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Anahita

January 07, 2023

This article is about the goddess. For other purposes, see Anahita (disambiguation). For the female given name, see Anahita (given name). For the female given name derived from Anahita, see Anaïs.
"Nahid" redirects here. For other uses, see Nahid (disambiguation).

Anahita /ɑːnəˈhiːtə/ is the Old Persian form of the name of an Iranian goddess and appears in complete and earlier form as Aredvi Sura Anahita (Arədvī Sūrā Anāhitā), the Avestan name of an Indo-Iranian cosmological figure venerated as the divinity of "the Waters" (Aban) and hence associated with fertility, healing and wisdom. There is also a temple named Anahita in Iran. Aredvi Sura Anahita is Ardwisur Anahid (اردویسور آناهید ) or Nahid (ناهید) in Middle and Modern Persian, and Anahit in Armenian.[1] An iconic shrine cult of Aredvi Sura Anahita was – together with other shrine cults – "introduced apparently in the 4th century BCE and lasted until it was suppressed in the wake of an iconoclastic movement under the Sassanids."[2] The symbol of goddess Anahita is the Lotus flower. Lotus Festival (Persian: Jashn-e Nilupar) is an Iranian festival that is held on the sixth day of July. Holding this festival at this time was probably based on the blooming of lotus flowers at the beginning of summer.

Lotus flower is The symbol of goddess Anahita
Taq-e Bostan high-relief of the investiture of Khosrow II (r. 590 to 628). The king (center) receives the ring of kingship from Mithra (right). On the left, apparently sanctifying the investiture, stands a female figure generally assumed to be Anahita (but see remark, below).

The Greek and Roman historians of classical antiquity refer to her either as Anaïtis or identified her with one of the divinities from their own pantheons. 270 Anahita, a silicaceous S-type asteroid, is named after her. Based on the development of her cult, she was described as a syncretistic goddess, who was composed of two independent elements. The first is a manifestation of the Indo-Iranian idea of the Heavenly River who provides the waters to the rivers and streams flowing in the earth while the second is that of a goddess of uncertain origin, though maintaining her own unique characteristics, who became associated with the cult of the ancient Mesopotamian goddess Inanna-Ishtar.[3] According to one theory, this arose partly from a desire to make Anahita part of Zoroastrianism following the diffusion of her cult from the extreme northwest into the rest of Persia.[3]

According to Herman Lommel, the proper name of the divinity in Indo-Iranian times was Sarasvatī, which also means "she who possesses waters".[4] In Sanskrit, the name आर्द्रावी शूरा अनाहिता (Ārdrāvī Śūrā Anāhitā) means "of the waters, mighty, and immaculate". Like the Indian Sarasvatī, Anāhitā nurtures crops and herds; and she is hailed both as a divinity and as the mythical river which she personifies, "as great in bigness as all these waters which flow forth upon the earth" (Yasht 5.3).[5]

Characteristics

Nomenclature

Only Arədvī (a word otherwise unknown, perhaps with an original meaning "moist") is specific to the divinity.[1] The words sūra and anāhīta are generic Avestan language adjectives,[6] and respectively mean "mighty" and "pure".[7][8] Both adjectives also appear as epithets of other divinities or divine concepts such as Haoma[9] and the Fravashis.[10] Both adjectives are also attested in Vedic Sanskrit.[11]

As a divinity of the waters (Abān), the yazata is of Indo-Iranian origin, according to Lommel related to Sanskrit Sarasvatī that, like its Proto-Iranian equivalent *Harahvatī, derives from Indo-Iranian *Saraswṇtī.[1][12][13] In its old Iranian form *Harahvatī, "her name was given to the region, rich in rivers, whose modern capital is Kabul (Avestan Haraxvaitī, Old Persian Hara(h)uvati-, Greek Arachosia)."[1] "Like the Devi Saraswati, [Aredvi Sura Anahita] nurtures crops and herds; and is hailed both as a divinity and the mythical river that she personifies, 'as great in bigness as all these waters which flow forth upon the earth'." Some historians note that despite Anahita's Aryan roots and the way she represented the commonly shared concept of the Heavenly River, which in the Vedas was represented by the goddess Sarasvatī (the later heavenly Ganga),[14] she had no counterpart in the ancient text who bear the same name or one that remotely resembled hers.[3]

In the (Middle-)Persian texts of the Sassanid and later eras, Arədvī Sūra Anāhīta appears as Ardwisur Anāhīd.[1] The evidence suggests a western Iranian origin of Anāhīta.[15] (see borrowing from Babylonia, below).

Anahita also shares characteristics with Mat Syra Zemlya (Damp Mother Earth) of Slavic mythology.[16]

Conflation with Ishtar

At some point prior to the 4th century BCE, this yazata was conflated with (an analogue of)[α] Semitic Ištar,[8] likewise a divinity of "maiden" fertility and from whom Aredvi Sura Anahita then inherited additional features of a divinity of war and of the planet Venus or "Zohreh" in Arabic. It was moreover the association with the planet Venus, "it seems, which led Herodotus to record that the [Persis][γ] learnt 'to sacrifice to "the heavenly goddess"' from the Assyrians and Arabians."[17][18][19] There are sources who based their theory on this aspect. For instance, it was proposed that the ancient Persians worshiped the planet Venus as *Anahiti, the "pure one", and that, as these people settled in Eastern Iran, *Anahiti began to absorb elements of the cult of Ishtar.[20] Indeed, according to Boyce, it is "probable" that there was once a Perso–Elamite divinity by the name of *Anahiti (as reconstructed from the Greek Anaitis).[21] It is then likely (so Boyce) that it was this divinity that was an analogue of Ishtar, and that it is this divinity with which Aredvi Sura Anahita was conflated.[6]

The link between Anahita and Ishtar is part of the wider theory that Iranian kingship had Mesopotamian roots and that the Persian gods were natural extensions of the Babylonian deities, where Ahuramazda is considered an aspect of Marduk, Mithra for Shamash, and, finally, Anahita was Ishtar.[22] This is supported by how Ishtar "apparently"[23] gave Aredvi Sura Anahita the epithet Banu, 'the Lady', a typically Mesopotamian construct[23] that is not attested as an epithet for a divinity in Iran before the common era. It is completely unknown in the texts of the Avesta,[23] but evident in Sassanid-era middle Persian inscriptions (see Evidence of a cult, below) and in a middle Persian Zend translation of Yasna 68.13.[24] Also in Zoroastrian texts from the post-conquest epoch (651 CE onwards), the divinity is referred to as 'Anahid the Lady', 'Ardwisur the Lady' and 'Ardwisur the Lady of the waters'.[25]

Because the divinity is unattested in any old Western Iranian language,[6] establishing characteristics prior to the introduction of Zoroastrianism in Western Iran (c. 5th century BCE) is very much in the realm of speculation. Boyce concludes that "the Achaemenids' devotion to this goddess evidently survived their conversion to Zoroastrianism, and they appear to have used royal influence to have her adopted into the Zoroastrian pantheon."[26][β] According to an alternate theory, Anahita was perhaps "a daeva of the early and pure Zoroastrian faith, incorporated into the Zoroastrian religion and its revised canon" during the reign of "Artaxerxes I, the Constantine of that faith."[27][δ][28]

Cosmological entity

The cosmological qualities of the world river are alluded to in Yasht 5 (see in the Avesta, below), but properly developed only in the Bundahishn, a Zoroastrian account of creation finished in the 11th or 12th century CE. In both texts, Aredvi Sura Anahita is not only a divinity, but also the source of the world river and the (name of the) world river itself. The cosmological legend runs as follows:

All the waters of the world created by Ahura Mazda originate from the source Aredvi Sura Anahita, the life-increasing, herd-increasing, fold-increasing, who makes prosperity for all countries. This source is at the top of the world mountain Hara Berezaiti, "High Hara", around which the sky revolves and that is at the center of Airyanem Vaejah, the first of the lands created by Mazda.

The water, warm and clear, flows through a hundred thousand golden channels towards Mount Hugar, "the Lofty", one of the daughter-peaks of Hara Berezaiti. On the summit of that mountain is Lake Urvis, "the Turmoil", into which the waters flow, becoming quite purified and exiting through another golden channel. Through that channel, which is at the height of a thousand men, one portion of the great spring Aredvi Sura Anahita drizzles in moisture upon the whole earth, where it dispels the dryness of the air and all the creatures of Mazda acquire health from it. Another portion runs down to Vourukasha, the great sea upon which the earth rests, and from which it flows to the seas and oceans of the world and purifies them.

In the Bundahishn, the two halves of the name "Ardwisur Anahid" are occasionally treated independently of one another, that is, with Ardwisur as the representative of waters, and Anahid identified with the planet Venus: The water of the all lakes and seas have their origin with Ardwisur (10.2, 10.5), and in contrast, in a section dealing with the creation of the stars and planets (5.4), the Bundahishn speaks of 'Anahid i Abaxtari', that is, the planet Venus.[29] In yet other chapters, the text equates the two, as in "Ardwisur who is Anahid, the father and mother of the Waters" (3.17).

This legend of the river that descends from Mount Hara appears to have remained a part of living observance for many generations. A Greek inscription from Roman times found in Asia Minor reads "the great goddess Anaïtis of high Hara".[30] On Greek coins of the imperial epoch, she is spoken of as "Anaïtis of the sacred water".[29]

In scripture

 
4th-6th century silver and gilt Sassanian vessel, assumed to be depicting Anahita. (Cleveland Museum of Art)

Aredvi Sura Anahita is principally addressed in Yasht 5 (Yasna 65), also known as the Aban Yasht, a hymn to the waters in Avestan and one of the longer and better preserved of the devotional hymns. Yasna 65 is the third of the hymns recited at the Ab-Zohr, the "offering to the waters" that accompanies the culminating rites of the Yasna service. Verses from Yasht 5 also form the greater part of the Aban Nyashes, the liturgy to the waters that are a part of the Khordeh Avesta.

