* Among goddesses to whom the title "Baalat "was referred, we have the goddess of Byblos, Baalat-Gebal, also the goddess of Berytus, Baalat-Berith, or Beyrut. The epithet "queen of heaven "is applied to the Phoenician Astarte by Hebrew (_Jer._ vii. 18, xliv. 18-29) and classic writers. The Egyptians, when they adopted these Oanaanitish goddesses, preserved the title, and called each of them _nibit pit,_ "lady of heaven." In the Phoenician inscriptions their names are frequently preceded by the word _Rabbat: rabbat Baalat-Gebal_, "(my) lady Baalat-Gebal." ** The Hebrew writers frequently refer to the Canaanite goddesses by the general title "the Ashtaroth" or "Astartes," and a town in Northern Syria bore the significant name of Istarati = "the Ishtars, the Ashtaroth," a name which finds a parallel in Anathoth = "the Anats," a title assumed by a town of the tribe of Benjamin; similarly, the Assyrio- Chaldaeans called their goddesses by the plural of Ishtar. The inscription on an Egyptian amulet in the Louvre tells us of a personage of the XXth dynasty, who, from his name, Rabrabina, must have been of Syrian origin, and who styled himself "Prophet of the Astartes," Honnutir Astiratu. [Illustration: 229.jpg ASTARTE AS A SPHINX] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a copy of an original in chased gold. Thus she would be styled the "good" Astarte, Ashtoreth Naamah, or the "horned" Astarte, Ashtoreth Qarnaim, because of the lunar crescent which appears on her forehead, as a sort of head-dress.* She was the goddess of good luck, and was called Gad;** she was Anat,*** or Asiti,**** the chaste and the warlike. * The two-horned Astarte gave her name to a city beyond the Jordan, of which she was, probably, the eponymous goddess: (Gen xiv. 5) she would seem to be represented on the curious monument called by the Arabs "the stone of Job," which was discovered by M. Schumacher in the centre of the Hauran. It was an analogous goddess whom the Egyptians sometimes identified with their Hathor, and whom they represented as crowned with a crescent. ** Gad, the goddess of fortune, is mainly known to us in connection with the Aramaeans; we find mention made of her by the Hebrew writers, and geographical names, such as Baal-Gad and Migdol-Gad, prove that she must have been worshipped at a very early date in the Canaanite countries.