Qetesh is a Sumerian goddess adopted into Egyptian mythology from the Canaanite religion, popular during the New Kingdom. She was a fertility goddess of sacred ecstasy and sexual pleasure.
From the Semitic root Q-D-Š, meaning "Holy." Her other names are Quadshu, Qudshu, Qodesh, Qadesh, Qadashu, Qadesha, Qedeshet, Kedesh and Kodesh.[1] Her city of worship was Kadesh[2]
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In the Qetesh stele, she is represented as a frontal nude standing on a lion between Min of Egypt and the Canaanite warrior god Resheph. She is holding snakes in one hand and a lotus flower in the other as symbols of creation.
She is associated with Anat, Astarte, and Asherah. She also has elements associated with the goddesses of Myceneae, the Minoans of Crete, and certain Kassite goddesses of the metals trade in Tin, Copper and Bronze between Lothal and Dilmun.
On some versions of the Qetesh stele her register with Min and Resheph is placed over another register showing gifts being presented to Anat the goddess of War and below a register listing the lands belonging to Min and Resheph.
Qudshu-Astarte-Anat is a representation of a single goddess who is a combination of three goddesses: Qetesh (Athirat "Asherah"), Astarte, and Anat. It was a common practice for Canaanites and Egyptians to merge different deities through a process of synchronization, thereby, turning them into one single entity. The "Triple-Goddess Stone", that was once owned by Winchester College, shows the goddess Qetesh with the inscription "Qudshu-Astarte-Anat", showing their association as being one goddess, and Qetesh (Qudshu) in place of Athirat. The "Triple-Goddess Stone" is considered sacred by some Canaanite Neopagans.
Religious scholar Saul M. Olyan (author of Asherah and the Cult of Yahweh in Israel), calls the representation on the Qudshu-Astarte-Anat plaque "a triple-fusion hypostasis", and considers Qudshu to be an epithet of Athirat by a process of elimination, for Astarte and Anat appear after Qudshu in the inscription.[3][4]
She is called "Mistress of All the Gods", "Lady of the Stars of Heaven", "Beloved of Ptah", "Great of magic, mistress of the stars", and "Eye of Ra, without her equal".[5] Qadshu is also used as an epithet of Athirat, the Great Mother Goddess of the Canaanites.[6]
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