Astghik
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Symbolized by skylight and wife or lover of Vahagn, Astghik[1], or Astlik[2], is the Armenian goddess of love, beauty, and water. The so called Vartavar festival, in mid June, is still the honorable celebration of her in Armenia were releasing doves and sprinkling water on each others are common.
With the sun god Aramazd and the moon goddess Anahit she forms an astral trinity. She is similar to the Greek Aphrodite and the Mesopotamian Ishtar. Her name means "star" (Armenian: ‘astgh’) a genuine Armenian word, which thru the Indo-European origin ‘ster’ is derived from the Sanscrit and Avestan star, Pahlavi star, Persian sitara´, Afgan storai, Latin and Italian stella, French astre, Spanish astro, German stern, English star, etc. The gh sound in astgh (and in Astghik) corresponds to gh rather than to r, hence, the Armenian word astgh seems to be linked with the Latin stella group rather that with the Semitic Istar.
She is possibly the same goddess as Eastre (Germanic mythology), Eos (Greek mythology), Aurora (Roman Mythology) and Aušra (Lithuanian mythology).[citation needed]
