Goddess originating from western Asia, worshipped in Egypt as a goddess of warfare and of love. In her first aspect she protected the king in battle, just like the foreign goddess Anat or the Egyptian goddess Sakhmet. As goddess of love she was closely related to Hathor and through her with Isis. A number of texts call her the wife of Seth, others refer to her as the daughter of Ptah. Her cult is known from the 18th Dynasty on and she was considered to be one of the great gods of the Delta. A papyrus from the reign of Horemheb relates that the Egyptian gods themselves brought Astarte to Egypt. Herodotus, the Greek author who visited Egypt in the 5th century BC, reports that the temple of Astarte, called the Aphrodision (because Astarte was regarded as the 'foreign Aphrodite'), was located in the Phoenician section of Memphis, to the south of the temple of Ptah, whose daughter Astarte was considered to be since the 18th Dynasty. Sanctuaries of the goddess have been found in other places too, for example in the Delta and in Edfu. Astarte was often depicted carrying a shield and a spear, sitting on a horse wearing a tall crown flanked by feathers.