Anahita
Deities

Anahita

Aredvi Sura Anahita — Yazata of Waters and Fertility

Status · Anusandhāna
Source · Tier 2
Tradition · Zoroastrian
Period · Pre-Achaemenid (ancient water-goddess layer); c. 405–359 BCE (Achaemenid Anahita temples); 3rd–9th c. CE (Zoroastrian scripture compilation); 16th–21st c. (Parsi community)

Anahita

Section 1: Overview

[BEGINNER]

Anahita — full Avestan name Aredvi Sura Anahita ("the Moist, the Strong, the Immaculate") — is the Zoroastrian yazata of the waters. She is the divine source of the mythical heavenly river that descends from Mount Hara and fills all the rivers and seas of the world. She presides over:

  • Waters — rivers, springs, lakes, the sea, rain
  • Fertility — of women, of crops, of livestock
  • Wisdom and purity
  • Warrior strength — she is invoked by warriors and kings for victory

[INTERMEDIATE]

Anahita has one of the longest hymns in the Avesta, the Aban Yasht (Yasht 5), where she is described as:

  • A beautiful, strong, well-formed maiden wearing a golden crown
  • Clothed in a mantle of thirty otter skins
  • Drawn in a chariot by four white horses (wind, rain, cloud, sleet)
  • Wearing golden earrings, a golden necklace, and square-cut golden shoes

She receives yasna (worship offering) from heroes of Iranian epic — Haoshyangha, Yima, Thraētaona, Keresaspa — and from Zarathustra himself, who is said to have sacrificed to her on the banks of the river Darja.

In the Achaemenid period (from the reign of Artaxerxes II, c. 405–359 BCE), royal inscriptions began invoking Anahita alongside Ahura Mazda and Mithra as a divine triad. Artaxerxes II is credited with spreading her iconographic cult — the first Zoroastrian deity to receive formal statuary — across the empire, with major temples at Kangavar, Bishapur, and Istakhr.

The Greek historians Berossus and Strabo describe her temples in Asia Minor. In Armenia, the goddess Anahit (equated with Anahita) was one of the three chief pre-Christian divinities, with a major temple at Erez (destroyed by Gregory the Illuminator in the conversion of Armenia to Christianity).

Section 2: Worship

  • Aban Parab — monthly fifth-day festival of waters
  • Tirgan — summer water festival with pre-Zoroastrian roots, celebrated by Zoroastrians and Iranians
  • Parsis still offer prayers to the waters (āb-zohr ritual)

Section 3: Relationships

  • Ahura Mazda — supreme god who created and sends Anahita
  • Mithra — often paired with Anahita in late Achaemenid inscriptions
  • Tishtrya — yazata of the star Sirius and rain-bringer; partners with Anahita in the hydrological cycle
  • Armenian Anahit — cognate local form

Section 4: Key facts

  • Type: Yazata of waters, fertility, and victory
  • Tradition: Zoroastrianism; later absorbed into Armenian and Anatolian cults
  • Scripture: Avesta (Aban Yasht / Yasht 5)
  • Symbol: Flowing water, the river descending from Mount Hara
  • Temples: Kangavar, Bishapur, Istakhr (historical, Iran); Erez (historical, Armenia)
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