‘Come Down from Those Yonder Stars!’

Abstract The present article deals with a special invocation to Anāhitā, occurring three times in the fifth Yašt ( Yt . 5,85; 88; 132) of the Avesta . By means of a unique formula, the goddess is asked to come down from the nocturnal sky. The special ban of nocturnal ceremonies in favour of Anāhitā seems apparently in contradiction with this kind of nocturnal invocation, but it probably implies that the goddess descends from haven only when the stars have set. Furthermore, some of the cosmological and ceremonial implications of this “invitation” are discussed within the framework of the debate about the rationale of the liturgical disposition of the Great Yašts and of the economy of the Zoroastrian organization of the sacrifice.