MERRY MITHRAS ♥ Mithra (Avestan: Miθra, Old Persian: Miça) is the Zoroastrian angelic Divinity (yazata) of Covenant and Oath. In addition to being the Divinity of Contracts, Mithra is also a judicial figure, an all-seeing Protector of Truth, and the Guardian of Cattle, the Harvest and of The Waters. The term Mithra is from the Avestan language. In Middle Iranian languages (Middle Persian, Parthian etc.), Mithra became Mihr, from which Modern Persian مهر Mihr, Northern Pashto لمر Nwar, Waziri Pashto ميېر Myer and Armenian Mihr/Mher ultimately derive. The Romans attributed their Mithraic Mysteries (the Mystery Religion known as Mithraism) to Persian or Zoroastrian sources relating to Mithra. However, since the early 1970s, the dominant scholarship has noted dissimilarities, and those Mysteries are now qualified as a distinct Roman product. Mithra is invoked in the inscriptions of two Achaemenid emperors. In Artaxerxes IIs trilingual (Old Persian, Elamite and Babylonian) inscription at Susa and Hamadan , which have the same text, the emperor appeals to Ahuramazda, Anahita, and Mithra protect me against all evil, and in which he beseeches them to protect what he has built. Although the Behistun inscription of Darius invokes Ahuramazda and the Other Gods who are, this inscription of Artaxerxes II is remarkable as no Achaemenid king before him had invoked any but Ahura Mazda alone by name. Boyce suggests that the reason for this was that Artaxerxes had chosen Anahita and Mithra as his patron/protector Divinities. Mithra is invoked again in the single known inscription of Artaxerxes III,found at Persepolis. In that inscription, that emperor too appeals to Ahuramazda and the God Mithra preserve me, my country, and what has been built by me. Investiture of Sassanid emperor Ardashir I or II (3rd century CE bas-relief at Taq-e Bostan, Iran. On the left stands the yazata Mithra with raised barsom, sanctifying the investiture. In the Zoroastrian calendar, the sixteenth day of the month and the seventh month of the year are dedicated to, and under the protection of, Mithra. (The Iranian civil calendar of 1925 adopted Zoroastrian month-names, and as such also has the seventh month of the year named Mihr). The position of the sixteenth day and seventh month reflects Mithras rank in the hierarchy of the Divinities; the sixteenth day and seventh month are respectively the first day of the second half of the month and the first month of the second half of the year. The day on which the day-name and month-name dedications intersect is (like all other such intersections) dedicated to the divinity of that day/month, and is celebrated with a Jashan (from Avestan Yasna, Worship) in honor of that Divinity. In the case of Mithra, this was Jashan-e Mihragan, or just Mihragan in short. While Mithra is not the Divinity of the Sun in Zoroastrian scripture (or in Indian scripture either), this being the role of Hvare.khshaeta (literally Radiant Sun, whence also Middle Persian Khorshed for the Sun), in Zoroastrian/Iranian tradition, Mithra became the Divinity of the Sun. How, when or why this occurred is uncertain, but it is commonly attributed to a conflation with the Babylonian Shamash, who – in addition to being a Sun God – was a judicial figure like Mithra. In the Hellenistic era (i.e., in Seleucid and Parthian times), Mithra also seems to have been conflated with Apollo, who – like Mithra – is an all-seeing Divinity of the Truth. Royal names incorporating Mithras (e.g., Mithradates) appear in the dynasties of Parthia, Armenia, and in Anatolia, in Pontus and Cappadocia. Persian and Parthian-speaking Manichaeans used the name of Mithra current in their time (Mihryazd, q.e. Mithra-yazata) for two different Manichaean angels. 1.The first, called Mihryazd by the Persians, was the The Living Spirit (Aramaic rūḥā ḥayyā), a savior-figure who rescues the First Man from the demonic Darkness into which he had plunged. 2.The second, known as Mihr or Mihr yazd among the Parthians, is The Messenger (Aramaic īzgaddā), likewise a savior figure, but one concerned with setting up the structures to liberate the Light lost when the First Man had been defeated. The second figure mentioned above, the Third Messenger, was the helper and redeemer of mankind, and identified with another Zoroastrian divinity, Narisaf (derived from Pahlavi Narsēh from Avestan Nairyō.saȵhō, meaning Potent Utterance, the name of a Yazata). Citing Boyce, Sundermann remarks, It was among the Parthian Manicheans that Mithra as a Sun God surpassed the importance of Narisaf as the common Iranian image of the Third Messenger; among the Parthians the dominance of Mithra was such that his identification with the Third Messenger led to cultic emphasis on the Mithraic traits in the Manichaean God. Unrelated to these Mihrs are Parthian and Sogdian Mytr or Mytrg. Alhough sharing linguistic roots with the name Mithra, Werner Sundermann established that those names denote Manicheanisms equivalent of Maitreya.
Posted on: Thu, 25 Dec 2014 11:16:10 +0000
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