Asherah

Asherah was a goddess in ancient Semitic religions. She also appears in Hittite writings as Ašerdu or Ašertu, and as Athirat in Ugarit as the consort of ʾEl. Asherah was a major goddess in ancient Northwest Semitic cultures, often associated with fertility, motherhood, and sacred trees. Asherah was the goddess of the sea while "her husband El" was the god of 'heaven.'
Asherah was sometimes called Elat, the feminine equivalent of El, and held titles such as "holy", "lady", or "progenitress of the gods". Asherah’s iconography frequently depicted her with pronounced sexual features, often combined with tree motifs like date palms, highlighting her role as a fertility goddess. Some artifacts, such as the Revadim Asherah figurines, illustrate her suckling children or displaying sexual imagery, emphasizing her maternal and generative symbolism. Her worship may also be reflected in asherah poles, cultic objects frequently mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, though scholars debate whether these represent the goddess herself or sacred symbols.
Asherah’s influence extended across regions including Israel and Judah, Philistia, Egypt, and Arabia, appearing under different names and roles. In ancient Israel, she may have been considered a consort of Yahweh, as suggested by inscriptions at Kuntillet Ajrud and Khirbet el-Qom, though interpretations vary, and some scholars argue these references describe cultic objects rather than the goddess. Similarities with other goddesses, such as Shapshu, Hathor, and Qetesh, suggest her image and attributes influenced surrounding cultures. Asherah was also linked to sacred fertility rites, which may have included women of status in ritual activities, though the association with temple prostitution is now debated. Over time, monotheistic reforms suppressed her worship, and in later texts, references to Asherah were increasingly translated as groves or sacred trees rather than directly as a goddess.

Name

Etymology

Some have sought a common-noun meaning of her name, especially in Ugaritic appellation rabat athirat yam, only found in the Baal Cycle. But an Ugaritic homophone's meaning does not equate to an etymon, especially if the name is older than Ugaritic. There is no hypothesis for rabat athirat yam without significant issues, and if Asherah were a word from Ugarit, it would be pronounced differently.
The common Northwest Semitic root ʾṯr means "trace, way".

Grammar

, with the feminine grammatical gender plural form -oṯ, is found three times in the Hebrew Bible: in Judges 3:7 and 2 Chronicles 19:3 and 2 Chronicles 33:3. Archaic suffixes like –atu/a/i became Northwest Semitic -aṯ or -ā, the latter often written -ah in transcription. Terminally alternate spellings like Asherat and Asherah reflect contextual rather than existential variation.
A masculine plural form Asherim appears in Ezekiel 27:6, but refers to boxwood as a variant form of תְּאַשּׁוּר təʾaššur "cypress of Lebanon".

Title

Her name is sometimes ’lt "Elat", the feminine equivalent of El. Her titles often include qdš "holy" and baʽlat, or rbt "lady", and qnyt ỉlm, "progenitress of the gods".

Interpretation

Asherah was a significant divinity in Northwest Semitic cultures. However, particularly in the Hebrew Bible, asherah came to be identified with cultic wooden objects referred to as asherah poles. In this context, there is controversy about whether inscriptions referring to Asherah indicate the deity, the asherah pole, or both. Winter says the goddess and her symbol should not be distinguished.
Some scholars have proposed 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 through the identification with Ḫepat of Aleppo. Ḫepat, whose name is Northwest Semitic in origin, was the partner of storm gods in several West Asian cultures speaking unrelated languages, including the West Semitic deity Hadad in Aleppo and Ebla, Teššub in Hurrian religion, and Tarḫunz of the Luwians of Anatolia. Olyan states that the original Hebrew name for Eve, חַוָּה‎ Ḥawwā, is cognate to ḥawwat, an attested epithet of Tanit in the first millennium BCE, though other scholars dispute a connection between Tanit and Asherah and between Asherah and Eve. A Phoenician deity Ḥawwat is attested in the Punic Tabella Defixionis.
There is further speculation that the Shekhinah as a feminine aspect of Yahweh may be a cultural memory or devolution of Asherah. Another such aspect may be seen in the feminine personification of Wisdom in the Book of Proverbs.

