Mithra

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search
 This article includes a list of references or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please improve this article by introducing more precise citations where appropriate. (October 2008)
This article is about the Zoroastrian yazata Mithra (Miθra). For other divinities with related names, see the general article Mitra.

Mithra (Avestan Miθra, modern Persian مهر Mihr, Mehr, Meher) is an important deity or divine concept (Yazata) in Zoroastrianism and later Iranian history and culture.

Mithra is descended, together with the Vedic deity Mitra, from a common proto-Indo-Iranian entity *mitra "treaty, bond".

Contents

[edit] Etymology

Main article: Etymology of *mitra

The Avestan common noun miθra, meaning "covenant, contract, oath", derives from proto-Indo-Iranian *mitra, which has a root mi- "to bind", with the "tool suffix" -tra- "causing to." Thus, etymologically miθra means "that which causes binding", preserved in the Avestan word for "covenant, contract, oath". It is commonly held that the sanskrit word-name Maitreya carries the same etymology, popularly translated as 'friend'.

[edit] In Zoroastrianism

The reforms of Zoroaster retained the multitudes of pre-Zoroastrian divinities, reducing them in a complex hierarchy to "immortals" who, under the supremacy of the Creator Ahura Mazda, were now either ahuras or daevas. In this scheme, Mithra is a member of the ahuric triad, protectors of asha, the order of the universe. Mithra is additionally the protector of truth and justice and the source of cosmic light. In Middle Persian Mithra came to be known as Meher. Outran believes that Mithra might have had his origins in the Shiva-like deity Father God who was worshipped in the Indus Valley.[1]

Relief from Taq-i Bostan in Kermanshah, Iran, showing Ardashir I of Sassanid Empire at the center receiving his crown from Ahura Mazda. The two stand on a prostrate enemy. Here at the left is Mithra as a priest, wearing a crown of sun-rays, holding a priest's barsam, and standing on a sacred lotus.

Mithra is not present in the Gathas of Zoroaster (Zarathustra) but appears in the younger Yashts of the Avesta (Campbell p 257). There, Mithra comes to the fore among the created beings. "I created him" Ahura Mazda declares to Zoroaster, "to be as worthy of sacrifice and as worthy of prayer as myself" (Campbell, loc. cit.). In the Yashts, Mithra gains the title of "Judge of Souls" and is assigned the domain of human welfare (which he shares with the Creator). Mithra occupies an intermediate position in the Zoroastrian hierarchy as the greatest of the yazata, created by Ahura Mazda (Ormuzd in later Persian) to aid in the destruction of evil and the administration of the world. He is then the divine representative of the Creator on earth, and is directed to protect the righteous from the demonic forces of Angra Mainyu (Ahriman in later Persian).

As the protector of truth and the enemy of error, Mithra occupied an intermediate position in the Zoroastrian pantheon as the greatest of the yazatas, the beings created by Ahuramazda to aid in the destruction of evil and the administration of the world. He was thus a divinity of the realms of air and light, and, by transfer to the moral realm, the manifestation of truth and loyalty. As the enemy of darkness and evil spirits, he protected souls, accompanying them to paradise, and was thus a redeemer. Because light is accompanied by heat, he was the promoter of vegetation and increase; he rewarded the good with prosperity and annihilated the bad.

[edit] In Iranian culture

Antiochus and Mithra, with radiate Phrygian cap, bas-relief of the temple built by Antiochus I of Commagene, 69-31 BCE, on the Nemrood Dagh, in the Taurus Mountains.

In older Zoroastrianism Mithra is seen as a creation of Ahura Mazda, and in his role as 'Judge of Souls' as the rewarder of good and annihilator of the bad. Mithra was seen as omniscient, undeceivable, infallible, eternally watchful, and never-resting.

Similarly, while in the Sirozeh, Mithra is also referred to as Dae-pa-Meher, or Creator of Meher, this separation between 'Meher' and the 'Creator of Meher' dissolves in later texts and the distinguishing characteristics of Mithra and Meher blend. Mithra, reincorporated as "Meher", thus also becomes the representative of truth and justice, and, by transfer to the physical realm, the divinity of air and light. As the enemy of darkness and evil spirits, he protected souls, a psychopomp accompanying them to paradise. As heat accompanying light, Mithra became associated with growth and resultant prosperity.

Mithra worship spread first with the empire of the Persians throughout Asia Minor, then throughout the empire of Alexander and his successors.

The Parthian princes of Armenia were hereditary priests of Mithra, and an entire district of this land was dedicated to Anahita. Many temples were erected to Mithra in Armenia, which remained one of the last strongholds of the Mazdaist cult of Mithra until it became the first officially Christian kingdom.

Royal names incorporating Mithra's (e.g. "Mithradates") appear in the dynasties of Parthia, Armenia, and in Anatolia, in Pontus and Cappadocia.

[edit] In Manichaeism

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.

[edit] Remains

The calendar instituted by the Achaemenid dynasty (c. 648–330 BCE), the first Persian empire, was based on the Egyptian solar calendar, which had months of the year and days of the month dedicated to their divinities. The Achaemenids replaced these with divinities from the Zoroastrian faith, and the fifteenth day of each month was consecrated to Mithra (Dae-pa-Meher). The sixteenth day of each month and one month of the year were consecrated to Meher, whose identity blends with that of Mithra in later Persian culture. These calendarial dedications are still present in the religious calendar of the Zoroastrians. The month that was consecrated to Meher in pre-Islamic times was revived as the name of the seventh month of the year in the official national calendar of Iran of 1925.

The festivities in the week following the winter solstice (after which the days grow longer), today called Shab-e Yalda in Iran, are a remnant of the culture which celebrated the birth of the divinity of light on that day. Yalda literally means "The birth of sun".

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Greenlees, Duncan. The Gospel of Zarathushtra. Theosophical Publishing House. pp. 59. ISBN 0835673618, ISBN 9780835673617. 

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mithra"
Personal tools