Anahita
Anahita is the Avestan name of a Zoroastrian Iranian goddess ( Yazata , "venerable") of water and at the same time of fertility and the deification of the "world river" that feeds the cosmic ocean.
origin of the name
In the liturgy of Avestas , her full name is "Ardvi Sura Anahita". The word “Ardvi” does not appear in Avestan and has to be interpreted as a proper name. Etymologically reconstructed it could mean “damp”. In contrast, “Sura” (“mighty” or “heroic”) and “Anahita” ( an-ahita “not defiled ”, “ unsullied ” or “not unclean”) are common adjectives and appear as such in connection with other Yazatas . In the tradition it appears accordingly as "Ardwisur Anahid" ( Middle Persian ), "Ardwisur Nahid", just "Ardwisur" or as "(A) Nahid". The latter also remains the general New Persian form and is a female given name among both Zoroastrians and the various non-Zoroastrian Iranian peoples .
properties
Water (in all aggregate states, Avestian: apo , Middle Persian / Neo Persian ab ) has an extraordinarily high rank in the Zoroastrian belief, equated with that of fire. There are a total of five Zoroastrian Yazatas (including all three Ahuras ) that are directly associated with water. As a representative of the “world river”, Anahita is of particular importance, not least because she is most closely connected with wisdom ( Mazda ). This association is a characteristic of both river goddesses of Indo-Iranian sacred literature, i.e. the Zoroastrian-Iranian Ardvi Sura Anahita and the Vedic- Indian Sarasvati .
In the Aban Yasht des Avestas, Anahita - corresponding to the connection between water and fertility - is described as the protector of the semen, the uterus , motherhood and breast milk. In anthropomorphic form, Anahita appears as a beautiful young girl wearing gold and a star crown. Your chariot is pulled by four horses, which are the wind, the clouds, the rain and the sleet.
The liturgy also gives Anahita martial qualities, literally the same as the figure of Ashi in Iranian mythology (“luck”, “generosity”), and she is invoked in the battle for assistance. According Aban Yasht already the mythical king was doing Haoshyangha Paradata (New Persian Huschang of the dynasty of Pishdadian as in Shahnameh Firdausi ) on Mount Hara a prayer to Anahita and asked her for success and support. She is also considered the protector of herds, fields and cave dwellers.
Development of the cult
The Achaemenid great king Artaxerxes II asks the deities Ahura Mazda , Anahita and Mithra for protection in his inscription on Susa . As a result of the adoption of Anahita as his patron saint (until the 19th century it was common for people, families and professions to choose a patron saint), Anahita held an extremely high position. During the reign of the great king, which lasted almost forty years, an Anahita cult developed with a large following. Several centuries later, the Arsacids imitated the customs of Artaxerxes. To cement their claim to rule, the Arsacids claimed to be descended from Artaxerxes II and adopted not only his name but also his customs. Accordingly, they maintained an special position for Anahita.
In the course of the Arsakid rule in Armenia , where the internal consistency of the Iranian pantheon and its mythological network played a subordinate role, Anahita gradually developed into a significantly more independent deity and here as mother goddess Anahit in the triumvirate with Aramazd ( Armenian / Parthian for Ahura Mazda ) and Vahagn-Vram (Armenian / Parthian for Verethragna ) to the patron saint of the entire state. Sacred promiscuity is said to have belonged to this Armenian form of cult .
Through syncretic influences from the Mesopotamian Ishtar as well as during the era of the Hellenistic-influenced Seleucids and Arsacids with Aphrodite - Venus , Anahita took on properties that are not known from the older Iranian sources. Especially after Xerxes I had stopped the worship of Mesopotamian deities, aspects of the war and love goddess Ishtar passed to Anahita. (Something similar happened e.g. for Zeus / Jupiter -Ahura Mazda, Hades / Pluto - Angra Mainyu , Apollon - Mithras , Hercules / Mars - Verethragna etc.) In the course of such influences, Anahita was identified with the planet Venus , and in Iran the heavenly body got its name. The old Iranian name of the planet Venus was Mithra, as it is also documented in ancient Greek texts and to this day in some new Iranian dialects. This also changed in the Hellenistic era when the figure of Mithras merged with Apollo, the Greek god of light, and Shamash , the Babylonian sun god. As a result, the ancient Iranian sun god Hvare Xšaēta, New Persian Chorschid, lost his role. In the Middle Persian language Mithra and the sun were then designated with the word Mihr , the light with the related word Mehr .
