Page:Curious myths of the Middle Ages (1876).djvu/658

 symbol of the planet which bears her name.” As we have already seen, the crux ansata was not exclusively the symbol of Astarte; it was a sign of divinity and was placed near every god to indicate him as being Divine. It appears beside Baal as well as Astarte.

If used more frequently with her than with other deities, it was because it symbolized her power over moisture, she being the Moon. The cross did not belong to her as a goddess of sensuality, but as presiding over the month and its rains; to Baal it belonged as a year-god guiding the seasons.

The same article refers to the Indian cross as though its were a phallus; whereas the symbols are entirely and radically distinct, as may be seen by reference to the plates of Müller’s “Glauben, Wissen, und Kunst der Hindus.”