Anahita

The Aban Yasht

Yasht 5 is Anahita's hymn. Ahura Mazda commands sacrifice to 'this spring of mine', a river as large as all the waters on earth that runs from the height Hukairya down to the sea Vouru-Kasha, and from which all the waters of the seven regions of the world flow. She purifies the seed of males and the wombs of females and brings safe birth and milk. The hymn then catalogs heroes and villains who sacrificed to her, granting the prayers of the righteous and refusing the wicked, and it ends with a vivid description of her as a tall, strong maiden in a golden mantle, with golden earrings, a crown of stars, and robes of beaver skins.

A royal goddess

Artaxerxes II (r. 404-358 BCE) names Anahita with Ahuramazda and Mithra in his inscriptions, and the Babylonian priest Berossus, quoted by later Greek authors, says that he set up statues of 'Aphrodite Anaitis' in cities across the empire, an innovation in a religion that had not used cult images. Under the Sasanians, the dynasty's ancestor Sasan was remembered as the custodian of a fire temple of Anahid at Istakhr, and Sasanian kings honored her.

Name and identifications

The name combines several epithets: aredvi ('moist' or 'high'), sura ('strong'), and anahita ('undefiled'). Scholars have long compared the heavenly river with the Vedic river-goddess Sarasvati, whose name is cognate with the Iranian region Harahvaiti, and Greek writers equated Anahita with Artemis or Aphrodite.