Search Results for “mithra”
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MITHRA
Multiple Authors
i. Mitra in Old Indian and Mithra in Old Iranian ii. Iconography in Iran and Central Asia iii. in Manicheism
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MITHRA i. MITRA IN OLD INDIAN AND MITHRA IN OLD IRANIAN
Hanns-Peter Schmidt
Indo-Iranian god, with name based on the common noun mitrá “contract” with the connotations of “covenant, agreement, treaty, alliance, promise.”
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MITHRA iii. IN MANICHEISM
Werner Sundermann
The Iranian Manicheans adopted the name of the Zoroastrian god Mithra (Av. Miθra; Mid. Pers.Mihr)and used it to designate one of their own deities.
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MITHRA ii. ICONOGRAPHY IN IRAN AND CENTRAL ASIA
Franz Grenet
On coins of the Arsacids the seated archer dressed as a Parthian horseman has been interpreted as Mithra. In the Kushan empire Mithra is among the deities most frequently depicted on the coinage, always as a young solar god.
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MITHRAISM
Roger Beck
the cult of Mithra as it developed in the West, its origins, its features, and its probable connection with Mithra worship in Iran.
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MEHRAGĀN
Simone Cristoforetti
an Iranian festival apparently dedicated to the god Miθra/Mehr, occurring also in onomastics and toponymy.
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DĀTAMIΘRA
Rüdiger Schmitt
Iranian personal name resulting from an inversion of Miθra-dāta- “given by Mithra” and continued in the New Persian Dādmehr.
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CAUTES AND CAUTOPATES
William W. Malandra
the two dadophoroi or torch bearers who often flank Mithras in the bull-slaying scene and who are sometimes shown in the birth scenes of Mithras.
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AŠTĀD
G. Gnoli
Old Iranian female deity of rectitude and justice.
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AHURA
F. B. J. Kuiper
designation of a type of deity inherited by Zoroastrianism from the prehistoric Indo-Iranian religion.
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RAŠN
William Malandra
Avestan Rašnu, the deity of the ancient Iranian pantheon who functions as the divine Judge.
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GORZ
Jalil Doostkhah
or gorza, gorz-e gāvsār/sar, lit. "ox-headed club/mace," a weapon often mentioned and variously described in Iranian myths and epic. In classical Persian texts, particularly in Ferdowsi’s Šāh-nāma, it is characterized as the decisive weapon of choice in fateful battles.
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ARIZANTOI
C. J. Brunner
one of the six tribes of the Median nation as listed by Herodotus.
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DURIS OF SAMOS
RÜDIGER SCHMITT
(Gk. Doûris), (ca. 340-281/270 B.C.E.), Greek historiographer of the early Hellenistic period.
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AHURA.ṰKAĒŠA
M. Boyce
an infrequent Avestan adjective meaning “following the Ahuric doctrine.”
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BĀGAYĀDIŠ
R. Schmitt
name of the seventh month (September-October) of the Old Persian calendar, mentioned in Darius I’s Behistun inscription.
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ČISTĀ
Jean Kellens
and Čisti; Avestan derivatives of the verb cit “to notice, to understand.”
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APĄM NAPĀT
M. Boyce
(Son of the Waters), Zoroastrian divinity of mysterious character whose true identity, like that of his Vedic counterpart, Apām Napāt, has been much debated.
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HERTEL, JOHANNES
Almut Hintze
Hertel’s lasting contributions to scholarship are his earlier works on Sanskrit narrative literature and its transmission. They culminated in the publication of a four-volume edition of the Pañcatantra in the Harvard Oriental Series, vols. 11-14 (1908-15). After his appointment to the Indology chair in Leipzig, he turned to Vedic studies and, from 1924, to Avestan.
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AŠI
B. Schlerath, P. O. Skjærvø
Avestan feminine noun meaning “thing attained, reward, share, portion, recompense” and, as a personification, the goddess “Reward, Fortune.”
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MIHR YAŠT
Almut Hintze
Middle Persian form of the name of the tenth of the 21 Yašts of the Avesta; It constituted the seventh Fargard of the Avestan Bagān Yašt Nask, of which a Pahlavi summary survives in the Dēnkard. The Mihr Yašt is the hymn of the sixteenth day of the 30-day month of the Zoroastrian calendar.
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IŠKATA
Rüdiger Schmitt
in the Avesta the name of a mountain and of the land (situated in the Hindu Kush region) which is dominated by this mountain.
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CUMONT, FRANZ VALÉRY MARIE
Jacques Duchesne-Guillemin
classical philologist and historian of religions, whose research resulted in a substantial contribution to the understanding of Mithraism and other oriental religions in the Roman empire.
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GABAIN, ANNEMARIE VON
Peter Zieme
Von Gabain was particularly interested in the question of the extent to which the religious ideas of the Central Asian peoples had been influenced by Zoroastrianism or other Iranian beliefs, and this perspective is reflected in several of her publications.