According to Nyberg[31] and supported by Lommel[32] and Widengren,[33] the older portions of the Aban Yasht were originally composed at a very early date, perhaps not long after the Gathas themselves. [ζ] Yasna 38, which is dedicated "to the earth and the sacred waters" and is part of seven-chapter Yasna Haptanghāiti, is linguistically as old as the Gathas.

In the Aban Yasht, the river yazata is described as "the great spring Ardvi Sura Anahita is the life-increasing, the herd-increasing, the fold-increasing who makes prosperity for all countries" (5.1). She is "wide flowing and healing", "efficacious against the daevas", "devoted to Ahura's lore" (5.1). She is associated with fertility, purifying the seed of men (5.1), purifying the wombs of women (5.1), encouraging the flow of milk for newborns (5.2). As a river divinity, she is responsible for the fertility of the soil and for the growth of crops that nurture both man and beast (5.3). She is a beautiful, strong maiden, wearing beaver skins (5.3,7,20,129).

The association between water and wisdom that is common to many ancient cultures is also evident in the Aban Yasht, for here Aredvi Sura is the divinity to whom priests and pupils should pray for insight and knowledge (5.86). In verse 5.120 she is seen to ride a chariot drawn by four horses named "wind", "rain", "clouds" and "sleet". In newer passages she is described as standing in "statuesque stillness", "ever observed", royally attired with a golden embroidered robe, wearing a golden crown, necklace and earrings, golden breast-ornament, and gold-laced ankle-boots (5.123, 5.126-8). Aredvi Sura Anahita is bountiful to those who please her, stern to those who do not, and she resides in 'stately places' (5.101).

The concept of Aredvi Sura Anahita is to a degree blurred with that of Ashi, the Gathic figure of Good Fortune, and many of the verses of the Aban Yasht also appear in Yasht 17 (Ard Yasht), which is dedicated to Ashi. So also a description of the weapons bestowed upon worshippers (5.130), and the superiority in battle (5.34 et al.). These functions appears out of place in a hymn to the waters,[1] and may have originally been from Yasht 17.

Other verses in Yasht 5 have masculine instead of feminine pronouns, and thus again appear to be verses that were originally dedicated to other divinities.[34] Boyce also suggests that the new compound divinity of waters with martial characteristics gradually usurped the position of Apam Napat, the great warlike water divinity of the Ahuric triad, finally causing the latter's place to be lost and his veneration to become limited to the obligatory verses recited at the Ab-Zohr.

There are also parts in the Yasht that show discrepancies in the description of Anahita. There was the case, for instance, of her beaver coat, which was described to an audience for whom the Yasht was redacted. It was clear that these do not know the animal given the fact that the Eurasian beaver (Castor fiber) were found in the Caucasus but did not range south of the Caspian Sea nor the rivers and lakes of the Aral-Caspian steppe.[3]

Inscriptions and classical accounts

Evidence of a cult

The earliest dateable and unambiguous reference to the iconic cult of Anahita is from the Babylonian scholar-priest Berosus, who – although writing in 285 BCE, over 70 years[η] after the reign of Artaxerxes II Mnemon[θ] – records that the emperor had been the first to make cult statues of Aphrodite Anaitis and place them in the temples of many of the empire's major cities, including Babylon, Susa, Ecbatana, Bactria, Persepolis, Damascus and Sardis.[c1] Also according to Berosus, the Persians knew of no images of gods until Artaxerxes II erected those images.[c1][λ] This is substantiated by Herodotus, whose mid-5th-century-BCE general remarks on the usages of the Perses, Herodotus notes that "it is not their custom to make and set up statues and images and altars, and those that make such they deem foolish, as I suppose, because they never believed the gods, as do the Greeks, to be the likeness of men." [c23][35][36] As the cult was institutionalized, it began to spread widely, reaching beyond the borders of Persia taking root in Armenia and Asia Minor.[37]

The extraordinary innovation of the shrine cults can thus be dated to the late 5th century BCE (or very early 4th century BCE), even if this evidence is "not of the most satisfactory kind."[8] Nonetheless, by 330 BCE and under Achaemenid royal patronage, these cults had been disseminated throughout Asia Minor and the Levant, and from there to Armenia.[29] The temples also served as an important source of income. From the Babylonian kings, the Achaemenids had taken over the concept of a mandatory temple tax, a one-tenth tithe which all inhabitants paid to the temple nearest to their land or other source of income.[38] A share of this income called the quppu ša šarri or "kings chest" – an ingenious institution originally introduced by Nabonidus – was then turned over to the ruler.

Nonetheless, Artaxerxes' close connection with the Anahita temples is "almost certainly the chief cause of this king's long-lasting fame among Zoroastrians, a fame which made it useful propaganda for the succeeding Arsacids to claim him (quite spuriously) for their ancestor."[39][40]

Parsa, Elam, and Media

Artaxerxes II's devotion to Anahita is most apparent in his inscriptions, where her name appears directly after that of Ahura Mazda and before that of Mithra. Artaxerxes' inscription at Susa reads: "By the will of Ahura Mazda, Anahita, and Mithra I built this palace. May Ahura Mazda, Anahita, and Mithra protect me from all evil" (A²Hc 15–10). This is a remarkable break with tradition; no Achaemenid king before him had invoked any but Ahura Mazda alone by name although the Behistun inscription of Darius invokes Ahuramazda and "The other gods who are".[41]

The temple(s) of Anahita at Ecbatana (Hamadan) in Media must have once been the most glorious sanctuaries in the known world.[π][c2] Although the palace had been stripped by Alexander and the following Seleucid kings,[c3] when Antiochus III raided Ecbatana in 209 BCE, the temple "had the columns round it still gilded and a number of silver tiles were piled up in it, while a few gold bricks and a considerable quantity of silver ones remained." [c4]

Polybius' reference to Alexander is supported by Arrian, who in 324 BCE wrote of a temple in Ecbatana dedicated to "Asclepius" (by inference presumed to be Anahita, likewise a divinity of healing), destroyed by Alexander because she had allowed his friend Hephaestion to die.[c5] The massive stone lion on the hill there (said to be part of a sepulcral monument to Hephaestion[ψ]) is today a symbol that visitors touch in hope of fertility.

Plutarch records that Artaxerxes II had his concubine Aspasia consecrated as priestess at the temple "to Diana of Ecbatana, whom they name Anaitis, that she might spend the remainder of her days in strict chastity."[c6] This does not however necessarily imply that chastity was a requirement of Anaitis priestesses. [ν]

Isidore of Charax, in addition to a reference to the temple at Ecbatana ("a temple, sacred to Anaitis, they sacrifice there always")[c2] also notes a "temple of Artemis"[μ] at Concobar (Lower Media, today Kangavar). Despite archaeological findings that refute a connection with Anahita,[42] remains of a 2nd-century BCE Hellenic-style edifice at Kangavar continue to be a popular tourist attraction.

Isidore also records another "royal place, a temple of Artemis, founded by Darius" at Basileia (Apadana), on the royal highway along the left bank of the Euphrates.[c7][43]

During the Hellenistic Parthian period, Susa had its "Dianae templum augustissimum"[c8] far from Elymais where another temple, known to Strabo as the "Ta Azara", was dedicated to Athena/Artemis[c9] and where tame lions roamed the grounds. This may be a reference to the temple above the Tang-a Sarvak ravine in present-day Khuzestan Province. Other than this, no evidence of the cult in Western Iran from the Parthian period survives, but "it is reasonable to assume that the martial features of Anāhita (Ishtar) assured her popularity in the subsequent centuries among the warrior classes of Parthian feudalism."[44]

In the 2nd century CE, the center of the cult in Parsa (Persia proper) was at Staxr (Istakhr). There, Anahita continued to be venerated in her martial role and it was at Istakhr that Sassan, after whom the Sassanid dynasty is named, served as high priest. Sassan's son, Papak, likewise a priest of that temple, overthrew the King of Istakhr (a vassal of the Arsacids), and had himself crowned in his stead. "By this time (the beginning of the 3rd century), Anāhita's headgear (kolāh) was worn as a mark of nobility", which in turn "suggests that she was goddess of the feudal warrior estate."[44] Ardashir (r. 226-241 CE) "would send the heads of the petty kings he defeated for display at her temple."[45]

During the reign of Bahram I (r. 272-273 CE), in the wake of an iconoclastic movement that had begun at about the same time as the shrine cult movement, the sanctuaries dedicated to a specific divinity were - by law - disassociated from that divinity by removal of the statuary and then either abandoned or converted into fire altars.[46] So also the popular shrines to Mehr/Mithra which retained the name Darb-e Mehr - Mithra's Gate - that is today one of the Zoroastrian technical terms for a fire temple. The temple at Istakhr was likewise converted and, according to the Kartir inscription, henceforth known as the "Fire of Anahid the Lady."[47] Sassanid iconoclasm, though administratively from the reign of Bahram I, may already have been supported by Bahram's father, Shapur I (r. 241-272 CE). In an inscription in Middle Persian, Parthian and Greek at Ka'ba of Zoroaster, the "Mazdean lord, ..., king of kings, ..., grandson of lord Papak" (ShKZ 1, Naqsh-e Rustam) records that he instituted fires for his daughter and three of his sons. His daughter's name: Anahid. The name of that fire: Adur-Anahid.

 
Naqsh-e Rustam investiture of Narseh (r. 293–302), in which the Sassanian king (second from right) receives the ring of kingship from Anahita (right).