Iconography

A variety of symbols have been associated with Asherah. The most common by far is a tree, an equivalence seen as early as the Neolithic.
Cultic objects dedicated to Asherah frequently depict trees, and the terms asherim and asheroth, regularly invoked by the Hebrew Bible in the context of Asherah worship, are traditionally understood to refer to asherah poles. An especially common Asherah tree in visual art is the date palm, a reliable producer of nutrition throughout the year. Some expect living trees, but Olyan sees a stylized, non-living palm or pole. The remains of a juniper discovered in a 7500 year old gravesite in Eilat has been considered an Asherah tree by some.
Asherah's association with fertility was not limited to her association with trees; she was often depicted with pronounced sexual features. Images of Asherah, often called ’Astarte figurines’, are representative of Asherah as a tree in that they have bodies which resemble tree trunks, while also further extenuating the goddess' connection to fertility in line with her status as a "mother goddess". The "Judean pillar figures" universally depict Asherah with protruding breasts. Likewise, the so-called Revadim Asherah is rife with potent, striking sexual imagery, depicting Asherah suckling two smaller figures and using both of her hands to expose her vagina fully. Many times, Asherah's pubis area was marked by a concentration of dots, indicating pubic hair, though this figure is sometimes polysemically understood as a grape cluster. The womb was also sometimes used as a nutrix symbol, as animals are often shown feeding directly from the pubic triangle.
File:הכד_מלכיש_-_ציור_ההקדשה_לאלת.jpg|thumb|"The dedicatory inscription on the Lachish ewer the word Elat positioned immediately over the tree, indicating the... tree as a representation of the goddess Elat."
Remarking on the Lachish ewer, Hestrin noted that in a group of other pottery vessels found in situ, the usual depiction of the sacred tree flanked by Nubian ibexes or birds is in one goblet replaced by a pubic triangle flanked by ibexes. The interchange between the tree and the pubic triangle prove, according to Hestrin, that the tree symbolizes the fertility goddess Asherah. Hestrin draws parallels between this and representations of Hathor as the sycamore goddess in Egypt, and suggests that during the period of the New Kingdom of Egypt's rule in Palestine, the Hathor cult penetrated the region so extensively that she became identified with Asherah. Other motifs in the ewer such as a lion, Persian fallow deer and Nubian ibexes seem to have a close relationship with her iconography
Asherah may also have been associated with the ancient pan-Near Eastern "Master of Animals" motif, which depicted a person or deity betwixt two confronted animals. According to Beaulieu, depictions of a divine "mistress of asiatic lions" Potnia Theron motif are "almost undoubtedly depictions of the goddess Asherah."
The lioness was a ubiquitous symbol for goddesses in the ancient Middle East, similar to the dove and the tree. Lionesses figure prominently in Asherah's iconography, including in the post-Late Bronze Age collapse finds: in Ti'inik known as the Ta'anakh cult stand dating to the 10th century BCE, which also includes a tree motif. An earlier arrowhead bears the inscription "Servant of the Lion Lady".
The symbols around Asherah are so many that a listing would approach meaninglessness as it neared exhaustiveness. Frevel's 1000-page dissertation ends enigmatically with the pronouncement "There is no genuine Asherah iconography".

By region

Sumer

An Amorite goddess named Ashratum is known to have been worshipped in Sumer. Her Amorite provenance is further supported by her status as the wife of Mardu/Amurrum, the supreme deity of the Amorites.
A limestone slab inscribed with a dedication made by Hammurabi to Ashratum is known from Sippar. In it, he complements her as "lord of the mountain", and presages similar use with words like voluptuousness, joy, tender, patient, mercy to commemorate setting up a "protective genius" for her in her temple.
Though it is accepted that Ashratum's name is cognate to that of Ugaritic Athirat, the goddess occupies different positions within the pantheons of the two religions, despite having in both the status of consort to the supreme deity.

Akkad

In Akkadian texts, Asherah appears as Aširatu; though her exact role in the pantheon is unclear; in the Sumerian votive inscription of Hammurabi, she is referred as the daughter-in-law of Anu, the sky god. In contrast, ʿAshtart is believed to be linked to the Mesopotamian goddess Ishtar who is sometimes portrayed as the daughter of Anu.
In the first of two Amorite-Akkadian bilingual tablets from the 2nd millennium BCE and published in 2022, Asherah appears in the Amorite left column as ašeratum, while the corresponding Akkadian divine name in the right column is Belet-ili, the Akkadian name of the mother goddess Ninhursag.
Points of reference in Akkadian epigraphy are collocated and heterographic in the Amarna Letters 60 and 61's Asheratic personal name. Within these Amarna letters is found a king of the Amorites by the 14th century BCE name of Abdi-Ashirta "servant of Asherah".

* EA 60 ii	um-ma ^IÌR-^daš-ra-tum
* EA 61 ii	ma ^IÌR-a-ši-ir-te ÌR-[-ka₄

Each is on line ii within the letter's opening or greeting sentiment. Some may transcribe Aširatu or Ašratu.