{"id":91972,"date":"2021-01-14T09:03:12","date_gmt":"2021-01-14T14:03:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/?p=91972"},"modified":"2021-04-30T06:45:00","modified_gmt":"2021-04-30T11:45:00","slug":"auto-draft-432","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/2021\/01\/14\/auto-draft-432\/","title":{"rendered":"AN\u0100H\u012aD: The Cult and Its Diffusion"},"content":{"rendered":"

M. L. Chaumont\u00a0<\/strong>
\nEncyclopedia Iranica, December 15, 1989<\/strong><\/p>\n

Although the Greeks sometimes assimilated An\u0101hit\u0101 to Aphrodite or Athena, they most often viewed her as the Persian Artemis. She is not named in the Elamite texts found at Persepolis and dating from the reigns of Darius I and Xerxes. In 405 B.C., the year of the accession of Artaxerxes II Mnemon, there was a temple at Pasargadae in Persis dedicated to a warrior goddess who, according to Plutarch, could be compared with Athena; no doubt it was a temple of An\u0101hit\u0101 in one of her most important aspects. The fact that Artaxerxes II Mnemon (404-359 B.C.) received consecration in the kingship at this temple after he had donned the robe of Cyrus (Plutarch, loc. cit.), suggests that the Achaemenid monarchy had close links with An\u0101hit\u0101, especially in her war-goddess aspect. Moreover, Mnemon was the first Achaemenid to insert the names of An\u0101hit\u0101 and Mithra, after that of Ahura Mazd\u0101, in official documents. According to a passage from the Chaldaica of Berosus conserved by Clement of Alexandria, the same king caused statues of \u201cAphrodite Anaitis\u201d to be erected in major cities of his empire such as Babylon, Susa, Ecbatana, Persepolis, Bactra, Damascus, and Sardis. Plutarch also states that Artaxerxes Mnemon piously made his concubine Aspasia become a priestess of \u201cArtemis whom they call Anaitis.\u201d It was probably in his reign that the An\u0101hit\u0101 cult began to gain ground in Asia Minor and Syria before spreading to Armenia.<\/p>\n

The cult long flourished in Lydia, which had temples of the Persian Artemis at Sardis, Philadelphia, Hierocaesarea, Hypaipa, Maeonia, and elsewhere; the temple at Hierocaesarea had reputedly been founded by Cyrus. From the 2nd century A.D. there is an account of the ceremonies performed in accordance with ancient Mazdaean ritual at Hypaipa and Hierocaesarea, as personally witnessed by the geographer Pausanias. At Zela in Pontus the goddess was venerated together with two associate gods, Omanos and Anadates; in Cappadocia, likewise she and Omanos had common altars. At Castabala she was named Artemis Perasia. In connection with the cult of Artemis\/Ana\u00eftis, Hellenic-style games were held at places such as the Anaeiteia at Philadelphia, the Artemisia at Hypaipa, and the Sakaia at Zela. The fact that bulls were the animals sacrificed to Ana\u00eftis probably explains why in Lydia, Cappadocia, and Armenia she was assimilated to Artemis Tauropola or Taurica. It was through this channel that the taurobolium (bull-sacrifice ritual) spread to Europe.<\/p>\n

The Armenians, according to Strabo, shared in the religion of the Persians and the Medes and particularly honored Ana\u00eftis. From the 1st century A.D. onward, a temple of this goddess at Eriza (Erez) in Acilisene enjoyed great fame; an unverifiable tradition ascribed its foundation to Tigranes the Great. This holy place, \u201cthe wealthiest and most venerable in Armenia\u201d, was staffed with priests and priestesses; daughters of the most eminent families were required to serve as prostitutes in it before marrying, an element likely borrowed from the Semitic religious practices. Ana\u00eftis was worshipped at Eriza in the guise of a huge gold image. In 34 B.C. (rather than 36 B.C.) this idol was taken away by Mark Antony\u2019s soldiers who smashed it and shared the fragments among themselves. Acilisene, being the cult\u2019s main center in Armenia, came to be known as Anaetica, i.e., the land of Ana\u00eftis. Another region lying on the Cyrus river, near the borders of Iberia and Albania, was also called \u201cthe land of Anaitis\u201d, like Acilisene, it was doubtless the territory of a temple dedicated to An\u0101hit\u0101 but otherwise unknown.<\/p>\n

The kings of Armenia were steadfast supporters of the cult at Eriza, which seems to have been closely associated with the national monarchy. 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 \u201cthe great lady Anahit . . . the benefactress of the whole human race, mother of all knowledge, daughter of the great Aramazd\u201d. According to Greek version of the Book of Agathangelos, tradition required the kings to travel annually to Eriza on the occasion of the goddess\u2019s festival.<\/p>\n