Notwithstanding the dissolution of the temple cults, the triad Ahura Mazda, Anahita, and Mithra (as Artaxerxes II had invoked them) would continue to be prominent throughout the Sassanid age, "and were indeed (with Tiri and Verethragna) to remain the most popular of all divine beings in Western Iran."[48] Moreover, the iconoclasm of Bahram I and later kings apparently did not extend to images where they themselves are represented. At an investiture scene at Naqsh-e Rustam, Narseh (r. 293-302 CE) is seen receiving his crown from a female divinity identified as Anahita. Narseh, like Artaxerxes II, was apparently also very devoted to Anahita, for in the investiture inscription at Paikuli (near Khaniqin, in present-day Iraq), Narseh invokes "Ormuzd and all the yazatas, and Anahid who is called the Lady."[47]

 
The figure of a female on an Achaemenid cylinder seal

Anahita has also been identified as a figure in the investiture scene of Khusrow Parvez (Khosrau II, r. 590-628 CE) at Taq-e Bostan, but in this case not quite as convincingly as for the one of Narseh.[49] But, aside from the two rock carvings at Naqsh-e Rustam and Taq-e Bostan, "few figures unquestionably representing the goddess are known."[49] The figure of a female on an Achaemenid cylinder seal has been identified as that of Anahita, as have a few reliefs from the Parthian era (250 BCE-226 CE), two of which are from ossuaries.[50]

In addition, Sassanid silverware depictions of nude or scantily dressed women seen holding a flower or fruit or bird or child are identified as images of Anahita.[51] Additionally, "it has been suggested that the colonnaded or serrated crowns [depicted] on Sasanian coins belong to Anahid."[49]

Asia Minor and the Levant

The cult flourished in Lydia even as late as the end of the Hellenistic period and early Parthian Empire, well into the lifetime of Jesus.[23] The Lydians had temples to the divinity at Sardis, Philadelphia, Hieroaesarea, Hypaipa (where she was still revered as Artemis Anaitis or Persian Artemis in Classical and Roman times), Maeonia and elsewhere;[23] the temple at Hierocaesarea reportedly[c10] having been founded by "Cyrus" (presumably[52] Cyrus the Younger, brother of Artaxerxes II, who was satrap of Lydia between 407 and 401 BCE).

In the 2nd century CE, the geographer Pausanias reports having personally witnessed (apparently Mazdean) ceremonies at Hypaipa and Hierocaesarea.[c11] According to Strabo, Anahita was revered together with Omanos at Zela in Pontus.[c12] [c13] At Castabala, she is referred to as 'Artemis Perasia'.[c14] Anahita and Omanos had common altars in Cappadocia.[c15]

Armenia and the Caucasus

Main article: Anahit

"Hellenic influence [gave] a new impetus to the cult of images [and] positive evidence for this comes from Armenia, then a Zoroastrian land."[29] According to Strabo, the "Armenians shared in the religion of the Perses and the Medes and particularly honored Anaitis".[c16] The kings of Armenia were "steadfast supporters of the cult"[43] and Tiridates III, before his conversion to Christianity, "prayed officially to the triad Aramazd-Anahit-Vahagn but is said to have shown a special devotion to 'the great lady Anahit, ... the benefactress of the whole human race, mother of all knowledge, daughter of the great Aramazd'".[53] According to Agathangelos, tradition required the Kings of Armenia to travel once a year to the temple at Eriza (Erez) in Acilisene in order to celebrate the festival of the divinity; Tiridates made this journey in the first year of his reign where he offered sacrifice and wreaths and boughs.[c27] The temple at Eriza appears to have been particularly famous, "the wealthiest and most venerable in Armenia",[c29] staffed with priests and priestesses, the latter from eminent families who would serve at the temple before marrying.[c16] This practice may again reveal Semitic syncretic influences,[43] and is not otherwise attested in other areas. Pliny reports that Mark Antony's soldiers smashed an enormous statue of the divinity made of solid gold and then divided the pieces amongst themselves.[c19] Also according to Pliny, supported by Dio Cassius, Acilisene eventually came to be known as Anaetica.[c20] [c21] Dio Cassius also mentions that another region along the Cyrus River, on the borders of Albania and Iberia, was also called "the land of Anaitis."[c22][σ]

Anahit was also venerated at Artashat (Artaxata), the capital of the Armenian Kingdom, where her temple was close to that of Tiur,[φ] the divinity of oracles. At Astishat, center of the cult of Vahagn, she was revered as voskimayr, the 'golden mother'.[c24] In 69 BCE, the soldiers of Lucullus saw cows consecrated to 'Persian Artemis' roaming freely at Tomisa in Sophene (on the Euphrates in South-West Armenia), where the animals bore the brand of a torch on their heads.[c25] Following Tiridates' conversion to Christianity, the cult of Anahit was condemned and iconic representations of the divinity were destroyed.[43]

Attempts have been made to identify Anahita as one of the prime three divinities in Albania, but these are questionable. However, in the territories of the Moschi in Colchis, Strabo mentions[c26] a cult of Leucothea, which Wesendonck and others have identified as an analogue of Anahita.[43] The cult of Anahita may have also influenced Ainina and Danina, a paired deities of the Caucasian Iberians mentioned by the medieval Georgian chronicles.[54]

Legacy

As a divinity Aredvi Sura Anahita is of enormous significance to the Zoroastrian religion, for as a representative of Aban ("the waters"), she is in effect the divinity towards whom the Yasna service – the primary act of worship – is directed. (see Ab-Zohr). "To this day reverence for water is deeply ingrained in Zoroastrians, and in orthodox communities offerings are regularly made to the household well or nearby stream."[55][ε]

It is "very probable"[25] that the shrine of Bibi Shahrbanu at royal Ray (Rhagae, central Media) was once dedicated to Anahita.[25][ρ] Similarly, one of the "most beloved mountain shrines of the Zoroastrians of Yazd, set beside a living spring and a great confluence of water-courses, is devoted to Banu-Pars, "the Lady of Persia"."[56][57]

However, and notwithstanding the widespread popularity of Anahita, "it is doubtful whether the current tendency is justified whereby almost every isolated figure in Sassanid art, whether sitting, standing, dancing, clothed, or semi-naked, is hailed as her representation."[57][58]

The Armenian cult of Anahit, as well as the pre-Christian Armenian religion in general, was very closely connected to Persian Zoroastrianism.[59]

Some Mandaean exorcism texts invoke the name of Nanai or Nanaia (the Semitic form of Anahita), pointing to contact between the Mandaeans and the cult of Anahita during the past.[60]: 104–105 

In literature

In his Life of Johnson, James Boswell tells the story of Donald McQueen, who believed a building near Dunvegan Castle to be the ruins of a temple to Anahita. Samuel Johnson gave no credence to McQueen's beliefs, which Johnson said was based purely on phonological similarities of names.[citation needed]

In Tad Williams' Bobby Dollar Series, Anahita is referred to as Anaita, a powerful goddess turned angel who acts as one of five members of a judgement collective known as the Ephorate.

See also

References

Notes

α ^ Boyce (1982:29-31) proposes that there was once a Perso-Elamite divinity named *Anahiti (as she reconstructs it from the Greek rendering of Anaitis, being otherwise unattested in old Persian)[6] that was an analogue of Semitic Ishtar–Inanna. "That the concept [of *Anahiti] owes much to that of Ishtar was first suggested by H. Gressman, Archiv f. Religionswissenschaft XX, 1920, 35ff., 323ff."[62]

An inheritance from Ishtar is also supported by Cumont[63] and Lommel.[64] For a rejection of some of the numerous other identifications (Atargatis, Anat, etc.) as historically distinct, see Meyer.[65]

β ^ According to Boyce's theory (see note α above), "the problem of how to offer veneration to a divinity unknown to the Avesta was solved by assimilating *Anāhiti to *Harahvaitī Arədvī Sūrā Anāhitā, whose third epithet was very close to the western divinity's proper name, and indeed may already in late Old Persian have become identical with it, through the dropping of the final vowel in ordinary speech."[26]

In antiquity, "to invoke a deity correctly, it was essential to know his proper name" and when people "worshipped gods other than their own, they invoked them by their original names."[66]

γ ^ Persis is Greek for the ethnic group of people from Parsa (Persia proper). Herodotus, was born and raised in Lydia (then an Achaemenid satrapy) and hence quite aware of the differences between the various ethnic groups (Persis, Medes etc.). Herodotus reported on the customs as he observed them in Asia-Minor; he did not visit Parsa.
δ ^ Although Taqizadeh's hypothesis is not supportable in light of the archaic nature of the Gathic nucleus of Yasht 5 (see In the Avesta, above), it is worth noting that Artaxerxes I (r. 465-424 BCE) moved his capital from Susa to Babylon, where it would remain until Artaxerxes II moved it back in 395 BCE. Darius II was half-Babylonian and died in Babylon. Darius's son and successor, Artaxerxes II also had a Babylonian mother, Parysatis, who was immensely influential on both Darius and her sons (the other being Cyrus the Younger).

Widengren has a similar hypothesis, but places it in the Proto-Avestan period. In this opinion,[67] Anahita is Nahaithya, the Avestan daeva(s) that Widengren also suggests might be cognate with the Nasatyas.

