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Astarte
Sargent paired Baal or
Moloch on the west with Ashtoreth or Astarte
on the east. Moloch was the male destroyer god, associated with the
sun;
Astarte was the dangerous, seductive fertility goddess associated with
the crescent moon upon which she stands here, a python draped at her
feet.
Sargent depicted some of Astarte’s many priestesses dancing beneath her
diaphanous veil, which symbolizes the illusory appeal of the senses.
The
twelve pinecones that surround her correspond to the occasional
rendering
of her name as “sacred grove.” (SargentMurals.bpl.org)
<http://sargentmurals.bpl.org/site/murals/14_description.html>
