Anahita, the Pre-Christian Virgin Mother of Mithra?
/D.M. Murdock
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These various themes demonstrate an apparent parthenogenetic
origin of Mithra in one
sense or another.
The Zoroastrian Virgin-Born Savior
The concept of a virgin-born savior was already well known in Zoroastrian religion, centuries
before the common era, as Zoroaster himself was ―said to have had a miraculous birth: his
mother, Dughdova, was a virgin who conceived him after being visited by a shaft of light.‖
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Moreover, the future savior of Zoroastrianism is called the Saoshyant, Sōšyant or Saošyant,
about whom Boyce says:
...gradually it came to be believed that he would be born
of the seed of Zoroaster
himself, miraculously preserved at the bottom of a lake... it is held [that] a virgin will
bathe in this
lake and become with child,
and will bear a son, the Saošyant... His
virgin mother too received a name..."She who brings fulfillment to the father‖….
…It seems probable that the beliefs about the Saošyant‘s
miraculous conception
evolved in that region [Hāmūn lake in southeastern Iran], during the centuries which
passed between the lifetime of Zoroaster (perhaps between 1400 and 1200 B.C.),
and the adoption of his faith in western Iran (perhaps in the late 7th
century
B.C.).‖
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In
the same article, Boyce also states that this motif was ―widely known throughout the
Near East in the Achaemenid period.‖
If Zoroastrians had been expecting for centuries one or more virgin-born saviors, and Mithra
has been considered by not a few to be a ―savior‖ figure,
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logic dictates that at some point
in the history of his mythological development Mithra was perceived
as this virgin-born
savior, and Anahita would equally logically be the choice for his virgin mother.
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