Egyptian and Persian Winged Discs

You readers have seen this symbol before in ancient Egyptian art, especially in the famous tomb treasure of Tut-ankh-amoun. During most of the 1990s I was involved in a learning and research project about the Zoroastrian faith, originating in Persia with the revelations of the prophet Zarathushtra. He and the religion he founded were the first monotheists. These winged discs are not from a monotheistic culture, though. They depict the Sun-disc of the Sun God, as well as the imperial power of the King. This flying Sun-disc was borrowed by the Zoroastrians in ancient times as a symbol of the Persian King's power. Much later, in the late 19th century, it was adopted as a logo for the Zoroastrian faith as it remained in Iran and India.

Egyptian and Persian winged discs here are drawn by me, copying by hand from research materials in the Library of Congress and elsewhere. The Persian disc is below.