January 05, 2011

The Morning Star

themorningstar.jpg

If you look to the morning sky as the sun is rising, you will notice a bright star. Theoretically, stars only come out at night. Well, that?s because the Morning Star isn?t a star, but the planet Venus.

After the Moon, Venus is the brightest object in the night sky. Venus is both the morning and evening star. It appears in the east during sunrise and in the west during sunset.

Because of its unique nature and appearance in the sky, Venus has figured prominently in the mythologies of many cultures.

In ancient Sumerian mythology, it was named Inanna (Ishtar in Assyrian), the name given to the goddess of love.

Believing Venus to be two bodies, the ancient Greeks called the Morning Star Phosphoros the ?Bringer of Light? and the Evening Star Hesperos the ?Star of the Evening?. Later they had realised the two were the same planet, which they named after their goddess of love, Aphrodite.

In Iranian mythology, the planet usually corresponds to the goddess Anahita (Nahid in Middle & Modern Persian).

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Posted by mehrdad at January 5, 2011 09:25 AM | Journal 2011 |