Note 697 — THE ADORATION OF FIRE

Hyde renders the term after Kæmpfer, Ista: but it was more commonly expressed Esta, and Asta. The Deity was also styled Astachan, which as a masculine signified Sol Dominus, sive Vulcanus Rex. This we may infer from a province in Parthia, remarkable for eruptions of fire, which was called [697]Asta-cana, rendered by the Romans Astacene, the region of the God of fire. The island Delos was famous for the worship of the sun: and we learn from Callimachus, that there were traditions of subterraneous fires bursting forth in many parts of it.