Astghik

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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[citation needed] 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 through the Indo-European origin ‘ster’ is cognate to Sanskrit and Avestan star, Pahlavi star, Persian sitara´, Pashto storai, Latin and Italian stella, French astre, Spanish astro, German stern, English star, etc. hence, the name is not believed to be related to Semitic Ishtar.

[edit] References

[edit] See also