Asherah (/ˈæʃərə/; Ugaritic: ???? : ‘ṯrt; Hebrew: אֲשֵׁרָה), in ancient Semitic religion, is a mother goddess who appears in a number of ancient sources. She appears in Akkadian writings by the name of Ašratu(m), and in Hittite as Aserdu(s) or Asertu(s). Asherah is generally considered identical with the Ugaritic goddess ʼAṯirat.
Asherah is identified as the queen consort of the Sumerian god Anu, and Ugaritic El,[1] the oldest deities of their respective pantheons,[2][3] as well as Yahweh, the god of Israel and Judah.[4] This role gave her a similarly high rank in the Ugaritic pantheon.[5] Despite her association with Yahweh in extra-biblical sources, Yahweh in the Bible commands the destruction of her shrines so as to maintain purity of worship to Yahweh Himself.[6] The name Dione, which like ‘Elatmeans “Goddess”, is clearly associated with Asherah in the Phoenician History of Sanchuniathon, because the same common epithet (‘Elat) of “the Goddess par excellence” was used to describe her at Ugarit.[7] The Book of Jeremiah, written circa 628 BC, possibly refers to Asherah when it uses the title “Queen of Heaven” (Hebrew: מְלֶכֶת הַשָּׁמַיִם) in Jeremiah 7:16-18[8] and Jeremiah 44:17-19, 25.[9]
In Israel and Judah
Image on pithos sherd found at Kuntillet Ajrud below the inscription “Yahweh and his Asherah”
Between the 10th century BC and the beginning of their exile in 586 BC, polytheism was normal throughout Israel;[12] it was only after the exile that worship of Yahweh alone became established, and possibly only as late as the time of the Maccabees (2nd century BC) that monotheism became universal among the Jews.[13][14] Some biblical scholars believe that Asherah at one time was worshipped as the consort of Yahweh, the national God of Israel.[13][15][16] There are references to the worship of numerous gods throughout Kings: Solomon builds temples to many gods and Josiah is reported as cutting down the statues of Asherah in the temple Solomon built for Yahweh (2 Kings 23:14). Josiah’s grandfather Manasseh had erected one such statue (2 Kings 21:7[17]).
Further evidence includes, for example, an 8th-century combination of iconography and inscriptions discovered at Kuntillet Ajrud in the northern Sinai desert[18] where a storage jar shows three anthropomorphic figures and several inscriptions.[19][20] The inscriptions found refer not only to Yahweh but to El and Baal, and two include the phrases “Yahweh of Samaria and his Asherah” and “Yahweh of Teman and his Asherah.”[21] The references to Samaria (capital of the kingdom of Israel) and Teman (in Edom) suggest that Yahweh had a temple in Samaria, while raising questions about the relationship between Yahweh and Kaus, the national god of Edom.[22] The “Asherah” is most likely a cultic object, although the relationship of this object (a stylised tree perhaps) to Yahweh and to the goddess Asherah, consort of El, is unclear.[23] It has been suggested that the Israelites might have considered Asherah as a consort of Baal due to the anti-Asherah ideology which was influenced by the Deuteronomistic History at the later period of Monarchy.[24] In another inscription called “Yahweh and his Asherah”, there appears a cow feeding its calf.[25]:163 If Asherah is to be associated with Hathor/Qudshu, it can then be assumed that the cow is what’s being referred to as Asherah.
William Dever’s book Did God Have a Wife? adduces further archaeological evidence—for instance, the many female figurines unearthed in ancient Israel, (known as Pillar-Base Figurines)—as supporting the view that in Israelite folk religion of the monarchal period, Asherah functioned as a goddess and consort of Yahweh and was worshiped as the Queen of Heaven, for whose festival the Hebrews baked small cakes.
The word Asherah is translated in Greek as alsos, grove, or alse, groves, or occasionally by dendra, trees; Vulgate in Latin provided lucus or nemus, a grove or a wood (thus KJV Bible uses grove or groves with the consequent loss of Asherah’s name and knowledge of her existence to English language readers of the Bible over some 400 years).[26] The association of Asherah with trees in the Hebrew Bible is very strong. For example, she is found under trees (1K 14:23; 2K 17:10) and is made of wood by human beings (1K 14:15, 2K 16:3-4). Trees described as being an asherah or part of an asherah include grapevines, pomegranates, walnuts, myrtles, and willows (Danby:1933:90,176).
Some scholars have found an early link between Asherah and Eve, based upon the coincidence of their common title as “the mother of all living” in Genesis 3:20[27][28] through the identification with the Hurrian mother goddess Hebat.[29][30] Asherah was also given the title Chawat from which the name Hawwah in Aramaic and the biblical name Eve are derived.[31]
Asherah poles, which were sacred trees or poles, are mentioned many times in the Hebrew Bible.