Goddess Neith

From Barbara Walker's "A Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets." Neith Triple Goddess of Sais, also called Anatha, Ath-enna, Athene, Medusa. Egyptians said her name meant "I have come from myelf." She was the World Body, the Primal Abyss from which the sun first rose, and "the Cow, who gave birth to Ra."(1) She was the Spirit Behind the Veil, whom no mortal could see face to face. She called herself "all that has been, that is, and that will be," a phrase copied by the Christians Gospels (Revelation 1:8). She was older than dynastic Egypt. Her symbol was borne by a prehistoric clan, and her name by two queens of the first dynasty. Greeks knew her as Nete, one of the original trinity of Muses at Delphi.(2) In the Bible she was called Asenath (Isis-Neith), Great Goddess of the city of Aun, which the Jews rendered "On." Her high priest Potiphar was made her "father," as Teiresias was made the "father" of the Goddess Mante, and Brahma was made the "father" of the Goddess Sarasvati (genesis 41:45). The Goddess herself was made the spouse of Joseph, whose Egyptian name meant "he who was brought o life by the word of the Goddess (neter)."(3) Notes: (1) Budge, G.E., 1, 451, 459; 2, 299. (2) Larousse, 37, 118. (3) Budge, D.N., 34-35. See information on some of these related goddesses: http://goddesschess.blogspot.com/2008/04/hannah-bride-of-lord-of-death.html Ana, Anatha, Anna, Diana, Hannah, Inanna, Jana, Juno, Nana, Nanna, St. Anne More information on Neith at Wikipedia.

Goddess Tanit

From Barbara Walker's "A Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets."

Tanit
Carthaginian name of the Phoenician Great Goddess, Astarte - the biblical Ashtoreth or Asherah. Her temple in Carthage was called the Shrine of the Heavenly Virgin. Greek and Roman writers called it a temple of the moon.(1)

Another of her titles was Astroarche, Queen of the Stars. Her priestesses were famous astrologers, whose prophecies were circulated throughout the Roman empire and even rivaled the pronouncements of the Cumaean sybils.(2)

Though Romans destroyed Carthage in the Punic Wars, Roman legend traced the very origin of Rome to the Carthanginian mother-city, as shown by the story of Aeneas, who came directly across the Mediterranean from there, to found Rome.(3) The primitive Roman queen Tanaquil, who conferred sovereignty on the "fatherless" Latin kings, the Tarquins, was none other than the Lybyan Goddess Tanit. She was also known as Libera, Goddess of Libya, whose festival the Liberalia was celebrated each year in Rome during the Ides of March.(4) An alternative name for the festival was Bacchanalis, dramatizing the love-death and resurrection of Bacchus Liber, or Dionysus, or Consus, which were various names for the same fertility god.(5)

The distinctive symbol of Tanit was a pyramidal shape, like a woman in a very full skirt, topped by a dis-shaped full-moon head, with upraised arms in the manner of the Egyptian ka.(6) Similar smbols represented such goddesses as Aphrodite, Athene, Venus, and Juno.

Notes:
(1) Reinach, 42.
(2) Lindsay, O.A., 327.
(3) Reinach, 106.
(4) G.R. Scott, 165.
(5) Graves, W.G., 399.
(6) Larousse, 84.
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Some personal observations: Tanit is on the order of the "Hannah/Anna" goddesses, great mother goddesses, previously posted about - I've got to get some kind of search engine installed at this blog! Think of the ka shape as a referee's arms signalling "touchdown!" That's the form.

Was Car the goddess of Carthage - that is, the same as the goddess Tanit?