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ANTHROPOMORPHISM
J. Duchesne-Guillemin
in Iranian religions. Ahura Mazdā in the Gāthās was conceived of, although invisible and immortal, as of human form, with eyes, hands, and tongue; but he was of gigantic size.
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COSMOGONY AND COSMOLOGY ii. In Mithraism
Roger Beck
That Mithraism had an elaborate cosmology, central to its doctrines, is proven first by the structure of its cult shrines (mithraea), which took the form of caves (real or artificial). As Porphyry (6) stated, the cave is an “image of the cosmos.”
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MAGOPHONIA
Muhammad A. Dandamayev
An appropriate Iranian word for magophonia is the Sogdian mwγzt- (killing of the Magi).
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AĒŠMA
J. P. Asmussen
“wrath” in Younger Avestan, both metaphysically, as a distinct demon, and psychologically as the function and quality of that demon realized in man.
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SRAOŠA
William W. Malandra
a major deity (yazata) in Zoroastrianism, whose great popularity reserved a place for him in Iranian Islam as the angel Surōš. In Avestan, the word occurs both as a noun and as a name. Its basic common meaning is “to hear and obey.”
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M~ CAPTIONS OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Cross-Reference
list of all the figure and plate images in the letter M entries.
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DĒN YAŠT
Jean Kellens
a relatively short text, consisting for the most part of repetitive or formulaic sentences.
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ALBORZ i. The Name
W. Eilers
etymology and meaning.
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DAIVA
Clarisse Herrenschmidt and Jean Kelllens
Old Iranian noun (Av. daēuua-, OPers. daiva-) corresponding to the title devá- of the Indian gods and thus reflecting the Indo-European heritage (*deiu̯ó-).
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ARDAŠĪR II
A. Sh. Shahbazi
Sasanian king of kings, A.D. 379-83; he was deposed by the nobles in favor of Šāpūr III.
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ALBORZ ii. In Myth and Legend
M. Boyce
stories about the Alborz mountains in Iran and Zorastrianism.
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Bahrām I
A. Sh. Shahbazi
the fourth Sasanian king and son of Šāpūr I.
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DĀMI
Jean Kellens
Avestan word, probably the noun of agency connected with Old Avestan dāman- “stake," thus “the one who drives the stake.”
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ARIYĀRAMNA
A. Sh. Shahbazi
Old Persian proper name.
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CLASS SYSTEM i. In the Avesta
Prods Oktor Skjærvø
The evidence for the existence of a highly developed class structure in the community in which the Avestan texts were composed is very slight, and the available information must be culled from sources chronologically as far apart as the Avesta itself and the Pahlavi texts.
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ĀBĀN YAŠT
Mary Boyce
Middle Persian name of the fifth hymn among the Zoroastrian hymns to individual divinities. It is the third longest, with 131 verses.
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BABYLONIA ii. Babylonian Influences on Iran
G. Gnoli
In the Achaemenid period, the influence of Babylonia was strong in the fields of the arts, science, religion, and religious policies, even affecting the concept of kingship.
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HERMES
Albert de Jong
Hermes was identified with the Roman god Mercury, god of commerce and trade, and came to be symbolized with the moneybag. In Egypt, he was identified with the god Thoth; he was the source of a large number of writings outlining the ways in which the soul could be released from the bonds of matter.
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COSMOGONY AND COSMOLOGY i. In Zoroastrianism/Mazdaism
Philip G. Kreyenbroek
The “orthodox” myth. The extant Avesta contains no systematic exposition of the cosmological beliefs of the people among whom it was composed and who eventually brought Zoroastrianism to western Iran.
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ABARSĒN
C. J. Brunner
Middle Persian form of the Avestan name Upāiri.saēna, designating the Hindu Kush mountains (Av. iškata; Mid. Pers. kōf, gar) of central and eastern Afghanistan.
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ARDWAHIŠT
M. Boyce
one of the six great Aməša Spəntas who, with Ahura Mazdā and/or his Holy Spirit, make up the Zoroastrian Heptad. Of the six, Aša has the clearest pre-Zoroastrian antecedents.
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SCHMIDT, HANNS-PETER
Touraj Daryaee
(1930-2017), a German Indo-Iranist who specialized in studies on Indian mythology and the Zoroastrian religion.
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ARTAXIAS I
J. Russell
reigned 189-160 B.C., founder of the Artaxiad dynasty in Greater Armenia.
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ARD YAŠT
P. O. Skjærvø
Middle Persian name of the Avestan hymn dedicated to Aši.
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ČEHR
Bruce Lincoln
two homographic neuter substantives čiθra- in Avestan, one meaning “face, appearance,” which is translated in Pahlavi as paydāg, and another rendered in Pahlavi as tōhmag and denoting “origin, lineage,” as well as “seed,” although the latter sense is attested only in compounds.
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ARTĒŠTĀR
W. Sundermann
a learned calque on and translation of the Avestan raθaēštā.