Anahita is a water goddess whose origins go
back to Central Asia from where her worship spread through Persia
Her very name is not familiar to most of us and
that is not surprising since over the centuries she has been assimilated to the
Babylonian Anaitis, the Greek Aphrodite and Athena, the Roman Diana, and even
the Egyptian Isis. The Armenians, who once were part of the great Persian
empire, still call her the “Great Lady Anahita, Life-Giver of our Nation,
Mother of Sobriety, and Benefactress of Humanity”. In 1997, the Central Bank of
Armenia
Anahita also appears in the largest cliff-wall
of Taq-e-Bostan,
next to King Khosrow II (early 7th
century) who receives his crown from the high-priest under the protection of
Anahita as guardian angel of the waters (on his right side, left looking at
it). The founder of the Sassanid empire, King Ardashir (mid-3rd
century), venerated Anahita also as his Goddess of War andwould, for instance, send
the heads of the petty kings he defeated to be displayed in her temple. Unfortunately, the Romans destroyed Anahita’s
temples, and a few centuries later the Islam erased what was left of her rich
legacy – yet her spirit lived on.
It was a pleasant surprise to discover that at least two of her temples have survived and this led me to start my own investigation of Anahita. Till then my knowledge of her was minimal and even my local guide in Iran had not much to tell about her except that he linked her to the Sassanid rulers, actually more than thousand of years after her origins in Central Asia.
My first encounter happened at Kangavar, situated on the antique
highway between Ecbatana and Ctesiphon , close to modern Hamadan 220 meters long and 210 meters wide, that
the columns were 3.45
meters high but nothing about its time-frame or its
construction. Information from the internet is scant and often unreliable and even
contradictory.
Excavations from 1968 match the comment made by
the geographer Isidore of Charax that
this temple is set on a high platform (32 meters high actually) and
has Ionian columns (which, of course, must have been much taller than the 3.45 m mentioned on the
entrance billboard). He obviously attributes this temple to Artemis, who was
associated with Anahita in his days (1st century BC/1st
century AD). It sounds very plausible that the temple underwent some later adjustments
and/or modifications by the Parthians and even by the Sassanids. However, a
team of archaeologists from the University
of Tehran tend to attribute the ruins
as those of a Sassanid Palace
Upon arrival here at Kangavar, my attention is immediately drawn by a stone wall with a
staircase on either end that reminds me of the Apadana at Persepolis.
The theory that this is the location of an Achaemenid Palace is not unfounded
because of this typical stairway and the superposed platforms, one of which is
being supported by a smooth wall in Achaemenid style and the one above it being
older and rougher but very strongly built of large rocks alternating with
horizontal rows of smaller rocks. Many broken columns and capitals are lying
around and the only recognizable structure that I could associate with the Temple of Anahita
The second Anahita Temple is located at Bishapur,
some 100 km
west of Shiraz Bishapur Bishapur River
The city-walls of Bishapurare still very strong
and look rather Roman because of their rectangular shape. Originally they were
ten meters high and punctuated with round towers, suggesting that they were
designed as a battery for catapults. Interestingly, at the northeastern side,
the remains of a city gate are still standing. Bishapurwas clearly
designed to hold a population of 50,000 to 80,000 people.
The so-called Palace of Bishapur is
still a puzzle to the archaeologists with its four half vaults that are closely
related to later mosques with four iwans, and its walls with 64 niches that
supposedly were decorated with freestanding statues – a rather rare occurrence
in Sassanid art. Close to the center there is a fire altar that is however
often interpreted as a shrine to Anahita. This association may be the
consequence of an iconoclastic movement launched by Bahram I (272-273 AD), who had the statues of divinities removed
from the sanctuaries that were consequently either abandoned or converted into
fire altars. According to a recent report published in a Bulletin of the
Georgian National Academy of Sciences, it seems that in early Sassanid
times water and fire were being worshipped together.
These doorways with lintels not unlike those of
Persepolis
lead to a corridor that runs around the patio and connect to an aqueduct. It is
said that the central square must have been a pool. If so, the water must have ran through the hole in the threshold into the surrounding corridors that
have a gutter on either side of the floor. It is assumed that the water flowed
only on certain days of the year, so this could be related to ceremonies
venerating Anahita as the goddess of waters. Going by the abovementioned
report, it seems that the northwest and the northeast corridors were used to
bring in the water while the southwest corridor was exclusively used to expel the
water. To add to the many questions this temple creates, we can wonder about
the two outer walls that top in a triangle. Since the sanctuary had no roof,
scholars believe that these triangles were crowned with a large bull impost.
Yet others speculate that there was a roof and that its wooden beams were
supported by those bull-heads.
The goddess Anahita certainly deserves more attention as she excelled in her godly realm for
centuries. According
to the Avesta, the water goddess
Anahita was the mother of the god of Victory known as Mithra. Zoroaster, a
Bactrian reformer, turned Mithra into the Saviour and Anahita consequently was
venerated as an immaculate virgin, the Mother of God. Nothing new under the sun, I
would say.
[Click here for Pictures of the different Anahita sites]