goddesses.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The principal female divinity of the Phenicians, properly a chaste deity, goddess of the moon or of the heavens, but frequently confounded with the unchaste Ashera.
  • noun The moon.
  • noun [NL.] A genus of bivalve shells, formerly of great extent and referred to a family Cyprinidæ, now restricted and made the type of a family Astartidæ.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Zoöl.) A genus of bivalve mollusks, common on the coasts of America and Europe.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • proper noun A Semitic goddess of fertility, sexuality, and war. Name is derived from known from Northwestern Semitic regions, and is cognate in name, origin, and functions with the goddess Ishtar in Mesopotamian texts.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun an ancient Phoenician goddess of love and fertility; the Phoenician counterpart to Ishtar

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Greek Astartē, of Phoenician origin; see עṯtr in Semitic roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Ancient Greek Αστάρτη (Astártē).

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Examples

  • No matter their details or their various and peculiar heavens and hells, myths evolved to try and explain why things move around each other, why the Evenstar, whether you called her Astarte or Lucifer, rose at dawn and returned at dusk, to summon the night of the world.

    Matthew Ritchie: A Perilous Intellectual High Wire Act Matthew Ritchie 2010

  • 393 I am not quite sure that Astarte is not primarily the planet Venus; but I can hardly doubt that Prof. Max Müller and Sir G. Cox are mistaken in bringing from India Aphrodite the Dawn and her attendants, the

    The Book of The Thousand Nights And A Night 2006

  • "The name Astarte was variously identified with the moon, as distinguished from the sun, or with air and water, as opposed in their qualities to fire.

    Moon Lore Timothy Harley

  • In ancient Canaan Ishtar is known as Astarte, and her counterparts in the Greek and Roman pantheons are known as Aphrodite and Venus.

    Valerie Tarico: Ancient Sumerian Origins of the Easter Story 2009

  • In Syria and Palestine she is known as Astarte, whereas in Cyprus she acquires all the attributes of the goddess of love, Aphrodite. ...

    Aphrodite in New York 2003

  • Under the Time Laws I couldn't make physical contact until after breakout, but I swept in behind her on a narrow time-branch that led to the airless moon called Astarte and followed her right to breakout.

    Timegod's World Modesitt, L. E. 1992

  • Asherat, whom the Bible would call Astarte, was the consort of Melqart, the patron god of Tyre - Baal-Melek-Qart-Sor ....

    Time Patrolman Anderson, Poul, 1926-2001 1983

  • The ancient name of the city, Ashtaroth-Karnaim, already referred to, seems to indicate a horned Astarte, that is an image with a crescent moon on her head like the Egyptian

    Moon Lore Timothy Harley

  • The Great Mother was in Phoenicia called Astarte; she was a form of

    Myths of Babylonia and Assyria Donald Alexander Mackenzie 1904

  • Nevertheless we find in Canaan an Ashtoreth, whom the Greeks called Astarte, as well as a Baal.

    Patriarchal Palestine 1889

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