Israel had only one God, and no goddesses. Most other nations had many gods and goddesses, and usually there was a sort of “mother goddess” of fertility.
One name that occurs again and again in the Old Testament is Asherah (which sometimes appears as Ashtoreth). She was a widely worshipped love/fertility goddess, and the Hebrew prophets constantly preached against worshipping her. One key problem: Worshipping Ashtoreth involved “ritual prostitution,” in which both men and women served as prostitutes.
Archaeologists have found numerous images of the goddess, and her worship sites often featured an “Asherah pole,” something the prophets saw as a symbol of forsaking Israel’s true God.
There were “revivals” in Israel, when the people would temporarily forsake Ashtoreth worship, but they would usually backslide. Several kings of Israel tore down the Asherah poles and other idols.
The last to do so was the great reformer king, Josiah (2 Kings 23). No mention is made of Ashtoreth after Josiah’s time.
See 225 (Baal).
