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Astaroth vs Astarte

One of these is descended from the other: the later figure inherits the earlier one's name, and usually very little else. Ashtoreth — the goddess's consonants with the vowels of bosheth, 'shame' — becomes a male duke of hell.

Demonic · Goetic Spirit · c. 1300 BCE

Astaroth

also called Astarot, Ashtoreth

The Canaanite goddess Astarte, three thousand years on, made a male duke of hell with her name intact. The Goetia has him discourse willingly on the fall of the spirits, and warns the operator to hold a ring to his face against the stench of his breath.

Alignment
Infernal
Rank
Duke
First attested
The Baal Cycle (Ugaritic Tablets) · c. 1400-1200 BCE
Named there as
Athtart
Texts naming it
6
Powers attributed
5
100attestedSolomonicFolk & Demonological

Deity · Canaanite · c. 1400 BCE

Astarte

also called Athtart, Ashtoreth, Astarté, Ashtaroth, ʿAṯtart, 𒀾𒁯𒋫, 𒀭𒀸𒁯𒊏𒀜, 𒅖𒁯𒋫, 𐎓𐎘𐎚𐎗𐎚, 𐤏𐤔𐤕𐤓𐤕

The West Semitic goddess of love and war, cognate with Ishtar — and the direct ancestor of the Goetic duke Astaroth, who kept the name and lost the gender.

Alignment
Disputed
Rank
Goddess of Love and War
First attested
The Baal Cycle (Ugaritic Tablets) · c. 1400-1200 BCE
Named there as
Athtart
Texts naming it
2
Powers attributed
2
60attestedCanaanite & UgariticMesopotamian

Where do they actually overlap?

Texts naming both

Powers credited to both

No shared office is recorded. Where two figures are said to be the same and share no job description at all, the identification is usually doing polemical work rather than descriptive work.

Common questions

Are Astaroth and Astarte the same figure?

One of these is descended from the other: the later figure inherits the earlier one's name, and usually very little else. Ashtoreth — the goddess's consonants with the vowels of bosheth, 'shame' — becomes a male duke of hell. ColossiansOne records the link rather than asserting the identity: where texts disagree about whether two names denote one figure, the disagreement is what gets shown.

Which is older, Astaroth or Astarte?

Astarte is the older name: first attested around c. 1400 BCE, against c. 1300 BCE for Astaroth. Where the two dates are far apart, that gap is the whole reason the pair is worth comparing.

Do any texts name both Astaroth and Astarte?

Yes — 2 texts name both. A single text naming both figures is the strongest evidence available here that its author treated them as distinct, whatever later writers did with the pair.
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