ε ^ Although one could (polemically) say Zoroastrians were fire worshippers, it would be quite as just and reasonable to call them water worshippers.[68][69]
ζ ^ Boyce agrees: "Linguistically, Aredvi Sura's hymn appears older than [the Gathic hymn of] Asi's."[1] It "was presumably after [Artaxerxes II] that verses [that] describe a temple statue" were incorporated in Yasht 5.[29]
η ^ Berosus' account dates to ca. 285 BCE, Artaxerxes II died in 358 BCE.
θ ^ 'Mnemon' is a Greek epithet, roughly translatable as 'the mindful one', but is itself a mistranslation of Vohu Manah, the Amesha Spenta of 'Good Mind' or 'Good Purpose'.[70]
λ ^ See also: Müller's Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum, 16
μ ^ "Artemis [is] one of the Greek identifications of Anahid."[29] Isidore of Charax (Mansiones Parthicae 1) also speaks of "the city of Besechana" (Piruz-sabur, Parthian Msyk, or Massice by Pliny) "in which is a temple of Atargatis", which Boyce, citing Chaumont, states is a temple of Anahita at Beonan.[43] Atargatis is however a Levantine goddess and, although also associated with water and the planet Venus, had a cult that is historically distinct from that of Anahita.[65]
ν ^ "It is impossible (in the absence of contemporary Iranian evidence) to know the limits of what is implied here - whether, that is, all priestesses of Anahita were required at this epoch to be chaste for life, or only certain among them. Celibacy is not in general a state respected by Zoroastrians, or regarded by them as meritorious."[71]
π ^ Ecbatana "is said to have greatly exceeded all the other cities in wealth and the magnificence of its buildings" (Polybius, Histories 10.27.5). The citadel supposedly had a circumference of 7 stades (ca. 1,300 m; 1,400 yd) and was built of cedar and cypress wood. "The rafters, the compartments of the ceiling, and the columns in the porticoes and colonnades were plated with either silver or gold, and all the tiles were silver" (10.27.10-11).
ρ ^ In 1948, Persian scholar Abd al-Husayn Nava'i addressed the Shahrbanu legend and suggested that there must have been a Zoroastrian shrine at Ray whose sanctity attracted the legend.[72]

The shrine, which legend attributes to the eldest daughter of Yazdegerd III, continues to be a pilgrimage site (by women only, through a concession by male descendants of Mohammed) even in Islamic times.[72] Boyce suggests that the shrine may be even older than the Sassanid period, dating perhaps to the Hellenistic Parthian era.[29]

σ ^ "like Acilisene, it was doubtless the territory of a temple dedicated to Anahita but otherwise unknown."[43]
φ ^ According to Boyce, Tiur is Mesopotamian Nabu-*Tiri conflated with Avestan Tishtrya.[73] In Hellenic (Seleucid and Parthian) times Tiur was associated with Pythian Apollo, patron of Delphi.
ψ ^ The stone lion of Hamadan is said to have been part of Alexander's plan to build a monument to Hephaestion.
Ω ^ ^ Plutarch is relying on older sources, probably on "the often inaccurate"[74] Ctesias.

Citation index

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Boyce 1983b, p. 1003.
  2. ^ Boyce 1975b, p. 454.
  3. ^ a b c d Malandra, William (1983), An Introduction to Ancient Iranian Religion: Readings from the Avesta and Achaemenid Inscriptions, Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, pp. 119, ISBN 0816611149
  4. ^ Lommel, H. "Anahita-Sarasvati," Asiatica, Festschrift F. Weller, Leipzig, 1954, pp. 405-13
  5. ^ Boyce, M. Anahid, Encyclopædia Iranica
  6. ^ a b c d Boyce 1982, p. 29.
  7. ^ Lommel 1927, p. 29.
  8. ^ a b c Boyce 1982, p. 202.
  9. ^ Gray 1926, p. 99.
  10. ^ Gray 1926, p. 133.
  11. ^ cf. Monier-Williams 1898.
  12. ^ Lommel 1954, pp. 405–413.
  13. ^ Boyce 1975a, p. 71.
  14. ^ Heesterman, J.C.; Van den Hoek, Albert; Kolff, Dirk; Oort, M.S. (1992), Ritual, State, and History in South Asia: Essays in Honour of J.C. Heesterman, Leiden: BRILL, p. 795, ISBN 9004094679
  15. ^ de Jong 1997, p. 105
  16. ^ Gimbutas, Marija. "ANCIENT SLAVIC RELIGION: A SYNOPSIS". In: To honor Roman Jakobson: essays on the occasion of his 70. birthday, 11. October 1966. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter Mouton, 2018. p. 753. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111604763-064
  17. ^ Boyce 1982, p. 29 Cit. [c23]
  18. ^ Widengren 1965, p. 121
  19. ^ Nyberg 1938, p. 370
  20. ^ Duchesne-Guillemin, Jacques; Lecog, Pierre (1985), Papers in Honour of Professor Mary Boyce, Leiden: BRILL, p. 234, ISBN 9789068310023
  21. ^ Boyce 1983b, pp. 1005–1006.
  22. ^ Llewellyn-Jones, Lloyd (2013), King and Court in Ancient Persia 559 to 331 BCE, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press Ltd., p. 24, ISBN 9780748641260
  23. ^ a b c d e Boyce 1983b, p. 1006.
  24. ^ Darmesteter 1892, p. 419.
  25. ^ a b c Boyce 1967, p. 37.
  26. ^ a b Boyce 1983b, pp. 1003–1004.
  27. ^ Taqizadeh 1938, p. 35.
  28. ^ Campos 2013
  29. ^ a b c d e f g Boyce 1983b, p. 1004.
  30. ^ Boyce 1975a, p. 74.
  31. ^ Nyberg 1938, p. 260,291,438.
  32. ^ Lommel 1954, p. 406.
  33. ^ Widengren 1955, p. 48.
  34. ^ Boyce 1975a, p. 73.
  35. ^ Boyce 1975b, p. 456.
  36. ^ Boyce 1982, p. 179.
  37. ^ Shah, Umakant (1987), Jaina-rūpa-maṇḍana, Volume 1, New Delhi: Abhinav Publications, pp. 261, ISBN 8170172187
  38. ^ Dandamaev & Lukonin 1989, pp. 361–362
  39. ^ Boyce 1982, p. 221.
  40. ^ Arjomand 1998, p. 247.
  41. ^ DB 4.59-67
  42. ^ Kleiss 2005.
  43. ^ a b c d e f g Boyce 1983b, p. 1007.
  44. ^ a b Arjomand 1998, p. 248.
  45. ^ Arjomand 1998, p. 248 Cit. [c18]
  46. ^ Boyce 1975b, p. 462.
  47. ^ a b Boyce 1967, p. 36.
  48. ^ Boyce 1982, p. 210.
  49. ^ a b c Boyce 1983b, p. 1008.
  50. ^ Girshman 1962, fig. 120, 313.
  51. ^ Boyce 1983b, p. 1008, cit. Trever, À propos, plates XXVII-XXIX.
  52. ^ Boyce 1982, pp. 201–202.
  53. ^ Boyce 1983b, p. 1007 Cit. Agathangelos 22.
  54. ^ Tseretheli 1935, p. 55
  55. ^ Boyce 1975a, p. 155.
  56. ^ Boyce 1967, p. 38.
  57. ^ a b Boyce 1983b, p. 1005.
  58. ^ Jacobs 2006, p. 1
  59. ^ "Russel, J.R. ARMENIA AND IRAN iii. Armenian religion. Encyclopaedia Iranica", Iranicaonline.org, retrieved 2014-03-02
  60. ^ Drower, E. S. (1960), The secret Adam: a study of Nasoraean gnosis, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  61. ^ Widengren 1965, p. 19
  62. ^ Boyce 1982, p. 29,n.93.
  63. ^ Cumont 1926, pp. 474ff.
  64. ^ Lommel 1927, pp. 26–32.
  65. ^ a b Meyer 1886, pp. 330–334.
  66. ^ Bikerman 1938, p. 187.
  67. ^ Widengren 1965, p. 18.
  68. ^ Boyce 1975a, pp. 155–156.
  69. ^ Darrow 1988, pp. 417–418.
  70. ^ Arjomand 1998, pp. 246–247.
  71. ^ Boyce 1982, p. 220.
  72. ^ a b Boyce 1967, pp. 36–37.
  73. ^ Boyce 1982, pp. 32–33.
  74. ^ Boyce 1982, p. 201.
c1 ^ ^ Berosus, III.65.
c2 ^ ^ Isidore of Charax, Parthian Stations 6.
c3 ^ Polybius, Histories 10.27.11.
c4 ^ Polybius, Histories 10.27.12.
c5 ^ Arrian, Anabasis of Alexander 7.14.
c6 ^ Plutarch, Artaxerxes 27.[Ω]
c7 ^ Isidore of Charax, Parthian Stations 1.
c8 ^ Pliny, Natural History 6.35.
c9 ^ Strabo, Geographica 16.1.18.
c10 ^ Tacitus, Annals 3.62.
c11 ^ Pausanias, Description of Greece 5.27.5.
c12 ^ Strabo, Geographica 11.8.4.
c13 ^ Strabo, Geographica 12.3.37.
c14 ^ Strabo, Geographica 12.2.7.
c15 ^ Strabo, Geographica XI 8.4, XV 3.15.
c16 ^ ^ Strabo, Geographica 11.14.16.
c17 ^ Agathangelos, 22.
c18 ^ Tabari, Annals 1:819.
c19 ^ Pliny, Natural History 33.82-83.
c20 ^ Pliny, Natural History 5.83.
c21 ^ Dio Cassius, 36.48.1.
c22 ^ Dio Cassius, 36.53.5.
c23 ^ ^ Herodotus, Histories i.131.
c24 ^ Agathangelos, 141.
c25 ^ Plutarch, Lucullus, 24.6.
c26 ^ Strabo, Geographica 11.2.17.
c27 ^ Agathangelos, 21.
c28 ^ Plutarch, Artaxerxes 3.[Ω]
c29 ^ Cicero, Pro Lege Manilia 9.23.

