Astaroth. Wasn't he a devil or something?

[Shemeska]

I remember seeing the name all the time in the Bible, sometimes spelled as Ashterah or Asterah. The worship involved poles and carved trees and sex and some other harvest stuff. I always thought that Astaroth/Ashtera/Astera was a goddess though, and not a demon, most certainly not a male one. Strange.

Astarte was a caananite etc goddess, but while nominally her name might have inspired them, the Astaroth that developed in medieval demonology otherwise has little similarity (and a different gender typically), and it's the latter one that D&D has run with.

 

[Fishbone]

Ah, you just learned me something. Thanks.