Note 411 — Chapter XII · THE PINE-CONE AS AN ATTRIBUTE OF ÆSCULAPIUS.
Reading edition
Fire was duly esteemed by the ancients. The worship was closely related to that of the sun. Atar of the Zend Avesta means fire, and a personification of it, spoken of as the son of Ahura-Mazda, is characterized as “the god who is a full source of glory, the god who is a full source of healing” (vol. ii, p. 8). The Parsis and also the Hindus were forbidden to blow a fire lest the effete emanations from the system, present in the breath, might contaminate the flame. Menstruating women were forbidden even to look at it.