| Anahita | |
|---|---|
Goddess of Water Guardian of All Water | |
 Gilded silver bowl with the image of Anahita, dated 400–600 AD, housed in the Cleveland Museum of Art. | |
| Other names | Nahid, Aban |
| Avestan | Arəduuī Sūrā Anāhitā 𐬀𐬭𐬆𐬛𐬎𐬎𐬍⸱𐬯𐬏𐬭𐬁⸱𐬀𐬥𐬁𐬵𐬌𐬙𐬀 |
| Affiliation | The Thirty-Three Deities,Guardians of the Days of the Month, The Twelve Deities,Four Elements |
| Abode | The highest part of the sky, next to each River |
| Planet | Venus |
| Symbol | Water |
| Sacred flower | Lotus |
| Attributes | Mother of all Knowledge, Daughter of the Great and PowerfulOhrmazd, Guardian of all the Rivers, Lakes and Seas of the World |
| Day | 10th of each month in theIranian calendar,Friday of each week |
| Gender | Female |
| Festivals | Abangān |
| Associated deities | Tishtrya,Haurvatat,Apam Napat |
| Equivalents | |
| Greek | Aphrodite |
| Roman | Venus |
| Elamite | Pinikir |
| Indian | Saraswati |
| Sumerian | Inanna |
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| Zoroastrianism |
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Anahita/ɑːnəˈhiːtə/ is theOld Persian form of the name of anIranian goddess and appears in complete and earlier form asAradvi Sura Anahita (Arədvī Sūrā Anāhitā), theAvestan name of anIndo-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 isArdwisur Anahid (اردویسور آناهید) inMiddle andModern Persian, andAnahit inArmenian.[1] An iconic shrine sects of Aredvi Sura Anahita was, together with other shrine sects, "introduced apparently in the 4th century BCE and lasted until it was suppressed in the wake of aniconoclastic movement under theSasanids."[2] The symbol of goddess Anahita is theLotus flower. Lotus Festival (Persian: Jashn-e Nilupar) is an Iranian festival that is held on the end of the first week of July. Holding this festival at this time was probably based on the blooming of lotus flowers at the beginning of summer.
The Greek and Roman historians ofclassical antiquity either refer to her asAnaïtis or identify her with one of the divinities from their own pantheons.[which?]270 Anahita, a silicaceousS-type asteroid, is named after her. Based on the development of her sect, she was described as asyncretistic goddess, who was composed of two independent elements. The first is a manifestation of theIndo-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 sect of the ancientMesopotamian goddessInanna-Ishtar.[3] According to one theory, this arose partly from a desire to make Anahita part ofZoroastrianism following the diffusion of her sect from the extreme northwest into the rest of Persia.[3]
According toHerman Lommel, the proper name of the divinity in Indo-Iranian times wasSarasvatī, which also means "she who possesses waters".[4] InAvestan, the name𐬀𐬭𐬆𐬛𐬎𐬎𐬍⸱𐬯𐬏𐬭𐬁⸱𐬀𐬥𐬁𐬵𐬌𐬙𐬀 (Arəduuī Sūrā 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]
OnlyArədvī (a word otherwise unknown, perhaps with an original meaning "moist") is specific to the divinity.[1] The wordssūra andanāhīta are genericAvestan language adjectives,[6] and respectively mean "mighty" and "pure".[7][8] Both adjectives also appear as epithets of other divinities or divine concepts such asHaoma[9] and theFravashis.[10] Both adjectives are also attested inVedic Sanskrit.[11]
As a divinity of the waters (Abān), theyazata is ofIndo-Iranian origin, according to Lommel related to SanskritSarasvatī that, like its Proto-Iranian equivalent*Harahwatī, derives from Indo-Iranian*Saraswatī.[1][12][13] In its old Iranian form*Harahwatī, "her name was given to the region, rich in rivers, whose modern capital isKabul (AvestanHaraxvaitī, Old PersianHara(h)uvati-, GreekArachosia)."[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 goddessSarasvatī (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 Sasanid and later eras,Arədvī Sūra Anāhīta appears asArdwisur Anāhīd.[1] The evidence suggests a western Iranian origin ofAnāhīta.[15] (seeborrowing from Babylonia, below).