Bibliography

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Further reading

  • Koulabadi, Rahele, Seyyed Mehdi Mousavi Kouhpar, Javad Neyestani, and Seyyed Rasool Mousavi Haji (2019), "An Overview of Goddess Anahita and Her Iconography in Ancient Iran", Central Asiatic Journal, 62 (2): 203–26, doi:10.13173/centasiaj.62.2.0203{{citation}}: CS1 maint: uses authors parameter (link)

External links

  •   Media related to Anahita (mythology) at Wikimedia Commons

January 07, 2023
anahita, this, article, about, goddess, other, purposes, disambiguation, female, given, name, given, name, female, given, name, derived, from, anaïs, nahid, redirects, here, other, uses, nahid, disambiguation, ɑː, persian, form, name, iranian, goddess, appears. This article is about the goddess For other purposes see Anahita disambiguation For the female given name see Anahita given name For the female given name derived from Anahita see Anais Nahid redirects here For other uses see Nahid disambiguation Anahita ɑː n e ˈ h iː t e is the Old Persian form of the name of an Iranian goddess and appears in complete and earlier form as Aredvi Sura Anahita Aredvi Sura Anahita the Avestan name of an Indo Iranian cosmological figure venerated as the divinity of the Waters Aban and hence associated with fertility healing and wisdom There is also a temple named Anahita in Iran Aredvi Sura Anahita is Ardwisur Anahid اردویسور آناهید or Nahid ناهید in Middle and Modern Persian and Anahit in Armenian 1 An iconic shrine cult of Aredvi Sura Anahita was together with other shrine cults introduced apparently in the 4th century BCE and lasted until it was suppressed in the wake of an iconoclastic movement under the Sassanids 2 The symbol of goddess Anahita is the Lotus flower Lotus Festival Persian Jashn e Nilupar is an Iranian festival that is held on the sixth day of July Holding this festival at this time was probably based on the blooming of lotus flowers at the beginning of summer Lotus flower is The symbol of goddess Anahita Taq e Bostan high relief of the investiture of Khosrow II r 590 to 628 The king center receives the ring of kingship from Mithra right On the left apparently sanctifying the investiture stands a female figure generally assumed to be Anahita but see remark below The Greek and Roman historians of classical antiquity refer to her either as Anaitis or identified her with one of the divinities from their own pantheons 270 Anahita a silicaceous S type asteroid is named after her Based on the development of her cult she was described as a syncretistic goddess who was composed of two independent elements The first is a manifestation of the Indo Iranian idea of the Heavenly River who provides the waters to the rivers and streams flowing in the earth while the second is that of a goddess of uncertain origin though maintaining her own unique characteristics who became associated with the cult of the ancient Mesopotamian goddess Inanna Ishtar 3 According to one theory this arose partly from a desire to make Anahita part of Zoroastrianism following the diffusion of her cult from the extreme northwest into the rest of Persia 3 According to Herman Lommel the proper name of the divinity in Indo Iranian times was Sarasvati which also means she who possesses waters 4 In Sanskrit the name आर द र व श र अन ह त Ardravi Sura Anahita means of the waters mighty and immaculate Like the Indian Sarasvati Anahita nurtures crops and herds and she is hailed both as a divinity and as the mythical river which she personifies as great in bigness as all these waters which flow forth upon the earth Yasht 5 3 5 Contents 1 Characteristics 1 1 Nomenclature 1 2 Conflation with Ishtar 1 3 Cosmological entity 2 In scripture 3 Inscriptions and classical accounts 3 1 Evidence of a cult 3 2 Parsa Elam and Media 3 3 Asia Minor and the Levant 3 4 Armenia and the Caucasus 4 Legacy 5 In literature 6 See also 7 References 7 1 Notes 7 2 Citation index 7 3 Bibliography 8 Further reading 9 External linksCharacteristics EditNomenclature Edit Only Aredvi a word otherwise unknown perhaps with an original meaning moist is specific to the divinity 1 The words sura and anahita are generic Avestan language adjectives 6 and respectively mean mighty and pure 7 8 Both adjectives also appear as epithets of other divinities or divine concepts such as Haoma 9 and the Fravashis 10 Both adjectives are also attested in Vedic Sanskrit 11 As a divinity of the waters Aban the yazata is of Indo Iranian origin according to Lommel related to Sanskrit Sarasvati that like its Proto Iranian equivalent Harahvati derives from Indo Iranian Saraswṇti 1 12 13 In its old Iranian form Harahvati her name was given to the region rich in rivers whose modern capital is Kabul Avestan Haraxvaiti Old Persian Hara h uvati Greek Arachosia 1 Like the Devi Saraswati Aredvi Sura Anahita nurtures crops and herds and is hailed both as a divinity and the mythical river that she personifies as great in bigness as all these waters which flow forth upon the earth Some historians note that despite Anahita s Aryan roots and the way she represented the commonly shared concept of the Heavenly River which in the Vedas was represented by the goddess Sarasvati the later heavenly Ganga 14 she had no counterpart in the ancient text who bear the same name or one that remotely resembled hers 3 In the Middle Persian texts of the Sassanid and later eras Aredvi Sura Anahita appears as Ardwisur Anahid 1 The evidence suggests a western Iranian origin of Anahita 15 see borrowing from Babylonia below Anahita also shares characteristics with Mat Syra Zemlya Damp Mother Earth of Slavic mythology 16 Conflation with Ishtar Edit At some point prior to the 4th century BCE this yazata was conflated with an analogue of a Semitic Istar 8 likewise a divinity of maiden fertility and from whom Aredvi Sura Anahita then inherited additional features of a divinity of war and of the planet Venus or Zohreh in Arabic It was moreover the association with the planet Venus it seems which led Herodotus to record that the Persis g learnt to sacrifice to the heavenly goddess from the Assyrians and Arabians 17 18 19 There are sources who based their theory on this aspect For instance it was proposed that the ancient Persians worshiped the planet Venus as Anahiti the pure one and that as these people settled in Eastern Iran Anahiti began to absorb elements of the cult of Ishtar 20 Indeed according to Boyce it is probable that there was once a Perso Elamite divinity by the name of Anahiti as reconstructed from the Greek Anaitis 21 It is then likely so Boyce that it was this divinity that was an analogue of Ishtar and that it is this divinity with which Aredvi Sura Anahita was conflated 6 The link between Anahita and Ishtar is part of the wider theory that Iranian kingship had Mesopotamian roots and that the Persian gods were natural extensions of the Babylonian deities where Ahuramazda is considered an aspect of Marduk Mithra for Shamash and finally Anahita was Ishtar 22 This is supported by how Ishtar apparently 23 gave Aredvi Sura Anahita the epithet Banu the Lady a typically Mesopotamian construct 23 that is not attested as an epithet for a divinity in Iran before the common era It is completely unknown in the texts of the Avesta 23 but evident in Sassanid era middle Persian inscriptions see Evidence of a cult below and in a middle Persian Zend translation of Yasna 68 13 24 Also in Zoroastrian texts from the post conquest epoch 651 CE onwards the divinity is referred to as Anahid the Lady Ardwisur the Lady and Ardwisur the Lady of the waters 25 Because the divinity is unattested in any old Western Iranian language 6 establishing characteristics prior to the introduction of Zoroastrianism in Western Iran c 5th century BCE is very much in the realm of speculation Boyce concludes that the Achaemenids devotion to this goddess evidently survived their conversion to Zoroastrianism and they appear to have used royal influence to have her adopted into the Zoroastrian pantheon 26 b According to an alternate theory Anahita was perhaps a daeva of the early and pure Zoroastrian faith incorporated into the Zoroastrian religion and its revised canon during the reign of Artaxerxes I the Constantine of that faith 27 d 28 Cosmological entity Edit The cosmological qualities of the world river are alluded to in Yasht 5 see in the Avesta below but properly developed only in the Bundahishn a Zoroastrian account of creation finished in the 11th or 12th century CE In both texts Aredvi Sura Anahita is not only a divinity but also the source of the world river and the name of the world river itself The cosmological legend runs as follows All the waters of the world created by Ahura Mazda originate from the source Aredvi Sura Anahita the life increasing herd increasing fold increasing who makes prosperity for all countries This source is at the top of the world mountain Hara Berezaiti High Hara around which the sky revolves and that is at the center of Airyanem Vaejah the first of the lands created by Mazda The water warm and clear flows through a hundred thousand golden channels towards Mount Hugar the Lofty one of the daughter peaks of Hara Berezaiti On the summit of that mountain is Lake Urvis the Turmoil into which the waters flow becoming quite purified and exiting through another golden channel Through that channel which is at the height of a thousand men one portion of the great spring Aredvi Sura Anahita drizzles in moisture upon the whole earth where it dispels the dryness of the air and all the creatures of Mazda acquire health from it Another portion runs down to Vourukasha the great sea upon which the earth rests and from which it flows to the seas and oceans of the world and purifies them In the Bundahishn the two halves of the name Ardwisur Anahid are occasionally treated independently of one another that is with Ardwisur as the representative of waters and Anahid identified with the planet Venus The water of the all lakes and seas have their origin with Ardwisur 10 2 10 5 and in contrast in a section dealing with the creation of the stars and planets 5 4 the Bundahishn speaks of Anahid i Abaxtari that is the planet Venus 29 In yet other chapters the text equates the two as in Ardwisur who is Anahid the father and mother of the Waters 3 17 This legend of the river that descends from Mount Hara appears to have remained a part of living observance for many generations A Greek inscription from Roman times found in Asia