Astarte, appearing in the Hebrew Bible under the deliberately distorted form Ashtoreth, is a goddess of love, war and the astral heavens, the Levantine cognate of Mesopotamian Ishtar. She is named as 'the goddess of the Sidonians' introduced into the Jerusalem cult under Solomon and abolished by Josiah, and her sanctuary receives the armour of the fallen Saul. She is repeatedly paired with Baal in the recurring biblical formula 'the Baals and the Ashtaroth'. Many scholars identify her, or a goddess very like her, with the 'Queen of Heaven' whom sixth-century Judahite families honoured with molded cakes and drink offerings, a rite the people of Jeremiah's day defended as bringing prosperity; the precise identity behind that title, whether Astarte, Ishtar or Anat, remains debated.