Olga's Gallery

Astarte Syriaca. Astarte was the goddess of fertility and love in ancient Eastern religions and was particularly important to the Phoenicians. Jane Morris sat for Astarte.

Mystery; lo! betwixt the sun and moon
Astarte of the Syrians: Venus Queen
Ere Aphrodite was. In silver sheen
Her twofold girdle clasps the infinite boon
Of bliss whereof the heaven and earth commune:
And from her neck’s inclining flower-stem lean
Love-freighted lips and absolute eyes that wean
The pulse of hearts to the spheres’ dominant tune.
        (From ‘Astarte Syriaca”, Dante Gabriel Rossetti)