At some point prior to the 4th century BCE, thisyazata was conflated with (an analogue of)[α]SemiticIštar,[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 planetVenus or "Zohreh" inArabic. It was moreover the association with the planet Venus, "it seems, which ledHerodotus to record that the [Persis][γ] learnt 'to sacrifice to "the heavenly goddess"' from the Assyrians and Arabians."[16][17][18] 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.[19] Indeed, according to Boyce, it is "probable" that there was once aPerso–Elamite divinity by the name of*Anahiti (as reconstructed from the GreekAnaitis).[20] 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 hadMesopotamian roots and that the Persian gods were natural extensions of the Babylonian deities, where Ahuramazda is considered an aspect ofMarduk, Mithra forShamash, and, finally, Anahita was Ishtar.[21] This is supported by how Ishtar "apparently"[22] gave Aredvi Sura Anahita the epithetBanu, 'the Lady', a typically Mesopotamian construct[22] that is not attested as an epithet for a divinity in Iran before the common era. It is completely unknown in the texts of theAvesta,[22] but evident in Sasanid-eramiddle Persian inscriptions (seeEvidence of a cult, below) and in a middle PersianZend translation ofYasna 68.13.[23] 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'.[24]
Because the divinity is unattested in any oldWestern 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."[25][β] According to an alternate theory, Anahita was perhaps "adaeva 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."[26][δ][27]
The cosmological qualities of the world river are alluded to inYasht 5 (seein the Avesta, below), but properly developed only in theBundahishn, 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 byAhura 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 mountainHara Berezaiti, "High Hara", around which the sky revolves and that is at the center ofAiryanem 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), theBundahishn speaks of 'Anahid i Abaxtari', that is, the planet Venus.[28] In yet other chapters, the text equates the two, as in "Ardwisur who is Anahid, the father and mother ofthe 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".[29] On Greek coins of the imperial epoch, she is spoken of as "Anaïtis of thesacred water".[28]
Aredvi Sura Anahita is principally addressed inYasht 5 (Yasna 65), also known as theAban 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 theAb-Zohr, the "offering to the waters" that accompanies the culminating rites of the Yasna service. Verses fromYasht 5 also form the greater part of theAban Nyashes, the liturgy to the waters that are a part of theKhordeh Avesta.
According to Nyberg[30] and supported by Lommel[31] and Widengren,[32] the older portions of theAban Yasht were originally composed at a very early date, perhaps not long after theGathas themselves.[ζ]Yasna 38, which is dedicated "to the earth and the sacred waters" and is part of seven-chapterYasna Haptanghāiti, is linguistically as old as the Gathas.
In theAban Yasht, the riveryazata 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 thedaevas", "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 theAban 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 byfour 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 ofAshi, theGathic figure of Good Fortune, and many of the verses of theAban Yasht also appear inYasht 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 fromYasht 17.
Other verses inYasht 5 have masculine instead of feminine pronouns, and thus again appear to be verses that were originally dedicated to other divinities.[33] Boyce also suggests that the new compound divinity of waters with martial characteristics gradually usurped the position ofApam Napat, the great warlike water divinity of theAhuric triad, finally causing the latter's place to be lost and his veneration to become limited to the obligatory verses recited at theAb-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 theEurasian beaver (Castor fiber) were found in the Caucasus but did not range south of theCaspian Sea nor the rivers and lakes of theAral-Caspian steppe.[3]
The earliest dateable and unambiguous reference to the iconic cult of Anahita is from the Babylonian scholar-priestBerosus, who – although writing in 285 BCE, over 70 years[η] after the reign ofArtaxerxes 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, includingBabylon,Susa,Ecbatana,Bactria,Persepolis,Damascus andSardis.[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][34][35] As the cult was institutionalized, it began to spread widely, reaching beyond the borders of Persia taking root inArmenia andAsia Minor.[36]