Minor reads the great goddess Anaitis of high Hara 30 On Greek coins of the imperial epoch she is spoken of as Anaitis of the sacred water 29 In scripture Edit 4th 6th century silver and gilt Sassanian vessel assumed to be depicting Anahita Cleveland Museum of Art Aredvi Sura Anahita is principally addressed in Yasht 5 Yasna 65 also known as the Aban Yasht a hymn to the waters in Avestan and one of the longer and better preserved of the devotional hymns Yasna 65 is the third of the hymns recited at the Ab Zohr the offering to the waters that accompanies the culminating rites of the Yasna service Verses from Yasht 5 also form the greater part of the Aban Nyashes the liturgy to the waters that are a part of the Khordeh Avesta According to Nyberg 31 and supported by Lommel 32 and Widengren 33 the older portions of the Aban Yasht were originally composed at a very early date perhaps not long after the Gathas themselves z Yasna 38 which is dedicated to the earth and the sacred waters and is part of seven chapter Yasna Haptanghaiti is linguistically as old as the Gathas In the Aban Yasht the river yazata is described as the great spring Ardvi Sura Anahita is the life increasing the herd increasing the fold increasing who makes prosperity for all countries 5 1 She is wide flowing and healing efficacious against the daevas devoted to Ahura s lore 5 1 She is associated with fertility purifying the seed of men 5 1 purifying the wombs of women 5 1 encouraging the flow of milk for newborns 5 2 As a river divinity she is responsible for the fertility of the soil and for the growth of crops that nurture both man and beast 5 3 She is a beautiful strong maiden wearing beaver skins 5 3 7 20 129 The association between water and wisdom that is common to many ancient cultures is also evident in the Aban Yasht for here Aredvi Sura is the divinity to whom priests and pupils should pray for insight and knowledge 5 86 In verse 5 120 she is seen to ride a chariot drawn by four horses named wind rain clouds and sleet In newer passages she is described as standing in statuesque stillness ever observed royally attired with a golden embroidered robe wearing a golden crown necklace and earrings golden breast ornament and gold laced ankle boots 5 123 5 126 8 Aredvi Sura Anahita is bountiful to those who please her stern to those who do not and she resides in stately places 5 101 The concept of Aredvi Sura Anahita is to a degree blurred with that of Ashi the Gathic figure of Good Fortune and many of the verses of the Aban Yasht also appear in Yasht 17 Ard Yasht which is dedicated to Ashi So also a description of the weapons bestowed upon worshippers 5 130 and the superiority in battle 5 34 et al These functions appears out of place in a hymn to the waters 1 and may have originally been from Yasht 17 Other verses in Yasht 5 have masculine instead of feminine pronouns and thus again appear to be verses that were originally dedicated to other divinities 34 Boyce also suggests that the new compound divinity of waters with martial characteristics gradually usurped the position of Apam Napat the great warlike water divinity of the Ahuric triad finally causing the latter s place to be lost and his veneration to become limited to the obligatory verses recited at the Ab Zohr There are also parts in the Yasht that show discrepancies in the description of Anahita There was the case for instance of her beaver coat which was described to an audience for whom the Yasht was redacted It was clear that these do not know the animal given the fact that the Eurasian beaver Castor fiber were found in the Caucasus but did not range south of the Caspian Sea nor the rivers and lakes of the Aral Caspian steppe 3 Inscriptions and classical accounts EditEvidence of a cult Edit The earliest dateable and unambiguous reference to the iconic cult of Anahita is from the Babylonian scholar priest Berosus who although writing in 285 BCE over 70 years h after the reign of Artaxerxes II Mnemon 8 records that the emperor had been the first to make cult statues of Aphrodite Anaitis and place them in the temples of many of the empire s major cities including Babylon Susa Ecbatana Bactria Persepolis Damascus and Sardis c1 Also according to Berosus the Persians knew of no images of gods until Artaxerxes II erected those images c1 l This is substantiated by Herodotus whose mid 5th century BCE general remarks on the usages of the Perses Herodotus notes that it is not their custom to make and set up statues and images and altars and those that make such they deem foolish as I suppose because they never believed the gods as do the Greeks to be the likeness of men c23 35 36 As the cult was institutionalized it began to spread widely reaching beyond the borders of Persia taking root in Armenia and Asia Minor 37 The extraordinary innovation of the shrine cults can thus be dated to the late 5th century BCE or very early 4th century BCE even if this evidence is not of the most satisfactory kind 8 Nonetheless by 330 BCE and under Achaemenid royal patronage these cults had been disseminated throughout Asia Minor and the Levant and from there to Armenia 29 The temples also served as an important source of income From the Babylonian kings the Achaemenids had taken over the concept of a mandatory temple tax a one tenth tithe which all inhabitants paid to the temple nearest to their land or other source of income 38 A share of this income called the quppu sa sarri or kings chest an ingenious institution originally introduced by Nabonidus was then turned over to the ruler Nonetheless Artaxerxes close connection with the Anahita temples is almost certainly the chief cause of this king s long lasting fame among Zoroastrians a fame which made it useful propaganda for the succeeding Arsacids to claim him quite spuriously for their ancestor 39 40 Parsa Elam and Media Edit Artaxerxes II s devotion to Anahita is most apparent in his inscriptions where her name appears directly after that of Ahura Mazda and before that of Mithra Artaxerxes inscription at Susa reads By the will of Ahura Mazda Anahita and Mithra I built this palace May Ahura Mazda Anahita and Mithra protect me from all evil A Hc 15 10 This is a remarkable break with tradition no Achaemenid king before him had invoked any but Ahura Mazda alone by name although the Behistun inscription of Darius invokes Ahuramazda and The other gods who are 41 The temple s of Anahita at Ecbatana Hamadan in Media must have once been the most glorious sanctuaries in the known world p c2 Although the palace had been stripped by Alexander and the following Seleucid kings c3 when Antiochus III raided Ecbatana in 209 BCE the temple had the columns round it still gilded and a number of silver tiles were piled up in it while a few gold bricks and a considerable quantity of silver ones remained c4 Polybius reference to Alexander is supported by Arrian who in 324 BCE wrote of a temple in Ecbatana dedicated to Asclepius by inference presumed to be Anahita likewise a divinity of healing destroyed by Alexander because she had allowed his friend Hephaestion to die c5 The massive stone lion on the hill there said to be part of a sepulcral monument to Hephaestion ps is today a symbol that visitors touch in hope of fertility Plutarch records that Artaxerxes II had his concubine Aspasia consecrated as priestess at the temple to Diana of Ecbatana whom they name Anaitis that she might spend the remainder of her days in strict chastity c6 This does not however necessarily imply that chastity was a requirement of Anaitis priestesses n Isidore of Charax in addition to a reference to the temple at Ecbatana a temple sacred to Anaitis they sacrifice there always c2 also notes a temple of Artemis m at Concobar Lower Media today Kangavar Despite archaeological findings that refute a connection with Anahita 42 remains of a 2nd century BCE Hellenic style edifice at Kangavar continue to be a popular tourist attraction Isidore also records another royal place a temple of Artemis founded by Darius at Basileia Apadana on the royal highway along the left bank of the Euphrates c7 43 During the Hellenistic Parthian period Susa had its Dianae templum augustissimum c8 far from Elymais where another temple known to Strabo as the Ta Azara was dedicated to Athena Artemis c9 and where tame lions roamed the grounds This may be a reference to the temple above the Tang a Sarvak ravine in present day Khuzestan Province Other than this no evidence of the cult in Western Iran from the Parthian period survives but it is reasonable to assume that the martial features of Anahita Ishtar assured her popularity in the subsequent centuries among the warrior classes of Parthian feudalism 44 In the 2nd century CE the center of the cult in Parsa Persia proper was at Staxr Istakhr There Anahita continued to be venerated in her martial role and it was at Istakhr that Sassan after whom the Sassanid dynasty is named served as high priest Sassan s son Papak likewise a priest of that temple overthrew the King of Istakhr a vassal of the Arsacids and had himself crowned in his stead By this time the beginning of the 3rd century Anahita s headgear kolah was worn as a mark of nobility which in turn suggests that she was goddess of the feudal warrior estate 44 Ardashir r 226 241 CE would send the heads of the petty kings he defeated for display at her temple 45 During the reign of Bahram I r 272 273 CE in the wake of an iconoclastic movement that had begun at about the same time as the shrine cult movement the sanctuaries dedicated to a specific divinity were by law disassociated from that divinity by removal of the statuary and then either abandoned or converted into fire altars 46 So also the popular shrines to Mehr Mithra which retained the name Darb e Mehr Mithra s Gate that is today one of the Zoroastrian technical terms for a fire temple The temple at Istakhr was likewise converted and according to the Kartir inscription henceforth known as the Fire of Anahid the Lady 47 Sassanid iconoclasm though administratively from the reign of Bahram I may already have been supported by Bahram s father Shapur I r 241 272 CE In an inscription in Middle Persian Parthian and Greek at Ka ba of Zoroaster the Mazdean lord king of kings grandson of lord Papak ShKZ 1 Naqsh e Rustam records that he instituted fires for his daughter and three of his sons His daughter s name Anahid The name of that fire Adur Anahid Naqsh e Rustam investiture of Narseh r 293 302 in which the Sassanian