Astar (celestial Venus-god, head of the Aksumite triad)
Aksumite · deity · aksumite pre christian · deity
Astar is the astral deity of the planet Venus inherited by the peoples of the northern Horn from the South Arabian god ʿAṯtar. In the kingdom of Aksum he stands at the head of the protective triad — Astar, Beher (or Medr), and Mahrem — that opens the royal inscriptions, and the Greek text of the Monumentum Adulitanum renders him as Zeus. In the earlier Dʿmt polity he is the foremost of a fixed group of deities invoked in dedicatory formulae. Aksumite genealogical tradition makes him the father of the war-god Mahrem and of the sea-god Beher, so that he functions as the progenitor of the active gods of the pantheon.
Children
- Beher (god of the sea, member of the Aksumite triad)
- Mahrem (state war-god and dynastic patron of the Aksumite kings)
Domains
- celestial venus
- sky and heaven
Powers
- to preside over the heavens as the chief celestial god