The rulers of the late pre-Islamic dynasty of the Sassanids were themselves Zoroastrian priests in Istachr before their rise to power , and some of them still exercised this priestly function as great kings. During this time Anahita was identified with Artemis by the Hellenes ; occasionally she was also referred to as Aphrodite Anaïtis .
The ninth day and the eighth month of the year are dedicated to water in the Zoroastrian calendar and are under its protection. Accordingly, Anahita continues to be celebrated by Zoroastrians on the name day of the water, especially on Abanagan, the ninth day of the eighth month. In Zoroastrianism, the ritual cleansing and “giving of water” ( Ab-Zohr or Ape-Zaothra ) are celebrated with the recitation of “Aban Yasht”. As "Aban" the water is also the name of the eighth month of the Iranian civil calendar from 1925.
Places of worship
Polybios mentions an Anahita sanctuary in Ekbatana . A temple in the palace complex of Bishapur may also have served as the place of worship of the deity . It is more than questionable whether the monument of Kangavar , which is often referred to as the Temple of Anahita, actually fulfilled this function. As a characteristic of an Anahita sanctuary, a never-ending source can actually be assumed. It is widely assumed that temple prostitution took place in Anhita shrines, although there are no reports of priestesses from the time of the Achaemenids.
literature
- M. Boyce , M. Chaumont, C. Bier: Anāhīd . In: Encyclopaedia Iranica. Volume 1. Routledge & Kegan Paul, New York 1983, pp. 1001-1013.
- Bruno Jacobs : Anahita ( Memento of September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 96 kB). In: Iconography of Deities and Demons in the Ancient Near East. (Electronic Pre-Publication), Brill, Leiden 2006.
- Joe Heydecker : The Sisters of Venus. The woman in myths and religions. Heyne, Munich 1994.
- Vesta Sarkhosh Curtis: Persian Myths. Philipp Reclam jun., Stuttgart 1994.
- Geo Widengren : The deities of the third function: Anāhitā. In: Iranian Spiritual World. Holle Verlag, Baden-Baden 1961, pp. 129-131
- Sahand Zimmermann: Anahita. Lapis lazuli and turquoise. Glaré, Frankfurt 2006, ISBN 978-3-930761-49-4 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Information on the illustration: Zoroastrians - Their Religious Beliefs and Practices. Mary Boyce. Routledge London & New York, 2008.
- ↑ Information on the illustration: Sasanian Persia - The Rise and Fall of an Empire. Touraj Daryaee. IB Tauris & Co. Ltd. New York, 2009.
- ^ A Concise Pahlavi Dictionary. DN MacKenzie. Routledge Curzon, 2005.
- ↑ For this confusion, see Friedrich Heinrich Hugo Windischmann: The Persian Anahita or Anaïtis: a contribution to the history of myths in the Orient. Munich 1856, p. 127.
- ↑ Sina Vodjani and Gabriele von Kröcher: Zarathustra. Membran International, Hamburg 2006, ISBN 978-3-86562-739-1 , pp. 88-91.
- ↑ This is what it is called in numerous travel and art guides, see z. B. Mahmoud Rashad: Iran , 6th edition, Ostfildern 2011.
- ↑ Maria Brosius: Temple prostitution in ancient Persia? In: Tanja Scheer with the collaboration of Martin Lindner (ed.): Temple prostitution in antiquity: facts and fictions. Berlin 2007, p. 126 ff., In particular p. 143 ff.