InfoHub - Anahita - A Zoroastrian goddess

Anahita is a goddess of the Zoroastrian religion. Although Zoroastrians worship Ahura Mazda as their main deity, they also revere a number of other deities. Anahita's name literally means "pure". She is also called Nahid. In modern Persian, the name Nahid literally means Venus.
Anahita is not mentioned in the earlier part of the Avesta, the holy scriptures of Zoroastrianism. It is in the later Avedic period that she is acknowledged as a divine figure of the religion. Anahita is praised in the Fifth Yasht as being tall and beautiful. She is said to send down a stream of maternal water. [Note - The Fifth Yasht is the "Hymn of the Waters".]
Anahita has some parallels with the Near Eastern goddess referred to as the "Queen of Heaven". The Sumerians referred to that goddess as Inanna. Semitic peoples such as the Babylonians and Phoenicians called her Ishtar or Astarte. It is possible that Anahita is an Iranian version of that goddess. If such is the case, then the Persians added Anahita to their religion due to influences from other Near Eastern peoples. However, it has also been said that Armenians and Medes worshipped Anahita before the Persians did. According to this school of thought, the Persians acquired thw worship of Anahita from the Armenians and Medes, who were their neighbors.
Anahita is associated with lakes and rivers, i.e. the "waters of birth". Although Anahita is connected with love and fertility, she has also been considered to be a war goddess. She has sometimes been regarded as the consort of the deity Mithra. The dove and the peacock are creatures sacred to Anahita.
The worship of this goddess began to be very popular during the reign of the Persian king Artaxerxes. He had many temples built to honor her. They were constructed in a number of cities, including Susa, Ecbatana, and Babylon.
Many people outside of Persia began to revere Anahita. After Alexander the Great conquered the Persian empire, the worship of Anahita spread to the west. Some Greeks worshipped her. During the time when the Roman empire included much of the Near East, some Romans started worshipping her. The cult of Anahita spread to Rome. Mithra was another Zoroastrian deity whose worship became popular in Rome.
Anahita was sometimes represented as driving a chariot pulled by four horses. They stood for four aspects of weather, i.e. rain, wind, clouds, and hail. Anahita was also presented as wearing a gold embroidered, square gold earrings, and a diadem with jewels.
Few sculptures of Anahita have been found. One is a relief statute of her at Naqsh-i-Rustum. The Sassanian king Narseh is receiving investiture of Anahita. Narseh was a Sassanian king of Persia. He ruled 293-302 A.D. A relief carving of the goddess is also at Taq-i-Bostan. She is included with the figures of King Khosrow II and Ahura Mazda. Khosrow II is receiving a crown from Ahura Mazda, who stands to the right. Anahita is to the left of Khosrow II and is holding a water vase. Khosrow II was also a king of the Sassanian dynasty. He ruled 590-628 A.D.

Neal Robbins