An Eastern Iranian Lunar Deity and Her Epithet

Abstract

In this paper, it is argued that in certain areas of pre-Islamic Eastern Iran the common lunar deity was not the male *māh- like in most regions of Western Iran, Bactria, and Sogdiana, but instead the feminine *māsti- with a prominent epithet, which may go back to *uxšma-kā-/*uxšma-kī- ‘the waxing one’ or, alternatively, *us-šma-kā-/*us-šma-kī- ‘the one who shines up’. In some parts of Badakhshan, her epithet even turned into the primary name of the goddess and the moon. This claim can be substantiated by the various names for ‘moon’ and ‘moonlight’ in Eastern Iranian languages for which I want to lay out a detailed historical development, as well as the Bactrian and Sogdian theophoric personal name ϸομογοβανδαγο/ʾxšwmβntk.