Asherah- Canaanite GodDeity"Mother of the Gods"

The Intercession

El ruled from his tent at the source of the two rivers, remote and unhurried. When the gods needed something from him, they went to Asherah. She was his consort, mother of seventy divine sons, and the only deity whose petition El would hear.

In the Baal Cycle, Baal needs permission to build a palace on Mount Zaphon. He and Anat approach Asherah at the seashore, where she sits at her spindle. They bring gifts from the divine craftsman Kothar-wa-Khasis: a throne with a footstool, and a great bowl of silver. Asherah is startled at their approach, fearing bad news about her children. The gifts and the justice of their cause win her over.

She mounts her donkey, attended by her servant Qodesh-wa-Amrur, and journeys to El's dwelling. El sees her coming from a distance and greets his consort with warmth, asking whether she is hungry or thirsty. Asherah presents the petition. El grants it. The palace is built, and Baal takes his throne on Mount Zaphon.

After Baal's Death

When Mot swallows Baal and the storm god descends to the underworld, the rain ceases and crops wither. The throne on Mount Zaphon stands empty. Asherah nominates her son Athtar, god of the morning star, to take Baal's place. Athtar climbs the mountain and sits on the throne, but his feet do not reach the footstool and his head does not reach the headrest. He is too small. He descends to rule the earth below, and the vacancy persists until Anat destroys Mot and Baal returns.

The Vow of Kirta

King Kirta of Hubur, following El's instructions, marched with a great army to win the beautiful Huriya as his bride. Along the way he stopped at a sanctuary of Athirat of Tyre and Athirat of Sidon and swore a vow: if his campaign succeeded, he would dedicate lavish gifts of gold and silver to her shrines. The campaign succeeded. Kirta won his bride. Sons and daughters were born.

But the king never fulfilled his vow. Illness struck him, bringing him to the edge of death. Only El's direct intervention saved him: the supreme god fashioned the healing goddess Sha'taqat from clay and sent her to drive the sickness from Kirta's body. The mother of the gods had demanded what was promised, and nearly destroyed a king to collect it.

Asherah's shrines at Tyre and Sidon were separate local manifestations. Each major Phoenician city kept its own relationship with the divine mother.

The Poles and the Temple

Across the Levant, Asherah's presence was marked by the asherah: a sacred wooden pole or stylized tree erected at sanctuaries and high places. The Hebrew Bible names them roughly forty times. King Manasseh set an image of Asherah inside the Jerusalem temple itself. Women wove garments for the goddess within its precincts.

King Josiah stripped the temple of Asherah's vessels and images, then burned the poles outside the city walls. But they kept returning. Reformer after reformer ordered their destruction, and generation after generation put them back.

At Kuntillet Ajrud in the northern Sinai, eighth-century storage jars bear inscriptions invoking blessing "by Yahweh of Samaria and his Asherah." A similar text from Khirbet el-Qom reads "by Yahweh and his Asherah." The mother of the gods had stood beside Yahweh's altars, her name spoken alongside his in prayer, for centuries.