The Watchtower Society and John and Morton Edgar - A2Z.org

Astarto " wa!, represented standing on a lion, crownedwith towers (Nineveh and its Remains, Vol. ii, p. 156).The name Astarte itself means "the woman that madetowers," being composed of two words : " Asht-tart."Asht is the word for woman ; and it is generally agreedthat the last syllable "tart" comes from the Hebrewverb " Tr," which means both "to go round," and "tobe round." From this is derived the Greek word" turit," and its English equivalent " turret," a roundtower. Asht-turit, therefore, which is the same as" Ashtoreth " of the H~brew, is literally " the womanthat made the tower or encompassing wall. Ovidmentions that Semiramis was currently believed tohave "surrounded Babylon with a wall of brick ''(Ovid, Opera, Vol. iii ; Fasti, iv, 219-2!1). But there isno need to give all the credit of building the battlementsof Babylon to Semiramis ; the reasoil why shegained the honour of fortifying the city was becauseshe in the long run became foremost in the esteem ofthe ancient idolators, and thus had attributed to herevery virtue and characteristic that properly belonged,or was imagined to have belonged, to her son Ninus.She was also worshipped as Rhea or Cybele, the" Mother of the gods " (Paschal, Chronicle, Vol. i, p. 65).and as such is always represented as wearing a muralor turreted crown on her head. In this respect theEphesian Diana exactly resembled Rhea, for Dianawas likewise a tower-bearing goddess. Now, theEphesian Diana is expressly iclentifled with Semiramis; for Semiramis is the same as the goddessArtemis, and it is well known that Artemis was Diana(Layard, Nineveh and its Renzains, V01. ii, p. 480, note).The Roman Diana was a huntress bearing a quiverof arrows. Jn this character she was the complon~entof Nimrod the " mighty hunter."