Queen of heaven (Antiquity)

Queen of Heaven was a title given to a number of ancient goddesses in the ancient Mediterranean and Near East, in particular Isis, Innana and Astarte. Forms and content of worship varied. The title Queen of Heaven was later used by Christians of Mary, and at least in terms of artistic imagery, the later use drew to some extent on the former.

Isis

Isis was venerated first in Egypt, then in the entire Eastern Mediteranean and in Italy. [Marienlexikon, 1988, Eos, St.Ottilien, 324] There was an Isis temple in Rome in the first century before Christ. [Marienlexikon 325] The Roman writer, Apuleius, in his "Transformations of Lucius" in the first century B.C, gives an understanding of Isis as the "Queen of Heaven" . The following paragraph is particularly significant.

: "You see me here, Lucius, in answer to your prayer. I am nature, the universal Mother, mistress of all the elements, primordial child of time, sovereign of all things spiritual, queen of the dead, queen also of the immortals, the single manifestation of all gods and goddesses that are, my nod governs the shining heights of Heavens, the wholesome sea breezes. Though I am worshipped in many aspects, known by countless names. . . some know me as Juno, some as Bellona . . . the Egyptians who excel in ancient learning and worship call me by my true name...Queen Isis."

Innana

The Goddess of love and war, ["She stirs confusion and chaos against those who are disobedient to her, speeding carnage and inciting the devastating flood, clothed in terrifying radiance. It is her game to speed conflict and battle, untiring, strapping on her sandals." ETCSL translation: t.4.07.3. See link to ETCSL] who was seen swaggering around the streets of her home town, dragging young men out of the taverns to have sex with her. ["When the servants let the flocks loose, and when cattle and sheep are returned to cow-pen and sheepfold, then, my lady, like the nameless poor, you wear only a single garment. The pearls of a prostitute are placed around your neck, and you are likely to snatch a man from the tavern. As you hasten to the embrace of your spouse Dumuzid, Inana, then the seven paranymphs share the bedchamber with you." ETCSL translation: t.4.07.4] Despite her association with mating and fertility of humans and animals, Inanna was not a mother goddess, and is rarely associated with childbirth [Fiore, Silvestro. "Voices From the Clay: the development of Assyro-Babylonian Literature". University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, 1965.] . Inanna was also associated with rain and storms and with the planet Venus. [Jacobsen, Thorkild. "The Treasures of Darkness: a History of Mesopotamian Religion." Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 1976.]

Queen of Heaven is a title used of goddesses central to many religions of antiquity. In Sumer Inanna was hailed as "Queen of Heaven" in the 3rd millennium BC. In Akkad to the north, she was worshipped later as Ishtar. In the Sumerian "Descent of Inanna", when Inanna is challenged at the outermost gates of the underworld, she replies

: "I am Inanna, Queen of Heaven,
On my way to the East."

Her cult was deeply embedded in Mesopotamia and among the Canaanites to the west.

Astarte

The goddess, the Queen of heaven whose worship Jeremiah so vehemently opposed, may have been possibly Astarte. Astarte is the name of a goddess as known from Northwestern Semitic regions, cognate in name, origin and functions with the goddess Ishtar in Mesopotamian texts. Another transliteration is "‘Ashtart"; other names for the goddess include Hebrew עשתרת (transliterated "Ashtoreth"), Ugaritic "‘ṯtrt" (also "‘Aṯtart" or "‘Athtart", transliterated "Atirat"), Akkadian ^D"As-tar-tú" (also "Astartu") and Etruscan "Uni-Astre" (Pyrgi Tablets).

According to scholar Mark S. Smith, Astarte may be the Iron Age (after 1200 BC) incarnation of the Bronze Age (to 1200 BC) Asherah. [Citation
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Astarte was connected with fertility, sexuality, and war. Her symbols were the lion, the horse, the sphinx, the dove, and a star within a circle indicating the planet Venus. Pictorial representations often show her naked. Astarte was accepted by the Greeks under the name of Aphrodite. The island of Cyprus, one of Astarte's greatest faith centers, supplied the name Cypris as Aphrodite's most common byname.Asherah was worshipped in ancient Israel as the consort of El and in Judah as the of Yahweh and Queen of Heaven (the Hebrews baked small cakes for her festival): [William G. Dever, "Did God Have a Wife?" (Eerdmans, ISBN 0-8028-2852-3,2005) - see reviews of this book by [http://www.bookreviews.org/pdf/4910_6305.pdf Patrick D. Miller] , [http://www.bookreviews.org/pdf/4910_5127.pdf Yairah Amit] .]

:"Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto other gods, that they may provoke me to anger." [Jeremiah 7:17–18]

:"... to burn incense unto the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto her, as we have done, we, and our fathers, our kings, and our princes, in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem ..." [Jeremiah 44:17]

Veneration of a "Queen of Heaven" is recorded in the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah, circa 628 BC, in the context of the Prophet condemning such religious worship as blasphemy and a violation of the teachings of the God of Israel. Jeremiah 7:18 records: "The children gather wood, the fathers light the fire, and the women knead the dough and make cakes of bread for the Queen of Heaven. They pour out drink offerings to other gods to provoke me to anger." Similarly Jeremiah 44 records the worship of the Queen of Heaven as a pagan practice whch provokes the God of Israel to anger, as He warns the Israelites of coming destruction.

ee also

*Ishtar (Asherah, Astarte, Inanna)
*Isis
*Nuit (Thelema), Nut (Egyptian sky goddess)

Quotes