king second from right receives the ring of kingship from Anahita right Notwithstanding the dissolution of the temple cults the triad Ahura Mazda Anahita and Mithra as Artaxerxes II had invoked them would continue to be prominent throughout the Sassanid age and were indeed with Tiri and Verethragna to remain the most popular of all divine beings in Western Iran 48 Moreover the iconoclasm of Bahram I and later kings apparently did not extend to images where they themselves are represented At an investiture scene at Naqsh e Rustam Narseh r 293 302 CE is seen receiving his crown from a female divinity identified as Anahita Narseh like Artaxerxes II was apparently also very devoted to Anahita for in the investiture inscription at Paikuli near Khaniqin in present day Iraq Narseh invokes Ormuzd and all the yazatas and Anahid who is called the Lady 47 The figure of a female on an Achaemenid cylinder seal Anahita has also been identified as a figure in the investiture scene of Khusrow Parvez Khosrau II r 590 628 CE at Taq e Bostan but in this case not quite as convincingly as for the one of Narseh 49 But aside from the two rock carvings at Naqsh e Rustam and Taq e Bostan few figures unquestionably representing the goddess are known 49 The figure of a female on an Achaemenid cylinder seal has been identified as that of Anahita as have a few reliefs from the Parthian era 250 BCE 226 CE two of which are from ossuaries 50 In addition Sassanid silverware depictions of nude or scantily dressed women seen holding a flower or fruit or bird or child are identified as images of Anahita 51 Additionally it has been suggested that the colonnaded or serrated crowns depicted on Sasanian coins belong to Anahid 49 Asia Minor and the Levant Edit The cult flourished in Lydia even as late as the end of the Hellenistic period and early Parthian Empire well into the lifetime of Jesus 23 The Lydians had temples to the divinity at Sardis Philadelphia Hieroaesarea Hypaipa where she was still revered as Artemis Anaitis or Persian Artemis in Classical and Roman times Maeonia and elsewhere 23 the temple at Hierocaesarea reportedly c10 having been founded by Cyrus presumably 52 Cyrus the Younger brother of Artaxerxes II who was satrap of Lydia between 407 and 401 BCE In the 2nd century CE the geographer Pausanias reports having personally witnessed apparently Mazdean ceremonies at Hypaipa and Hierocaesarea c11 According to Strabo Anahita was revered together with Omanos at Zela in Pontus c12 c13 At Castabala she is referred to as Artemis Perasia c14 Anahita and Omanos had common altars in Cappadocia c15 Armenia and the Caucasus Edit Main article Anahit Hellenic influence gave a new impetus to the cult of images and positive evidence for this comes from Armenia then a Zoroastrian land 29 According to Strabo the Armenians shared in the religion of the Perses and the Medes and particularly honored Anaitis c16 The kings of Armenia were steadfast supporters of the cult 43 and Tiridates III before his conversion to Christianity prayed officially to the triad Aramazd Anahit Vahagn but is said to have shown a special devotion to the great lady Anahit the benefactress of the whole human race mother of all knowledge daughter of the great Aramazd 53 According to Agathangelos tradition required the Kings of Armenia to travel once a year to the temple at Eriza Erez in Acilisene in order to celebrate the festival of the divinity Tiridates made this journey in the first year of his reign where he offered sacrifice and wreaths and boughs c27 The temple at Eriza appears to have been particularly famous the wealthiest and most venerable in Armenia c29 staffed with priests and priestesses the latter from eminent families who would serve at the temple before marrying c16 This practice may again reveal Semitic syncretic influences 43 and is not otherwise attested in other areas Pliny reports that Mark Antony s soldiers smashed an enormous statue of the divinity made of solid gold and then divided the pieces amongst themselves c19 Also according to Pliny supported by Dio Cassius Acilisene eventually came to be known as Anaetica c20 c21 Dio Cassius also mentions that another region along the Cyrus River on the borders of Albania and Iberia was also called the land of Anaitis c22 s Anahit was also venerated at Artashat Artaxata the capital of the Armenian Kingdom where her temple was close to that of Tiur f the divinity of oracles At Astishat center of the cult of Vahagn she was revered as voskimayr the golden mother c24 In 69 BCE the soldiers of Lucullus saw cows consecrated to Persian Artemis roaming freely at Tomisa in Sophene on the Euphrates in South West Armenia where the animals bore the brand of a torch on their heads c25 Following Tiridates conversion to Christianity the cult of Anahit was condemned and iconic representations of the divinity were destroyed 43 Attempts have been made to identify Anahita as one of the prime three divinities in Albania but these are questionable However in the territories of the Moschi in Colchis Strabo mentions c26 a cult of Leucothea which Wesendonck and others have identified as an analogue of Anahita 43 The cult of Anahita may have also influenced Ainina and Danina a paired deities of the Caucasian Iberians mentioned by the medieval Georgian chronicles 54 Legacy EditAs a divinity Aredvi Sura Anahita is of enormous significance to the Zoroastrian religion for as a representative of Aban the waters she is in effect the divinity towards whom the Yasna service the primary act of worship is directed see Ab Zohr To this day reverence for water is deeply ingrained in Zoroastrians and in orthodox communities offerings are regularly made to the household well or nearby stream 55 e It is very probable 25 that the shrine of Bibi Shahrbanu at royal Ray Rhagae central Media was once dedicated to Anahita 25 r Similarly one of the most beloved mountain shrines of the Zoroastrians of Yazd set beside a living spring and a great confluence of water courses is devoted to Banu Pars the Lady of Persia 56 57 However and notwithstanding the widespread popularity of Anahita it is doubtful whether the current tendency is justified whereby almost every isolated figure in Sassanid art whether sitting standing dancing clothed or semi naked is hailed as her representation 57 58 The Armenian cult of Anahit as well as the pre Christian Armenian religion in general was very closely connected to Persian Zoroastrianism 59 Some Mandaean exorcism texts invoke the name of Nanai or Nanaia the Semitic form of Anahita pointing to contact between the Mandaeans and the cult of Anahita during the past 60 104 105 In literature EditIn his Life of Johnson James Boswell tells the story of Donald McQueen who believed a building near Dunvegan Castle to be the ruins of a temple to Anahita Samuel Johnson gave no credence to McQueen s beliefs which Johnson said was based purely on phonological similarities of names citation needed In Tad Williams Bobby Dollar Series Anahita is referred to as Anaita a powerful goddess turned angel who acts as one of five members of a judgement collective known as the Ephorate See also EditAb Zohr the Zoroastrian purification of the waters ceremony and the most important act of worship in Zoroastrianism Aban the Waters representing and represented by Aredvi Sura Anahita Airyanem Vaejah first of the mythological lands created by Ahura Mazda and the middle of the world that rests on High Hara Atargatis A Syrian deity also conflated with Ishtar and associated with waters Temple of Anahita Kangavar archaeological site in Kermanshah Province Iran Temple of Anahita Istakhr archaeological site in Fars Province Iran Arachosia name of which derives from Old Iranian Harahvati Avestan Haraxˇaiti Old Persian Hara h uvati Hara Berezaiti High Hara the mythical mountain that is the origin of the Harahvati river Oxus identified 61 as the world river that descends from the mythological High Hara Sarasvati River a manifestation of the goddess Saraswati Minar Firuzabad Qadamgah ancient site Anahit disambiguation References EditNotes Edit a Boyce 1982 29 31 proposes that there was once a Perso Elamite divinity named Anahiti as she reconstructs it from the Greek rendering of Anaitis being otherwise unattested in old Persian 6 that was an analogue of Semitic Ishtar Inanna That the concept of Anahiti owes much to that of Ishtar was first suggested by H Gressman Archiv f Religionswissenschaft XX 1920 35ff 323ff 62 An inheritance from Ishtar is also supported by Cumont 63 and Lommel 64 For a rejection of some of the numerous other identifications Atargatis Anat etc as historically distinct see Meyer 65 b According to Boyce s theory see note a above the problem of how to offer veneration to a divinity unknown to the Avesta was solved by assimilating Anahiti to Harahvaiti Aredvi Sura Anahita whose third epithet was very close to the western divinity s proper name and indeed may already in late Old Persian have become identical with it through the dropping of the final vowel in ordinary speech 26 In antiquity to invoke a deity correctly it was essential to know his proper name and when people worshipped gods other than their own they invoked them by their original names 66 g Persis is Greek for the ethnic group of people from Parsa Persia proper Herodotus was born and raised in Lydia then an Achaemenid satrapy and hence quite aware of the differences between the various ethnic groups Persis Medes etc Herodotus reported on the customs as he observed them in Asia Minor he did not visit Parsa d Although Taqizadeh s hypothesis is not supportable in light of the archaic nature of the Gathic nucleus of Yasht 5 see In the Avesta above it is worth noting that Artaxerxes I r 465 424 BCE moved his capital from Susa to Babylon where it would remain until Artaxerxes II moved it back in 395 BCE Darius II was half Babylonian and died in Babylon Darius s son and successor Artaxerxes II also had a Babylonian mother Parysatis who was immensely influential on both Darius and her sons the other being Cyrus the Younger Widengren has a similar hypothesis but places it in the Proto Avestan period In this opinion 67 Anahita is Nahaithya the Avestan daeva s that Widengren also suggests might be cognate with the Nasatyas e Although one could polemically say Zoroastrians were fire worshippers it would be quite as just and reasonable to call them water worshippers 68 69 z Boyce agrees Linguistically Aredvi Sura s hymn appears older than