admin Anahita is the Old Persian form of the name of an Iranian goddess and appears in full form, before “Aredvi Sura Anahita”, the Avestan name of an Indo-Iranian cosmological figure worshiped as the god of “waters” (Aban) and thus associated with fertility, healing and wisdom.
Ancient Greek and Roman historians called her “Anaitis” or identified her with one of the gods in their own pantheon. Based on the development of her cult, she is described as a syncretistic goddess, consisting of two independent elements. The first is an expression of the Indo-Iranian idea of a heavenly river providing water to the rivers and streams that flow through the earth, while the second is of a goddess of uncertain origin, while retaining Because of its unique characteristics, it became associated with the cult of the ancient Mesopotamian goddess Inanna-Ishtar. One theory is that this partly stemmed from a desire to incorporate Anahita into Zoroastrianism after her cult spread from the far northwest to the rest of Persia.
According to H. Lommel, the proper name of the divinity in Indo-Iranian times was Sarasvatī, which also means “she who possesses waters”. 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).
Conflation With Ishtar
Venus or “Zohreh” in Arabic. Furthermore,“itseemstohavebeen the association with the planet Venusthat led Herodotus to report that [Persis] learned“to sacrifice to the‘celestialgoddess’” from the Assyrians and Arabs. There are sources thatbase their theories on this aspect. For example, it hasbeen proposed that the ancient Persians worshiped the planet Venus as *Anahiti, “purity” and thatwhen these people settled in easternIranin, *Anahiti began to absorb theelement of the cult of Ishtar. Indeed, according to Boyce, “theremayhave”been a Perso-Elamitegodnamed *Anahiti (reconstructed from the Greek Anaitis).It is then possible(Boyce)thatthissamegodwassimilartoIshtar,and that it was this god that confused Aredvi Sura Anahita.
The connection between Anahita and Ishtar is part of abroader theory that Iranian kingship wasof Mesopotamian origin and that the Persian gods were natural extensions of the Babylonian gods,ofwhom Ahuramazda was considered an aspect of Marduk, Mithrassymbolizes Shamash, andfinally Anahita is Ishtar. This is supported by how Ishtar “apparently” gave Aredvi Sura Anahita the title Banu, “Lady”, a typical Mesopotamian construction not attested as representing a deity in Iran B.C. It is completely unknown in the Avestatexts, but isclearlyrepresented in Middle Persian inscriptions fromtheSasanianperiod (see Evidence of a Cult, below) and in Persian translations.FromYasna’sMedieval Zend 68.13.Also in Zoroastrian texts of the post-conquest period(from651CE),thisdeity is called”LadyAnahid”,”LadyArdwisur” and “Lady of Ardwisur”.
Because the divinity is unattested in any old Western Iranian language, 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.” 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.”
