Recent Investigations on the Iconography of Anāhitā in Sasanian and Sogdian art

This paper focuses on the image of the ram that represented the most popular subject on Sasanian art. This animal could have been a religious symbol in Sasanian art especially when embellished with ribbons or a necklace. In fact, it appeared very often on seals that belonged to Zoroastrian priest. Observations on Sogdian art and much earlier specimens in Mesopotamian art seem to confirm that the ram was the symbolic animal of a deity associated with the planet Venus in pre-Islamic Persia and Sogdiana. The best candidate could be Anāhitā, the Zoroastrian goddess of water and fertility whose name is still connected to the planet Venus in modern Iran.