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 throughoutAsia Minor and theLevant, and from there toArmenia.[28] 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.[37] A share of this income called thequppu ša šarri or "kings chest" – an ingenious institution originally introduced byNabonidus – 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 succeedingArsacids to claim him (quite spuriously) for their ancestor."[38][39]
Artaxerxes II's devotion to Anahita is most apparent in his inscriptions, where her name appears directly after that ofAhura Mazda and before that ofMithra. Artaxerxes' inscription atSusa 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".[40]
The temple(s) of Anahita atEcbatana (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] whenAntiochus 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 byArrian, 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 byAlexander because she had allowed his friendHephaestion to die.[c5] The massive stone lion on the hill there (said to be part of a sepulchral 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, todayKangavar). Despite archaeological findings that refute a connection with Anahita,[41] 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 byDarius" at Basileia (Apadana), on the royal highway along the left bank of theEuphrates.[c7][42]
During the Hellenistic Parthian period,Susa had its "Dianae templum augustissimum"[c8] far fromElymais 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-dayKhuzestan 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 ofParthian feudalism."[43]
In the 2nd century CE, the center of the cult inParsa (Persia proper) was atStaxr (Istakhr). There, Anahita continued to be venerated in her martial role and it was at Istakhr thatSasan, after whom the Sasanid dynasty is named, served as high priest. Sasan's son, Papak, likewise a priest of that temple, overthrew the King of Istakhr (a vassal of theArsacids), 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."[43]Ardashir (r. 226-241 CE) "would send the heads of the petty kings he defeated for display at her temple."[44]
During the reign ofBahram 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.[45] So also the popular shrines to Mehr/Mithra which retained the nameDarb-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 theKartir inscription, henceforth known as the "Fire of Anahid the Lady."[46] Sasanid 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 atKa'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.
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 Sasanid age, "and were indeed (withTiri andVerethragna) to remain the most popular of all divine beings in Western Iran."[47] Moreover, the iconoclasm of Bahram I and later kings apparently did not extend to images where they themselves are represented. At an investiture scene atNaqsh-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 (nearKhaniqin, in present-day Iraq), Narseh invokes "Ormuzd and all theyazatas, and Anahid who is called the Lady."[46]
Anahita has also been identified as a figure in the investiture scene ofKhusrow Parvez (Khosrau II,r. 590-628 CE) atTaq-e Bostan, but in this case not quite as convincingly as for the one of Narseh.[48] But, aside from the two rock carvings at Naqsh-e Rustam and Taq-e Bostan, "few figures unquestionably representing the goddess are known."[48] The figure of a female on an Achaemenid cylinder seal has been identified as that of Anahita, as have a few reliefs from theParthian era (250 BCE-226 CE), two of which are from ossuaries.[49]
In addition, Sasanid silverware depictions of nude or scantily dressed women seen holding a flower or fruit or bird or child are identified as images of Anahita.[50] Additionally, "it has been suggested that the colonnaded or serrated crowns [depicted] on Sasanian coins belong to Anahid."[48]
The cult flourished inLydia even as late as the end of theHellenistic period and earlyParthian Empire, well into the lifetime ofJesus.[22] The Lydians had temples to the divinity atSardis,Philadelphia,Hierocaesarea,Hypaipa (where she was still revered asArtemis Anaitis or Persian Artemis in Classical and Roman times),Maeonia and elsewhere;[22] the temple at Hierocaesarea reportedly[c10] having been founded by "Cyrus" (presumably[51]Cyrus the Younger, brother ofArtaxerxes II, who wassatrap of Lydia between 407 and 401 BCE).
