Lingvogeometry

[Monolens]

This seems a case of confirmation bias. I know of a rather famous ancient culture - two actually - which were hugely influential and yet don't contain (as far as I can recall) any connection between... the crescent moon and, er, cow horns?

I mean, cows are the sacred animal of Hera, but Hera isn't the moon goddess, or related to the moon at all. If such a connection were truly pervasive, we would expect to find the lunar goddess Serene (or later Artemis) to have some connection to them, but so far as I remember they don't. The closest is Artemis' twin brother (Apollo), the sun god & god of prophecy, has some sacred bulls or something.

Cows are only one recognizable symbol, but I did not tell that it appears with every god or goddess.
But it’s true that there are many bulls and cows connected to gods.

Etymology of word “Hera” has one cow related variant: A.J. van Windekens,offers "young cow, heifer", which is consonant with Hera's common epithet βοῶπις (boōpis, cow-eyed).
Hera’s moon nature I can illustrate with following examples:
Io was, in Greek mythology, a priestess of Hera in Argos. Hera transformed Io into cow.
The ancients connected Io with the Moon, and in Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound, where Io encounters Prometheus, she refers to herself as "the horned virgin", both bovine and lunar.
One more interesting example is main attribute of Hera – Diadem
You can check above that there is a story about Diadem as a symbol of god. Diadem has crescent shape, especially on Hera:



Artemis was the Hellenic goddess of the hunt, wild animals, wilderness, childbirth, virginity and protector of young girls, bringing and relieving disease in women; she often was depicted as a huntress carrying a bow and arrows.[6] The deer and the cypress were sacred to her.
Hunting that time is associated with bow which has crescent shape. Most of wild animals are horned. Deers for example.



Cypress is came not accidentally. The shape of this tree is horn like. That is why it was also connected to goddess.



You can see that one or another way indicated semantic core appears in connection of any god entity.

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Apollo's most common attributes were the bow and arrow. I already mentioned that bow is moon symbol due to its shape.
Other attributes of his included the kithara, the plectrum and the sword.
Kithara – horned musical instrument:


Plectrum – has triangle shape. Ancient swords were also curved not straight.

Another common emblem was the sacrificial tripod, representing his prophetic powers.
Sacrificial tripod is the cup which also have semicircle shape. The cup is also the symbol of Jesus as you remember.

The Pythian Games were held in Apollo's honor every four years at Delphi. The bay laurel plant was used in expiatory sacrifices and in making the crown of victory at these games.

This crown of victory is also crescent shape. And same Laurel wreath is associated with Jesus.

You can try to connect above symbols with the sun. It would be much difficult and identification more tensioned.