Anahita (or Nahid in Modern Persian), whose name means "unstained" or "immaculate", was an ancient Persian deity.  Her cult was strongest in Western Iran, and had extensive parallels with those of Semitic Near Eastern goddesses such as Ishtar.  She may have been a direct borrowing from the Near East, or may have acquired Near Eastern characteristics from a confrontation between Iranian and Mesopotamian cultures.

Anahita is not present in the earliest parts of the Avesta; her cult would have been alien to the henotheistic spirit of the Zarathushtra (Zoroaster) presented in the Gathas. By the later Avestic period, however, more lenient priests had adapted the goddess to the new religion. The fifth Yasht, the "Hymn to the Waters", praises Anahita as one "who hates the Daevas and obeys the laws of Ahura". In Modern Persian Nahid (Anahita) is the name of the planet Venus.

By the Hellenistic era, if not before, Anahita's cult came to be closely associated with that of Mithra. An inscription from c. 200 BC dedicates a Seleucid temple in Western Iran to "Anahita, the Immaculate Virgin Mother of the Lord Mithras".

External links

• http://www.avesta.org/ka/yt5sbe.htm - The fifth Avestan Yasht.
• http://archi-west.tripod.com/anahita.htm - The Anahita Temple at Kangavar.