Editing Aphrodite (section)

=== Near Eastern love goddess ===
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| image1    = Naked woman holding her breasts-Sb 7742-IMG 0880-black.jpg
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| caption1  = Late second-millennium BC nude [[figurine]] of Ishtar from [[Susa]], showing her wearing a crown and clutching her breasts 
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The cult of Aphrodite in Greece was imported from, or at least influenced by, the cult of [[Astarte]] in [[Phoenicia]],{{sfn|Breitenberger|2007|pages=8–12}}{{sfn|Cyrino|2010|pages=49–52}}{{sfn|Puhvel|1987|page=27}}{{sfn|Marcovich|1996|pages=43–59}} which, in turn, was influenced by the cult of the [[Mesopotamia]]n goddess known as "Ishtar" to the [[East Semitic]] peoples and as "[[Inanna]]" to the [[Sumer]]ians.{{sfn|Burkert|1985|pages=152–153}}{{sfn|Puhvel|1987|page=27}}{{sfn|Marcovich|1996|pages=43–59}} [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]] states that the first to establish a cult of Aphrodite were the [[Neo-Assyrian Empire|Assyrians]], followed by the [[Paphos|Paphians]] of Cyprus and then the Phoenicians at [[Ascalon]]. The Phoenicians, in turn, taught her worship to the people of [[Cythera (island)|Cythera]].<ref>Pausanias, Description of Greece, [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Paus.+1.14.7 I. XIV.7]</ref>

Aphrodite took on Inanna-Ishtar's associations with sexuality and procreation.{{sfn|Breitenberger|2007|page=8}} Furthermore, she was known as [[Aphrodite Urania|Ourania]] (Οὐρανία), which means "heavenly",{{sfn|Breitenberger|2007|pages=10–11}} a title corresponding to Inanna's role as the [[Queen of heaven (antiquity)|Queen of Heaven]].{{sfn|Breitenberger|2007|pages=10–11}}{{sfn|Penglase|1994|page=162}} Early artistic and literary portrayals of Aphrodite are extremely similar on Inanna-Ishtar.{{sfn|Breitenberger|2007|page=8}} Like Inanna-Ishtar, Aphrodite was also a warrior goddess;{{sfn|Breitenberger|2007|page=8}}{{sfn|Cyrino|2010|pages=49–52}}{{sfn|Penglase|1994|page=163}} the second-century AD Greek geographer [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]] records that, in Sparta, Aphrodite was worshipped as ''[[Aphrodite Areia]]'', which means "warlike".{{sfn|Cyrino|2010|pages=51–52}}{{sfn|Budin|2010|pages=85–86, 96, 100, 102–103, 112, 123, 125}} He also mentions that Aphrodite's most ancient cult statues in [[Sparta]] and on Cythera showed her bearing arms.{{sfn|Cyrino|2010|pages=51–52}}{{sfn|Budin|2010|pages=85–86, 96, 100, 102–103, 112, 123, 125}}{{sfn|Graz|1984|page=250}}{{sfn|Breitenberger|2007|page=8}} Modern scholars note that Aphrodite's warrior-goddess aspects appear in the oldest strata of her worship{{sfn|Iossif|Lorber|2007|page=77}} and see it as an indication of her Near Eastern origins.{{sfn|Iossif|Lorber|2007|page=77}}{{sfn|Penglase|1994|pages=162–163}}

Nineteenth-century classical scholars had a general aversion to the idea that ancient Greek religion was at all influenced by the cultures of the Near East,{{sfn|Konaris|2016|page=169}} but even [[Friedrich Gottlieb Welcker]], who argued that Near Eastern influence on Greek culture was largely confined to material culture,{{sfn|Konaris|2016|page=169}} admitted that Aphrodite was clearly of Phoenician origin.{{sfn|Konaris|2016|page=169}} The significant influence of Near Eastern culture on early Greek religion in general, and on the cult of Aphrodite in particular,{{sfn|Burkert|1998|pages=1–6}} is now widely recognized as dating to a period of [[Orientalizing period|orientalization]] during the eighth century BC,{{sfn|Burkert|1998|pages=1–6}} when [[archaic Greece]] was on the fringes of the [[Neo-Assyrian Empire]].{{sfn|Burkert|1998|pages=1–41}}