Tiridates accordingly made this pilgrimage and offered sacrifices as well as wreaths and boughs to An\u0101h\u012bd (Anahit) in the first year of his reign. An\u0101h\u012bd was also worshiped at the capital, Artashat (Artaxata), at Astishat, in Taron (south of Armenia) and at many other places. At Artashat, her temple was close to that of Tiur (T\u012br), the oracular god assimilated to Apollo. At Ashtishat, one of the main centers of Armenian paganism associated with the god Vahagn (Verethragna) and the goddess Astlik, she was worshiped in the guise of a golden idol apparently known as oskimayr \u201cthe golden mother\u201d. Another center of An\u0101hit\u0101\u2019s worship was the city of Tomisa on the Euphrates in Sophene (south-west Armenia) on the Cappadocian frontier. In 69 B.C., the soldiers of Lucullus could see in the territory of Tomisa plenty of sacrificial cows roaming around freely, which were consecrated to Persia Artemis and bore on the head the brand of her in the shape of a torch (Plutarch Lucullus 24.6). After the conversion of Tiridates, the images of Anahit throughout Armenia were smashed.<\/p>\n

Regarding the Caucasian countries adjacent to Armenia, Strabo states that there was a temple dedicated to Leucothea, obviously, an analogue of the Iranian goddess in the land of the Moschi in Colchis. The legendary and late-dated Life of the Apostle St. Andrew mentions a cult of Apollo and Artemis, that is, Mithra and An\u0101hit\u0101, in the same region. On the other hand, there is no evidence of An\u0101hit\u0101 worship in Iberia, a country that had close ties with Armenia and Iran. In Albania, the moon stood highest among three popular deities and was worshiped in a famous temple with a large staff of priests at a place near the Iberian frontier; some have tried to identify her with An\u0101hit\u0101, but this is questionable.<\/p>\n

In Parthian territory, Ecbatana, the greatest metropolis of Media, retained a temple of An\u0101hit\u0101 where sacrifices were regularly offered in Lower Media a temple of \u201cArtemis,\u201d built about 200 B.C., was standing when Isidore of Charax (ibid.) wrote, and some vestiges of this Greek-style edifice survive today. Isidore mentions two more temples of this goddess, both on the right bank of the Euphrates in Mesopotamia, one at Basileia reputedly founded by Darius, the other at Beonan.<\/p>\n

Susa likewise had a place of worship that, in the words of Pliny was Dianae templum augustissimum. Not far away was a temple in Elymais called Ta Azara, which was sacred to both Athena and Artemis tame lions were to be seen in it. In Persis, the cult was centered in E\u1e63\u1e6da\u1e35r (Persepolis), where An\u0101hit\u0101 was worshiped in her aspect of war-goddess, as she had been at Pasargadae in the Achaemenid period (see above). Around the end of the 2nd century A.D., the temple of An\u0101hit\u0101 at E\u1e63\u1e6da\u1e35r was in the custodianship of S\u0101s\u0101n, who was also a hunter and an intrepid warrior. His son P\u0101pak killed the king of E\u1e63\u1e6da\u1e35r and seized the throne. It seems probable that P\u0101pak continued to be the high priest after he made himself king, because a rock carving shows him making an officiant\u2019s obeisance before a fire altar while wearing a crown and holding a sort of scepter in his left hand, with his son \u0160\u0101p\u016br on horseback close by him.<\/p>\n

P\u0101pak\u2019s son Arda\u0161\u012br rebelled against his Arsacid suzerain and gradually conquered all the Parthian territories. He may perhaps have inherited the high priesthood of An\u0101h\u012bd and have derived his spiritual authority mainly from it; in any case, he showed great devotion to the goddess, to whom he sent heads of his slain enemies. As for Arda\u0161\u012br\u2019s son and successor, \u0160\u0101p\u016br I, the fact that he named his daughter \u0100dur-An\u0101h\u012bd (An\u0101h\u012bd of the fire) is certainly significant. In the reign of Bahr\u0101m II, the ambitious Magian Kird\u0113r, who had been steadily rising in the religious hierarchy and tightening his political grip, reached the zenith of his power when the monarch appointed him chief m\u014dbad and judge of the empire and at the same time \u201c\u0113w\u0113nbad (master of ceremonies) and supreme head of the fire of An\u0101h\u012bd, [that] of An\u0101h\u012bd-Arda\u0161\u012br, and the lady An\u0101h\u012bd\u201d (inscription of Kird\u0113r, Ka\u02bfba-ye Zardo\u0161t, line 8). Kird\u0113r\u2019s promotion is to be seen as an overt encroachment on the spiritual authority of the descendants of Arda\u0161\u012br. In the inscription at Paikuli carved for Narseh in 283, the king of the kings invokes \u014chrmazd, \u201cthe lady An\u0101h\u012bd,\u201d and all the gods. On a rock carving at Naq\u0161-e Rostam, Narseh is shown receiving investiture from the hands of An\u0101h\u012bd, who wears a serrated crown and a sleeveless cloak.<\/p>\n

