Dictionary Of God And Godedesses

32 AšertuART REFERENCES none surviving, but once extensivelyrepresented.LITERARY SOURCES Ugaritic texts from RasŠamra, particularly The Legend of Baal and Anat;Vetus Testamentum.Ašerah is the great mother goddess of Canaan.Known as “Lady Ašerah of the sea,” she seems tohave lived close by the place of IL, the Canaanitecreator god, and is said to have had many sons.She is described as the “creatress of the gods” andthe matron of a number of other goddesses whooversee the natural world. She is also ambiguousin her attitude to BAAL. She intercedes with Ilwhen Baal wishes to build a palace of his own yet,when he is vanquished, she attempts to place oneof her own offspring on the throne. It is Ašerahwho gave her name to the hill shrines under thetrees which were vilified by the writers of the biblicalprophetic books such as Ezekiel. Translatedas “grove” in the King James English version, theašerah seems to have been a carved wooden pillarwhich formed the focal point of worship in conjunctionwith a stone massebah. The ašrah representedthe presence of the mother goddess. Itspopularity with large numbers of Israelites isbeyond dispute, but because of its pagan connotationsand particularly its representation of themother goddess linked with rituals of fertility, theašerah became one of the major irritations of theprophets and other religious leaders of the tribesduring the period of the Israelite kingship. It mayhave stimulated large numbers of rank-and-fileto abandon or take a strongly ambivalent attitudetoward Yhwhism.AšertuFertility goddess. Western Semitic (Canaanite)and Hittite. Identified in Ugaritic (Ras Šamra)texts as an unfaithful consort of ELKUNIRSA. AlsoAšerdus (Hittite).AshiakleGoddess of wealth. Gan [district around Accra,Ghana, West Africa]. The daughter of NAI,god of the sea, she was born in the ocean andcame to land in a canoe. Her colors are red andwhite.AsiraLocal god. Pre-Islamic northern Arabian.Mentioned only in name by the Babylonianking Nabonidus, worshiped at Taima andinfluenced strongly by Egyptian culture.See also SALM.AsisSun god. Suk and Pokot [Kenya and Uganda,East Africa]. These two tribes share thesame pantheon. The younger brother of thesupreme god of heaven TORORUT. In Nandi[Kenya] religion, Asis becomes the supremecreator god.ASKLEPIOSORIGIN Greek. God of physicians and healing.KNOWN PERIOD OF WORSHIP circa 800 BC or earlierto Christianization (circa AD 400).SYNONYMS Asklapios, Aisklapios.CENTER(S) OF CULT Epidauros; Kos; theAsklepeion in Pergamon.ART REFERENCES various sculptures.LITERARY SOURCES Iliad (Homer); Catalogues(Hesiod).The son of APOLLO and a mortal consort, Coronis,Asklepios lived effectively as a mortal anddied as such. He was nonetheless regarded as adeity. He was reared by the centaur Charon andfathered two sons, Podaleirios and Machaon,who were also physicians. More familiar from