Dog

On 3rd day after an Iranian dies he is said to arrive at the bridge of the dead known as the cinvato peretu.

There if has performed puNya-s he is met by the goddess daena with her dogs in the form of a beautiful woman who gives him a divine drink: shown on seal from gandhAra.

If he has performed pApa-s instead she arrives as dreadful harridan+++(=hag)+++ and he is borne away by the dogs to be judged by raShNu and sraosha. The dogs may be identified with constellations of Canis Major and Minor and the Chinvata bridge with the Milky Way. Was there a constellation with which daenA was identified?

In this document from Dun Huang +++(silk road, gansu)+++, Daena is shown carrying a dog. She is faced by another goddess whose identity has been mysterious. Some suspect she is the more harridanic manifestation of daena. Others note parallels to the the syncretic “Iranic durgA” who similarly holds up the sun & moon.

It is notable that the sun is indicated as in the constellation of Scorpio. She also holds a vR^ishchika corresponding to the dog of daenA. The moon’s identify with the hauma (=soma) is shown by the soma plant in it. She also has a rapacious vR^ika instead of the lion typical of the durgA.

In Arya tradition the sting of Scorpio is identified with the netherworld goddess nirR^iti. This suggests that Dun Huang deity is a comparable Iranic goddess. It remains unclear if that in turn is equivalent with the harridanic+++(=hag like)+++ manifestation of daenA. However, in astronomical terms the regions associated with Canis Major/Minor are antipodal to those of Scorpio and this symbolism is likely implied here.