\u0160\u0101p\u016br II, according to a Christian hagiographic text, caused the heads of twelve Christian martyrs to be exposed, in conformity with ancient custom, in the temple at E\u1e63\u1e6da\u1e35r. It has been suggested that a passage in the Pahlavi D\u0113nkard refers to the construction of a temple of An\u0101h\u012bd by \u0160\u0101p\u016br II, but the text has \u0101b\u0101n-\u1e35\u0101na (house of the waters), and the interpretation is questionable. No further evidence on the Sasanian monarchy\u2019s association with An\u0101h\u012bd comes until the reign of \u1e34osrow II Parv\u0113z. In an investiture scene carved in high relief in the grotto of \u1e6c\u0101q-e Bost\u0101n, \u1e34osrow II receives crowns from \u014chrmazd and An\u0101h\u012bd; the goddess wears a crown similar to \u014chrmazd\u2019s and holds a pitcher of flowing water in her left hand.<\/p>\n

She also appears, holding a garland of flowers in one hand and a lotus in the other, on one of the capitals of the two columns that once stood in front of the grotto. The statement of \u1e6cabar\u012b that the last Sasanian king, Yazdgerd III, was crowned in the \u201ctemple of Arda\u0161\u012br\u201d at E\u1e63\u1e6da\u1e35r is interesting because of the similarity of this name to that of the \u201ctemple of An\u0101h\u012bd-Arda\u0161\u012br\u201d at E\u1e63\u1e6da\u1e35r mentioned in the inscription of Kird\u0113r.
\nBecause the temples of An\u0101h\u012bd were built beside springs or watercourses, it has been suggested that they were quite different from ordinary fire temples and had a distinct style of architecture characterized by columns and arcades. But there is no reason why, at least in Iran, An\u0101h\u012bd worship should not have been performed in fire temples. The designation of the temple at E\u1e63\u1e6da\u1e35r by the term \u0101dur (fire), which was applied to all Zoroastrian places of worship, seems significant in this respect. Equally rash are suggestions that particular temples, for example the one at Ta\u1e35t-e Solaym\u0101n, belonged to An\u0101h\u012bd.<\/p>\n

Aside from the rock carvings of Naq\u0161-e Rostam and \u1e6c\u0101q-e Bost\u0101n, few figures unquestionably representing the goddess are known (see below). She is thought to appear on an Achaemenid cylinder seal, on some reliefs from the Parthian period, and on two ossuaries, one found near B\u012b\u0161\u0101p\u016br, the other Sogdian (An\u0101h\u012bd may be represented by figures to be seen on Sasanian silver utensils, which depict a nude or scantily clad woman standing in front of an arcade holding a flower or some fruit or sometimes a bird or a child; the identification seems convincing. It has been suggested that the colonnaded or serrated crowns on Sasanian coins belong to An\u0101h\u012bd.<\/p>\n

It is difficult to tell whether An\u0101hit\u0101 had any connection with Nan\u0101 or Nanai, a goddess of Mesopotamian origin frequently mentioned in Babylonian and Assyrian texts. In Armenia, Nana was assimilated to Athena and worshiped in a temple at the small town of Thil, but in some countries, she was identified with Artemis. At Dura-Europos she was worshiped as Artemis Nanaia. It is known from Kushan coins with effigies of Nana that her cult spread as far as the Kushan territories. In the Sasanian period, she is said to have been worshiped in Mesene, Susiana, Babylonia, and Arbayestan. Nana, who is one with Ishtar in ancient texts, seems to have been both a war-goddess and a nature-goddess. There are grounds to suppose that at an early stage the Iranian An\u0101hit\u0101 acquired some of Nana\u2019s attributes, in particular her warlike character. It would be rash, however, to see An\u0101h\u012bd in Nanai, \u201cthe great goddess of the whole earth,\u201d who, according to the Acts of M\u0101r Mo\u02bfayn, was one of the principal deities worshiped by \u0160\u0101p\u016br II. Also dubious is Hoffmann\u2019s statement that the Nana on the Kushan coins denotes An\u0101hit\u0101.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

M. L. Chaumont\u00a0 Encyclopedia Iranica, December 15, 1989 Although the Greeks sometimes assimilated An\u0101hit\u0101 to Aphrodite or Athena, they most often viewed her as the Persian Artemis. She is not named in the Elamite texts found at Persepolis and dating from the reigns of Darius I and Xerxes. In 405 B.C., the year of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-91972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-phart"],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"3.0.2","language":"en","enabled_languages":["fa","en"],"languages":{"fa":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"en":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91972"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91972\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":94799,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91972\/revisions\/94799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}