13th-century BC statuette depicting the goddess
Asherah nursing the twins
Shahar and Shalim. Asherah's symbols, the sacred tree and the
ibex, appear on her thighs. The figurine may have been held by women in childbirth.
Shalim (Šalām, Shalem, Ugaritic: 𐎌𐎍𐎎, romanized: ŠLM) is a god in Canaanite religion, mentioned in inscriptions found in Ugarit (now Ras Shamra, Syria). William F. Albright identified Shalim as the god of the dusk and Shahar as the god of the dawn. In the Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible, Venus is represented by Shalim as the Evening Star and Shahar as the Morning Star. His name derives from the triconsonantal Semitic root Š-L-M ("whole, safe, sound, peace").
