The Hebrew Goddess, by Raphael Patai.  Read Chapter 2, then answer the following questions.  Send your answers in an email to the MysterySchool with HebrewGoddess Chap. 2 from ___________ (your magikal name) in the subject line.

1. How did the Divine Family of the Tetragrammaton have its origins in the Near Eastern pantheon of deities?

2. Fill in the blanks: The Goddess _____________ was the wife of ________,whose daughter was the goddess ___________ and whose son was the god __________.

3. T or F: Anath at times overshadowed Asherah in popularity and in the hold she exercised over the people.

4. Fill in the blanks: Known in Syria and Judea-Palestine as Anath, the Canaanite name for this goddess was _____________. She was also known as _____________.

5. Semitic poets often had two or more names for the same deity, one a name and one a divine title. Name at least one example of these double names.

6. What two professions was Anath-Astarte considered patron of in Egypt?

7. Who was the consort of Moab’s national god?

8. What did Ramses III refer to Anath-Astarte as?

9. Who did Astarte succeed as chief Goddess of Sidon?

10. Fill in the blank: The city of Ashtartu in the Bashan, a city holy to the Near Eastern Goddess, is referred to several times in the Bible as a city of the ____________.

11. T or F: The original meaning of the name Astarte or Ashtoreth was “womb”or “that which issues from the womb.”

12. T or F: Ancient figurines of Astarte found in Judea-Palestine frequently depict the goddess with two horns.

13. Fill in the blank: When the prophet Samuel purged the worship of Baal and Astarte from Judea, the Bible says the Lord rewarded Israel with a victory over the ______________.

14. Fill in the blank: When the Philistines defeated King Saul, they deposited his armor in a temple to ______________.

15. T or F: King Solomon worshipped and built shrines to Astarte at the behest of his Sidonian wife.

16. T or F: King Josiah destroyed the high places which Solomon had built for Ashtoreth and made her worship a capitol crime.

17. T or F: Various different figures of the Goddess have been found in Judea-Palestine excavations ranging from as far back as 2000 BC until past the division of Israel into two kingdoms.

18. What is the Biblical term for the Holy of Holies?

19. What is the most common artifact found in the excavation of the ancient city of Devir?

20. What two Mesopotamian goddesses is Anath-Astarte heir to?

21. What Greek goddess is Anath-Astarte equated with?

22. What Egyptian God was Anath wife to?

23. T or F: No Near Eastern war goddess was more bloodthirsty than Anath-Astarte.

24. What are four instruments of war Anath was mistress of in Egyptian tradition?

25. What “son of Anath” was one of the Judges? What was he famous for?

26. T or F: Anath-Astarte was referred to as the Queen of Heaven.

27. T or F: Although the prophet Jeremiah preached that the Babylonian Captivity had taken place as a punishment for the idolatry of the people’s worship of Baal and Anath, the people believed the fall of Judea had taken place because they had forsaken the worship of the Goddess in favor of Jehovah.

28. T or F: The kings of Judah and their princes often led the people in their worship of Anath-Astarte.

29. Which three main elements of the worship of Anath-Astarte are similar to the rites at the Jerusalem Temple?

30. What important element of the worship of the Goddess is not included in these three rites?

31. What later Christian practice was this rite a precursor of?

32. Which Athenian and Mesopotamian goddesses were also honored by this practice?

33. T or F: In the Jewish colony of Elephantine, Jehovah and Anath-Astarte were worshipped side by side.

34: Essay: Explain how Anath-Astarte could be a sexually promiscuous goddess of fertility and still a virgin goddess.

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