JSSEAXXIX THE GREAT GODDESSES OF THE LEVANT Johanna H. STUCKEY ABSTRACT A l'Age de Bronze, autour de 3100 a 1200 av. J.-C., les peuples du Levant ont adore plusieurs deesses parmi lesquelles tois « grandes » divinites: Anat, Astarte et Asherah. Ces deesses frent adorees jusqu'a l a Periode israelite et Asherah a peut-etre meme ete la paredre du dieu Yahweh. L'evidence de leur culte repose sur des ecrits mythiques et des objets cultuels d'Ugarit et de la Bible hebraique ainsi que sur une multitude d'images evocatrices provenat de fuilles conduites dans tout le Levant. II est probable que la plus signifcative de ces images soit celle de l'« arbre sacre » qui represente certainement une divinite fmin�e, peut-etre meme la grande deesse Asherah. Au cours des temps, !es trois grandes deesses levantines se confndirent l'une a l'autre mais leur culte persista jusqu'a la Periode geco-romaine durant laquelle leur existence se poursuivit sous la frme composite de la « deesse syriene » Atargatis. KEYWORDS Anat, Asherah, Astare, Sacred Trees, Levat. During the Bronze Age, fom about 3100 BCE to 1200 BCE, polyheism was the norm in the ancient Levant. 1 The peoples of this region worshipped a number of goddesses, but only three, Asherah, Ana, and Astare, ft the category of powerful or "great goddesses." Their worship was prevalent befre, during, and afer the settlement by the Israelites in souther par of the area, the land of Canaan (Dever 1996:207, 208; Finkelstein 1988: 16; Dever 1987:233; Ahlstom 1963:25). There is some evidence that the Israelites may have revered Asherah, possibly as consort of their special god Yahweh (Toom 1998:88-91; Binger 1997:125-126; Pettey 1990:220-221; Olyan 1988:33; Dever 1984:255). Furherore, the worship of the three goddesses continued, in one frm or other, well into our era. In presenting these great goddesses, I write both as a Religious Studies scholar, with a paricular interest in comparative religion and comparative mythology, and as a Women's Studies scholar. Indeed, fminist theory infrms all my work. In this paper, I examine the two main textual sources fr the ancient Levantine goddesses: mythic poetry and cultic texts fom the ancient Syrian city of Ugarit, as well as Hebrew and Christian scriptures. I also explore imporant Levantine artifctual material pertaining to ancient goddesses. PROBLEMS AND ASSUMTIONS Befre surveying the great goddesses of the ancient Levant, I want to point out three maor problems, as well as to ofen-unexamined assumptions. The frst problem lies in the fct that goddesses were integral to male-dominated cultures and religions that had both male and fmale deities. Goddesses were defnitely not the principal deities in such cultures, nor can we speak, with anything appraching cerainty, of 'goddess religions' or 'goddess cultures' as having existed in ancient times (Tringham and Conkey 1998:37; Westenholz 1998:63; Frymer Kensky 1992:vii). Stuckey, Johanna H. "Great Goddesses of the Levant." Journal for the Study of Egyptian Antiquities. 29 (2002). p. 28-57 Also published under same name in Bulletin of the Canadian Society for Mesopotamian Studies. 37 (September 2002). p. 27-48.