In the 2nd century CE, the geographerPausanias reports having personally witnessed (apparently Mazdean) ceremonies at Hypaipa and Hierocaesarea.[c11] According toStrabo, Anahita was revered together withOmanos atZela inPontus.[c12][c13] At Castabala, she is referred to as 'Artemis Perasia'.[c14] Anahita and Omanos had common altars inCappadocia.[c15]
"Hellenic influence [gave] a new impetus to the cult of images [and] positive evidence for this comes from Armenia, then a Zoroastrian land."[28]According to Strabo, the "Armenians shared in the religion of the Perses and the Medes and particularly honored Anaitis".[c16] The kings ofArmenia were "steadfast supporters of the cult"[42] andTiridates III, before his conversion to Christianity, "prayed officially to the triadAramazd-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'".[52] According toAgathangelos, tradition required the Kings of Armenia to travel once a year to the temple at Eriza (Erez) inAcilisene 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,[42] and is not otherwise attested in other areas.Pliny reports thatMark 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 byDio 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 ofAlbania andIberia, 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 ofVahagn, she was revered asvoskimayr, the 'golden mother'.[c24] In 69 BCE, the soldiers ofLucullus saw cows consecrated to 'Persian Artemis' roaming freely at Tomisa inSophene (on theEuphrates 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.[42]
Attempts have been made to identify Anahita as one of the prime three divinities inAlbania, but these are questionable. However, in the territories of theMoschi inColchis, Strabo mentions[c26] a cult ofLeucothea, which Wesendonck and others have identified as an analogue of Anahita.[42] The cult of Anahita may have also influencedAinina and Danina, a paired deities of theCaucasian Iberians mentioned by the medieval Georgian chronicles.[53]
As a divinity Aredvi Sura Anahita is of enormous significance to theZoroastrian religion, for as a representative ofAban ("the waters"), she is in effect the divinity towards whom theYasna service – the primary act of worship – is directed. (seeAb-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."[54][ε]
It is "very probable"[24] thatthe shrine of Bibi Shahrbanu at royalRay (Rhagae, central Media) was once dedicated to Anahita.[24][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"."[55][56]
However, and notwithstanding the widespread popularity of Anahita, "it is doubtful whether the current tendency is justified whereby almost every isolated figure in Sasanid art, whether sitting, standing, dancing, clothed, or semi-naked, is hailed as her representation."[56][57]
The Armenian cult ofAnahit, as well as the pre-Christian Armenian religion in general, was very closely connected to Persian Zoroastrianism.[58]
In hisLife of Johnson,James Boswell tells the story of Donald McQueen, who believed a building nearDunvegan 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.
| 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 SemiticIshtar–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."[60] An inheritance from Ishtar is also supported by Cumont[61] and Lommel.[62] For a rejection of some of the numerous other identifications (Atargatis,Anat, etc.) as historically distinct, see Meyer.[63] |
| 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."[25] 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."[64] |
| γ | ^ | Persis is Greek for the ethnic group of people fromParsa (Persia proper). Herodotus, was born and raised inLydia (then an Achaemenidsatrapy) 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 ofYasht 5 (seeIn the Avesta, above), it is worth noting thatArtaxerxes I (r. 465-424 BCE) moved his capital fromSusa toBabylon, where it would remain untilArtaxerxes 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 beingCyrus the Younger). Widengren has a similar hypothesis, but places it in the Proto-Avestan period. In this opinion,[65] Anahita isNahaithya, the Avestandaeva(s) that Widengren also suggests might be cognate with theNasatyas. |
| ε | ^ | Although one could (polemically) say Zoroastrians were fire worshippers, it would be quite as just and reasonable to call them water worshippers.[66][67] |
| 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 inYasht 5.[28] |
| η | ^ | Berosus' account dates toca. 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 ofVohu Manah, theAmesha Spenta of 'Good Mind' or 'Good Purpose'.[68] |
| λ | ^ | See also:Müller'sFragmenta Historicorum Graecorum, 16 |
| μ | ^ | "Artemis [is] one of the Greek identifications of Anahid."[28]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.[42]Atargatis is however aLevantine goddess and, although also associated with water and the planet Venus, had a cult that is historically distinct from that of Anahita.[63] |
| 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."[69] |
| 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 7stades (ca. 1,300 m; 1,400yd) 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 atRay whose sanctity attracted the legend.[70] The shrine, which legend attributes to the eldest daughter ofYazdegerd III, continues to be a pilgrimage site (by women only, through a concession by male descendants of Mohammed) even in Islamic times.[70] Boyce suggests that the shrine may be even older than the Sasanid period, dating perhaps to the Hellenistic Parthian era.[28] |
| σ | ^ | "like Acilisene, it was doubtless the territory of a temple dedicated to Anahita but otherwise unknown."[42] |
| φ | ^ | According to Boyce, Tiur is Mesopotamian Nabu-*Tiri conflated with Avestan Tishtrya.[71] In Hellenic (Seleucid andParthian) times Tiur was associated withPythianApollo, patron ofDelphi. |
| ψ | ^ | The stone lion ofHamadan is said to have been part ofAlexander's plan to build a monument toHephaestion. |
| Ω | ^^ | Plutarch is relying on older sources, probably on "the often inaccurate"[72]Ctesias. |
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