Ahab’s Grove and Astarte Worship
"AND Ahab made a grove." Or, rather, a wooden pillar which represented the Phœnician goddess Astarte. The original word is Ashérah, the primary sense of which is fortune, happiness, prosperity, just as Fortuna is deified by the Romans. It was the goddess Astarte, so famous among all the people at the extremity of the Mediterranean. She was the eastern Venus, sometimes represented as the Stella Veneris, or star of Venus. It is likely that this ashera, or pillar, was often set up in a grove, because thus would be given that seclusion necessary to the cruel and indecent rites, which marked, among oriental nations, the worship of false divinities. The worship of Astarte was simply licentiousness under the guise of religion. A temple to Ashérah, the Canaanite Venus, was built, apparently in the precincts of Jezreel, 400 priests ministering in its courts and offering on its obscene altars. Of this Jezebel was the especial patroness, maintaining the whole establishment at her own cost.