1917.] Numismatic Supplement No. XXIX. 169 



good luck and prosperity in ancient Eran. This celestial phe- 

 nomenon is represented for the first time on the drachmes of 

 Phraates IV, son of Orodes, the Arsacid king who reigned from 

 37 B.C. to 4 a.c. Is it as a sort of irony that Phraates IV , the 

 parricide and fratricide, had chosen this symbol ? The Pahlavi 

 word which designated this astrological conjunction was naz- 

 dake (A vesta, nazda); the Arabic word 'iqtiran becomes qiran 

 in Modern Persian. The sign of the conjunction reappears on 

 the coins of Firoz in the third year of his reign (460 a.c). This 

 symbol is set on the coins of this sovereign and^of his sucessors 

 above the altar on the reverse till the end of the dynasty. Be- 

 sides it is figured, on the obverse to the right and to the left 

 of the royal crown, from Kobad (488 a.c). Lastly, dating 

 from the thirteenth year of the reign of the same monarch, the 

 symbol of the reunion of Venus in the crescent is figured at 

 three places on the margin of the obverse of the piece, and it 

 hereafter forms part of the Sassanian type until after the 

 conquest and under the Arab governors of Persia. We know 

 that these governors had adopted for their coins the type of 

 the Sassanian piece with the legends in Pahlavi, and the figure 

 of the altar of fire, albeit contrary to the religion of Muham- 

 mad. The altar and the symbol disappear from the purely Arab 

 coins bearing Kufic characters, but the astrological figure be- 

 comes the emblem of the Muslims and formed the origin of the 

 crescent on the banner of Muhammad. 



The Persian astrology had been borrowed with its wise 

 organisation from the Babylonians. The Avesta and the Pah- 

 lavi literature make frequent mention of astrological devices side 

 by side with the cosmological and meteorological phenomena. 

 In the history of the Sassanians it is often connected with the 



We 



consequence 



subjects, notably the signs of the zodiac and the image 01 

 Anahita, the only goddess that is represented. The name ot 

 Venus, in the Avesta, is Anahita "the immaculate. It was 

 peculiarly adored in Persia and the Avesta contains a very 

 poetic hymn about this goddess : " The high and powerfu im- 

 maculate which has descended from the stars upon the &bx™; 

 It belongs to the epoch in which the cult of this strange divinity 

 was introduced by Artaxerxes Mnemon (404-361 B.C.). « «» 

 thus we can explain the presence of the figure of Anahita on 

 the Sassanian engraved gems. In the first century of the 

 Christian era, Anthita is confounded with Artemis In the 

 Chaldean astrology the name of this planet is 1*^ <^*™?? 

 of the sky, belit-shame), famous in the Assyro-Baby oman my- 

 thology, ^d this becomes the Astarte of the P«tenor Septic 

 religions. In the cuneiform texts the name °fAnahita » 

 Damiqitou (from damaqou, to be pure), she is the goddess o 

 the waters, wife of Iao god of the ocean, the pure element 



