Žēmāt

Grenet interprets the goddess presiding over the famous 'Mourning Scene' at Panjikent Temple II as Žēmāt, a Sogdian counterpart of Demeter who laments a dying-and-returning vegetation deity — the Transoxianan reflex of the ancient Near Eastern grieving-goddess of the grain.

Domains

• grain
• vegetation cycle
• mourning

Relations

• equated with: DemeterGrenet reads the Panjikent mourning-goddess as a Sogdian counterpart of Demeter.

Sources

• existence: F. Grenet, in 'MITHRA ii. Iconography', Encyclopaedia Iranica, on the Panjikent 'Mourning Scene' (scholarly)