Anahita: A History and Reception of the Iranian Water Goddess

by Manya Saadi-nejad

Overview

Anahita was the most important goddess of pre-Islamic Iran. From her roots as an ancient Indo-European water deity her status was unrivalled by any other Iranian goddess throughout the course of three successive Iranian empires over a period of a thousand years.

The first scholarly book on Anahita, this study reconstructs the Indo-European water goddess through a comparison of Celtic, Slavic, Armenian and Indo-Iranian myths and rituals. Anahita's constantly-evolving description and functions are then traced through the written and iconographic records of Iranian societies from the Achaemenid period onwards, including but not limited to the Zoroastrian texts and the inscriptions and artistic representations of the great pre-Islamic Iranian empires. The study concludes by tracing survival of the goddess in Islamic Iran, as seen in new Persian literature and popular rituals. Manya Saadi-nejad demonstrates the close relationship between Iranian mythology and that of other Indo-European peoples, and the significant cultural continuities from Iran's pre-Islamic period into the Islamic present.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781838601591
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	01/28/2021
Pages:	264
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.62(d)

About the Author

Manya Saadi-nejad is an affiliate Assistant Professor at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada. A specialist in Iranian and Comparative Mythology, she has published in the jourbanals Iranian Studies and the Jourbanal for the Study of Religion, Nature, and Culture. She is also a practicing artist, trained in both classical Persian and contemporary styles, and her work has been exhibited internationally. She received her PhD in Iranian Studies from The Free University of Berlin, Germany.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations vi

Acknowledgments vii

A Note on Transcriptions viii

Abbreviations ix

Introduction 1

1 Goddesses in the Ancient World 7

2 Indo-European Water Goddesses 19

3 Arðduui Sura Anahita in the Avesta 43

4 Other Iranian Goddesses: Comparisons with Anahita 77

5 Anahita: A Composite Goddess 101

6 Anahita in the Historical Period 119

7 Anahita in the Pahlavi Texts 133

8 Traces of Anahita in Islamic Iran 159

Conclusion 191

Epilogue 193

Notes 195

Bibliography 223

Index 245