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Mēn (Greek: Μήν "month; Moon", presumably influenced by Avestan måŋha) was a lunar god worshipped in the western interior parts of Anatolia. He is attested in various localized variants, such as Mēn Askaenos in Antioch in Pisidia, or Mēn Pharnakou at Ameria in Pontus.
Mēn was probably a Phrygian deity, associated with the local descendant of the Hitto-Luwian moon god Arma, and is often found in association with Persianate elements, especially with the goddess Anahita.[1] Lunar symbolism dominates his iconography. The god is usually shown with the horns of a crescent emerging from behind his shoulders, and he is described as the god presiding over the (lunar) months.[2] Strabo describes Mēn as a local god of the Phrygians. Mēn may also be influenced by the Zoroastrian lunar divinity Mah.[3]
- ^ Peter Talloen, Cult in Pisidia: Studies in Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology, p. 101
- ^ Strabo xii. pp. 557, 577; Proclus In Platonis Timaeum commentaria iv.251
- ^ Shenkar, Michael (2014). Intangible Spirits and Graven Images: The Iconography of Deities in the Pre-Islamic Iranian World. Leiden | Boston: Brill. p. 98. ISBN 978-90-04-28149-3.