ASHERAH - THE ANCIENT MOTHER GODDESS OF THE LEVANT

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Asherah was one of the most important goddesses of the ancient Near East, associated with motherhood, fertility, and the divine family. In the religious tradition of ancient Ugarit, she was the consort of El, the High God and father of the gods. She also appears, in a different and historically complex context, in inscriptions and biblical passages relating to ancient Israelite religion. When the war-mongering Israelites gained power, they incorporated the name of El into the Yahweh persona, and erased Asherah from the records.

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Asherah was worshipped across parts of the ancient Levant and wider Near East during the second and first millennia BCE. Her name appears in several ancient languages, including Ugaritic and Hebrew. In Ugaritic texts, she is commonly called Athirat, while Asherah is the familiar Hebrew form.

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The Ugaritic texts, discovered at Ras Shamra in modern Syria beginning in 1929, are especially important. They preserve a rich account of Canaanite religious life and identify Athirat as a major goddess within the divine family. She was not simply a minor fertility spirit. In the Ugaritic tradition, Asherah was the consort of El. Together, they occupied a position at the top of the divine hierarchy. Asherah was sometimes called Elat, the feminine equivalent of El, and held titles such as "holy", "lady", or "progenitress of the gods".

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When the war-mongering Israelites gained power, they stole the title of El, took the identity of El, and incorporated El into the Yahweh persona, in order to gain more support from the Caananite-Akkadian community.

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In the Hebrew Bible, Yahweh is the God of Israel. Yet archaeological discoveries indicate that religious practices in ancient Israel and Judah were not always identical to the exclusive monotheism later emphasized in Jewish tradition.

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Some inscriptions from the eighth century BCE refer to “Yahweh and his Asherah.” These inscriptions have become central to the debate over whether Asherah was worshipped as Yahweh's consort in some Israelite communities, and that the identity of El had been stolen.

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