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246 ARMENIA AND THE NEAR EAST
virgin goddess that survives in the Virgin Mother of God
of the Christian religion.
As the goddess of fertility, however, she was also associated
with reproduction, and possibly with the Assyrian Istar
(Astarte) ; Strabo (XI, 14, 1 6) tells us that her rites, especially
at the great temple at Akilisene near Eres (Erzinjan), included
prostitution, to which even the highest nobility sent their
virgin daughters, who afterwards " married, and no man
had any hesitation in wedding such a one." This form of
worship is very probably of Semitic origin (cf. Herodotus,
i. 199).
The Armenians evidently got their more important gods of
a later date from the Persians. Arama^d became in course
of time the chief deity, being either the father or the husband
of Anahit. His son was called Mihr (i.e. Mithras, originally
Indian), and his daughter Ntme or Natta, probably adopted
from the Assyrians. The god of strength, war, victory, and
hunting was the snake-killer Vahakn, evidently the same as
the Persian dragon-slayer Verethraghna (the Greek Artagenes).
He was afterwards associated with Hercules. Astghik (or
Astlik) was the goddess of beauty and love, and her sacred
flower was the rose. With Vahakn she gave birth to ’: fire."
She may derive from the Assyrian Istar (Astarte), the sensual
goddess of love and reproduction (the Greek Mylitta), who
is mentioned in a Khaldian inscription (of King Menuas)
in Armenia as early as circa 800 b.C. Other gods were Tiur,
the god of wisdom, and Barsbamin the sun god, who was
doubtless Assyrian. Of Armenian and possibly Khaldian
origin were in all probability the god Vanalur (lord of the
new year) and the worship of the Sun and Moon.
Earliest Poelry.—Even in heathen times the Armenians
probably had poetry, with songs, popular legends, and even
a great heroic epic, though only a few fragments of this latter
survive. They had no script of their own before the Christian
era. Their heathen coins have Greek characters on them ;
and the court and upper classes probably had a certain atnount
of Hellenic culture, especially under the Arsacid kings.
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