the Gathic hymn of Asi s 1 It was presumably after Artaxerxes II that verses that describe a temple statue were incorporated in Yasht 5 29 h Berosus account dates to ca 285 BCE Artaxerxes II died in 358 BCE 8 Mnemon is a Greek epithet roughly translatable as the mindful one but is itself a mistranslation of Vohu Manah the Amesha Spenta of Good Mind or Good Purpose 70 l See also Muller s Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum 16m Artemis is one of the Greek identifications of Anahid 29 Isidore of Charax Mansiones Parthicae 1 also speaks of the city of Besechana Piruz sabur Parthian Msyk or Massice by Pliny in which is a temple of Atargatis which Boyce citing Chaumont states is a temple of Anahita at Beonan 43 Atargatis is however a Levantine goddess and although also associated with water and the planet Venus had a cult that is historically distinct from that of Anahita 65 n It is impossible in the absence of contemporary Iranian evidence to know the limits of what is implied here whether that is all priestesses of Anahita were required at this epoch to be chaste for life or only certain among them Celibacy is not in general a state respected by Zoroastrians or regarded by them as meritorious 71 p Ecbatana is said to have greatly exceeded all the other cities in wealth and the magnificence of its buildings Polybius Histories 10 27 5 The citadel supposedly had a circumference of 7 stades ca 1 300 m 1 400 yd and was built of cedar and cypress wood The rafters the compartments of the ceiling and the columns in the porticoes and colonnades were plated with either silver or gold and all the tiles were silver 10 27 10 11 r In 1948 Persian scholar Abd al Husayn Nava i addressed the Shahrbanu legend and suggested that there must have been a Zoroastrian shrine at Ray whose sanctity attracted the legend 72 The shrine which legend attributes to the eldest daughter of Yazdegerd III continues to be a pilgrimage site by women only through a concession by male descendants of Mohammed even in Islamic times 72 Boyce suggests that the shrine may be even older than the Sassanid period dating perhaps to the Hellenistic Parthian era 29 s like Acilisene it was doubtless the territory of a temple dedicated to Anahita but otherwise unknown 43 f According to Boyce Tiur is Mesopotamian Nabu Tiri conflated with Avestan Tishtrya 73 In Hellenic Seleucid and Parthian times Tiur was associated with Pythian Apollo patron of Delphi ps The stone lion of Hamadan is said to have been part of Alexander s plan to build a monument to Hephaestion W Plutarch is relying on older sources probably on the often inaccurate 74 Ctesias Citation index Edit a b c d e f g Boyce 1983b p 1003 Boyce 1975b p 454 a b c d Malandra William 1983 An Introduction to Ancient Iranian Religion Readings from the Avesta and Achaemenid Inscriptions Minneapolis MN University of Minnesota Press pp 119 ISBN 0816611149 Lommel H Anahita Sarasvati Asiatica Festschrift F Weller Leipzig 1954 pp 405 13 Boyce M Anahid Encyclopaedia Iranica a b c d Boyce 1982 p 29 Lommel 1927 p 29 a b c Boyce 1982 p 202 Gray 1926 p 99 Gray 1926 p 133 cf Monier Williams 1898 Lommel 1954 pp 405 413 Boyce 1975a p 71 Heesterman J C Van den Hoek Albert Kolff Dirk Oort M S 1992 Ritual State and History in South Asia Essays in Honour of J C Heesterman Leiden BRILL p 795 ISBN 9004094679 de Jong 1997 p 105 Gimbutas Marija ANCIENT SLAVIC RELIGION A SYNOPSIS In To honor Roman Jakobson essays on the occasion of his 70 birthday 11 October 1966 Berlin Boston De Gruyter Mouton 2018 p 753 https doi org 10 1515 9783111604763 064 Boyce 1982 p 29 Cit c23 Widengren 1965 p 121 Nyberg 1938 p 370 Duchesne Guillemin Jacques Lecog Pierre 1985 Papers in Honour of Professor Mary Boyce Leiden BRILL p 234 ISBN 9789068310023 Boyce 1983b pp 1005 1006 Llewellyn Jones Lloyd 2013 King and Court in Ancient Persia 559 to 331 BCE Edinburgh Edinburgh University Press Ltd p 24 ISBN 9780748641260 a b c d e Boyce 1983b p 1006 Darmesteter 1892 p 419 a b c Boyce 1967 p 37 a b Boyce 1983b pp 1003 1004 Taqizadeh 1938 p 35 Campos 2013 a b c d e f g Boyce 1983b p 1004 Boyce 1975a p 74 Nyberg 1938 p 260 291 438 Lommel 1954 p 406 Widengren 1955 p 48 Boyce 1975a p 73 Boyce 1975b p 456 Boyce 1982 p 179 Shah Umakant 1987 Jaina rupa maṇḍana Volume 1 New Delhi Abhinav Publications pp 261 ISBN 8170172187 Dandamaev amp Lukonin 1989 pp 361 362 Boyce 1982 p 221 Arjomand 1998 p 247 DB 4 59 67 Kleiss 2005 a b c d e f g Boyce 1983b p 1007 a b Arjomand 1998 p 248 Arjomand 1998 p 248 Cit c18 Boyce 1975b p 462 a b Boyce 1967 p 36 Boyce 1982 p 210 a b c Boyce 1983b p 1008 Girshman 1962 fig 120 313 Boyce 1983b p 1008 cit Trever A propos plates XXVII XXIX Boyce 1982 pp 201 202 Boyce 1983b p 1007 Cit Agathangelos 22 Tseretheli 1935 p 55 Boyce 1975a p 155 Boyce 1967 p 38 a b Boyce 1983b p 1005 Jacobs 2006 p 1 Russel J R ARMENIA AND IRAN iii Armenian religion Encyclopaedia Iranica Iranicaonline org retrieved 2014 03 02 Drower E S 1960 The secret Adam a study of Nasoraean gnosis Oxford Clarendon Press Widengren 1965 p 19 Boyce 1982 p 29 n 93 Cumont 1926 pp 474ff Lommel 1927 pp 26 32 a b Meyer 1886 pp 330 334 Bikerman 1938 p 187 Widengren 1965 p 18 Boyce 1975a pp 155 156 Darrow 1988 pp 417 418 Arjomand 1998 pp 246 247 Boyce 1982 p 220 a b Boyce 1967 pp 36 37 Boyce 1982 pp 32 33 Boyce 1982 p 201 c1 Berosus III 65 c2 Isidore of Charax Parthian Stations 6 c3 Polybius Histories 10 27 11 c4 Polybius Histories 10 27 12 c5 Arrian Anabasis of Alexander 7 14 c6 Plutarch Artaxerxes 27 W c7 Isidore of Charax Parthian Stations 1 c8 Pliny Natural History 6 35 c9 Strabo Geographica 16 1 18 c10 Tacitus Annals 3 62 c11 Pausanias Description of Greece 5 27 5 c12 Strabo Geographica 11 8 4 c13 Strabo Geographica 12 3 37 c14 Strabo Geographica 12 2 7 c15 Strabo Geographica XI 8 4 XV 3 15 c16 Strabo Geographica 11 14 16 c17 Agathangelos 22 c18 Tabari Annals 1 819 c19 Pliny Natural History 33 82 83 c20 Pliny Natural History 5 83 c21 Dio Cassius 36 48 1 c22 Dio Cassius 36 53 5 c23 Herodotus Histories i 131 c24 Agathangelos 141 c25 Plutarch Lucullus 24 6 c26 Strabo Geographica 11 2 17 c27 Agathangelos 21 c28 Plutarch Artaxerxes 3 W c29 Cicero Pro Lege Manilia 9 23 Bibliography Edit Arjomand Said Amir 1998 Artaxerxes Ardasir and Bahman Journal of the American Oriental Society 118 2 245 248 doi 10 2307 605896 JSTOR 605896 Bikerman E 1938 Anonymous Gods The Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 1 3 187 196 doi 10 2307 750004 JSTOR 750004 S2CID 244492118 Boyce Mary 1967 Bibi Shahrbanu and the Lady of Pars Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies London University of London 30 1 30 44 doi 10 1017 S0041977X00099080 JSTOR 611813 S2CID 162849583 Boyce Mary 1975a A History of Zoroastrianism Vol I Leiden Koln Brill Boyce Mary 1975b On the Zoroastrian Temple Cult of Fire Journal of the American Oriental Society Ann Arbor AOS UMich Press 95 3 454 465 doi 10 2307 599356 JSTOR 599356 Boyce Mary 1982 A History of Zoroastrianism Vol II Leiden Koln Brill Boyce Mary 1983a Aban Encyclopaedia Iranica vol 1 New York Routledge amp Kegan Paul p 58 Boyce Mary 1983b Anahid Encyclopaedia Iranica vol 1 New York Routledge amp Kegan Paul pp 1003 1009 Campos Israel 2013 Anahita and Mithra in the achaemenid royal inscriptions Anahita Ancient Persian Goddess and Zoroastrian Yazata London Avalonia pp 5 12 Cumont Franz 1926 Anahita in Hastings James ed Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics vol 1 Edinburgh T amp T Clark Dandamaev Muhammad A Lukonin Vladimir G 1989 The Culture and Social Institutions of Ancient Iran New York Cambridge UP ISBN 0 521 32107 7 Darmesteter James 1892 Le Zend Avesta I Annales du Musee Guimet Paris Musee Guimet 21 Darrow William R 1988 Keeping the Waters Dry The Semiotics of Fire and Water in the Zoroastrian Yasna Journal of the American Academy of Religion 56 3 417 442 doi 10 1093 jaarel lvi 3 417 JSTOR 1463964 de Jong Albert 1997 Traditions of the Magi Zoroastrianism in Greek and Latin literature BRILL Girshman Roman 1962 Persian art Parthian and Sassanian dynasties London Golden Press Gray Louis H 1926 A List of the Divine and Demonic Epithets in the Avesta Journal of the American Oriental Society 46 97 153 doi 10 2307 593793 JSTOR 593793 Jacobs Bruno 2006 Anahita PDF Iconography of Deities and Demons in the Ancient Near East Electronic Pre Publication Leiden U Zurich Brill archived from the original PDF on 2007 06 21 Kleiss Wolfram 2005 Kangavar Encyclopaedia Iranica Online vol OT 7 Costa Mesa Mazda Pub Lommel Herman 1927 Die Yasts des Awesta Gottingen Leipzig Vandenhoeck amp Ruprecht JC Hinrichs Lommel Herman 1954 Anahita Sarasvati in Schubert Johannes Schneider Ulrich eds Asiatica Festschrift Friedrich Weller Zum 65 Geburtstag Leipzig Otto Harrassowitz pp 405 413 MacKenzie David Neil 1964 Zoroastrian Astrology in the Bundahisn Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies London University of London 27 3 511 529 doi 10 1017 S0041977X0011835X JSTOR 611388 S2CID 170584936 Meyer Eduard 1886 Anaitis Ausfuhrliches Lexikon der griechischen und romischen Mythologie vol I Leipzig WH Roscher pp 330 334 Monier Williams Monier 1898 A Sanskrit English Dictionary New York OUP Noldecke Theodor ed 1879 Geschichte der Perser und Araber zur Zeit der Sasaniden Leiden Brill repr 1973 Nyberg Henrik Samuel 1938 Die Religionen des alten Iran Leipzig JC Hinrichs Taqizadeh Sayyid Hasan 1938 Old Iranian Calendars Prize Publication Fund Vol 16 London Royal Asiatic Society Tseretheli Michael January 1935 The Asianic Asia Minor elements in national Georgian paganism Georgica 1 1 55 retrieved 7 August 2012 Widengren Geo 1955 Stand und Aufgaben der iranischen Religionsgeschichte II Geschichte der iranischen Religionen und ihre Nachwirkung Numen 2 1 2 47 134 doi 10 2307 3269455 JSTOR 3269455 Widengren Geo 1965 Die Religionen Irans Die Religion der Menschheit Vol 14 Stuttgart Kohlhammer VerlagFurther reading EditKoulabadi Rahele Seyyed Mehdi Mousavi Kouhpar Javad Neyestani and Seyyed Rasool Mousavi Haji 2019 An Overview of Goddess Anahita and Her Iconography in Ancient Iran Central Asiatic Journal 62 2 203 26 doi 10 13173 centasiaj 62 2 0203 a href Template Citation html title Template Citation citation a CS1 maint uses authors parameter link External links Edit Media related to Anahita mythology at Wikimedia Commons Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Anahita amp oldid 1130264518, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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