Anahit

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title: "Anahit" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["armenian-goddesses", "childhood-goddesses", "fertility-goddesses", "health-deities", "health-goddesses", "war-goddesses", "water-goddesses", "wisdom-goddesses", "mother-goddesses", "anahita", "sacred-prostitution"] description: "Armenian Goddess" topic_path: "history/military" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anahit" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Armenian Goddess ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox deity"]

Field	Value
type	Armenian
name	Anahit
Անահիտ
god_of
image	Satala Aphrodite Yerevan 2025.jpg
alt
caption	Bronze head of Satala Aphrodite (believed to be Anahit)
affiliation
cult_center	Erznka
abode
planet
weapon
artifacts
symbol
day	19th day of each month in the Armenian calendar
color
consort
parents	Aramazd
siblings	Vahagn, Nane and Mihr
offspring
gender	female
Greek_equivalent	Aphrodite or Artemis
Roman_equivalent	Diana
Etruscan_equivalent	Artume
ethnic_group	Armenian
festivals	Navasard
::

| type = Armenian | name = Anahit Անահիտ | god_of = | member_of = | image = Satala Aphrodite Yerevan 2025.jpg | alt = | caption = Bronze head of Satala Aphrodite (believed to be Anahit) | other_names = | hiro = | Old_Norse = | script_name = | script = | affiliation = | cult_center = Erznka | abode = | planet = | mantra = | mantra benefits = | weapon = | battles = | artifacts = | animals = | symbol = | adherents = | height = | age = | tree = | day = 19th day of each month in the Armenian calendar | color = | number = | consort = | parents = Aramazd | siblings = Vahagn, Nane and Mihr | offspring = | predecessor = | successor = | army = | mount = | texts = | gender = female | Greek_equivalent = Aphrodite or Artemis | Roman_equivalent = Diana | Etruscan_equivalent = Artume | Christian_equivalent = | Slavic_equivalent = | Hinduism_equivalent = | Canaanite_equivalent = | equivalent1_type = | equivalent1 = | equivalent2_type = | equivalent2 = | region = | ethnic_group = Armenian | festivals = Navasard | nirvana =

Anahit () was the goddess of fertility and healing, wisdom and water in Armenian mythology.{{cite book |title= The heritage of Armenian literature |author1= Agop Jack Hacikyan |author2= Gabriel Basmajian |author3= Edward S. Franchuk |author4= Nourhan Ouzounian |year= 2000 |publisher= Wayne State University Press |isbn= 978-0814328156 |page= 67 |url= https://archive.org/details/heritageofarmeni00ajha |url-access= registration |access-date=2016-10-18 |title= Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics: Algonquins-Art |last =Hastings |first= James |year= 2001 |publisher= Elibron Classics |isbn= 978-1-4021-9433-7 |page= 797 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=NyzDrkPG2nIC&q=Anahit&pg=PA797 |access-date=2010-12-19

Armenian Anahit and Persian Anahita

According to Strabo, the "Armenians shared in the religion of the Perses and the Medes and particularly honored Anaitis". The kings of Armenia were "steadfast supporters of the cult" and Tiridates III, before his conversion to Christianity, "prayed officially to the triad Aramazd-Anahit-Vahagn but is said to have shown a special devotion to 'the great lady Anahit, (...) the benefactress of the whole human race, mother of all knowledge, daughter of the great Aramazd According to Agathangelos, tradition required the Kings of Armenia to travel once a year to the temple at Eriza (Erez) in Acilisene in order to celebrate the festival of the divinity; Tiridates made this journey in the first year of his reign where he offered sacrifice and wreaths and boughs. The temple at Eriza appears to have been particularly famous, "the wealthiest and most venerable in Armenia", staffed with priests and priestesses, the latter from eminent families who would serve at the temple before marrying. This practice may again reveal Semitic syncretic influences, and is not otherwise attested in other areas. Pliny reports that Mark Antony's soldiers smashed an enormous statue of the divinity made of solid gold and then divided the pieces amongst themselves. Also according to Pliny, supported by Dio Cassius, Acilisene eventually came to be known as Anaïtica. Dio Cassius also mentions that another region along the Cyrus River, on the borders of Albania and Iberia, was also called "the land of Anaïtis."

Anahit's worship, most likely borrowed from the Iranians during the Median invasion or the early Achaemenid period or from Urartian goddess Arubani possibly an early form of Anahit., was of paramount significance in Armenia. According to Matthew Canepa, Anahit as well as Aramazd, Vahagn, Mihr, and Tir were of Iranian origin and that Iranian religions heavily influenced major Armenian deities. One Armenian author states that Anahit does not come from the Persian Anahita, but from a common ancient Eastern origin, she is a local goddess, her worship was formed in very ancient times in the region of Hayasa-Azzi under the influence of Asia Minor.{{cite book |title= ԱՆԱՀԻՏ ԱՍՏՎԱԾՈՒՀՈՒ ՊԱՇՏԱՄՈՒՆՔԻ ՄԻ ԴՐՍԵՎՈՐՈՒՄ ԱՆՏԻԿ ՇԻՐԱԿՈՒՄ |publisher= Hamazasp Khachatryan |page= 3 |url= https://arar.sci.am/Content/197453 |quote= "մեր Անահիտը, պարսկական Անահիտից չի ծագում, այլ հին արևելյան ընդհանուր ծագումով հանդերձ, տեղական աստվածուհի է, նրա պաշտամունքը ձևավորվել է շատ հնում Հայասա-Ազզի երկրռւմ՛ կրելով Փոքր Ասիայի ազդեցությունը"}}

Temples dedicated to Anahit

In Armenia, worship of Anahit was established in Erez, Armavir, Artashat and Ashtishat. A mountain in the Sophene district was known as Anahit's throne (Athor Anahta). The entire district of Erez, in the province of Akilisene (Ekeghiats), was called Anahtakan Gavar.

According to Plutarch, the temple of Erez was the wealthiest and the noblest in Armenia. During the expedition of Mark Antony in Armenia, the statue was broken to pieces by the Roman soldiers. Pliny the Elder gives us the following story about it: Emperor Augustus, being invited to dinner by one of his generals, asked him if it were true that the wreckers of Anahit's statue had been punished by the wrathful goddess. "No!" answered the general, "on the contrary, I have today the good fortune of treating you with one part of the hip of that gold statue." The Armenians erected a new golden statue of Anahit in Erez, which was worshiped before the time of St. Gregory Illuminator.

The annual festivity of the month Navasard, held in honor of Anahit, was the occasion of great gatherings, attended with dance, music, recitals, competitions, etc. The sick went to the temples in pilgrimage, asking for recovery. The symbol of ancient Armenian medicine was the head of the bronze gilded statue of the goddess Anahit. File:Anahit godness temple ruins in Armenian Ancient capital Armavir - panoramio.jpg File:Armenian godness Anahit's temple in Ancient Armenian capital Armavir - panoramio.jpg File:Ruins of temple of Armenian godness Anahit in the ancient capital Armavir - panoramio.jpg|Ruins of the temple of Anahit in Armavir

Historians' accounts of Anahit

File:Anahitcoin.jpg|Commemorative coin issued by the Central Bank of Armenia devoted to Goddess Anahit File:5000 Armenian dram - 1995 (reverse).png|5000 Armenian Dram File:Anahit Stamp.jpg|Anahit in Stamp of Armenia, 2007 File:Anahit head copy Armenia.jpg|Copy of Satala Aphrodite in History Museum of Armenia File:Anahit, 1964.jpg|Anahit sculpture by Hagop Ishkanian According to Agathangelos, King Trdat extolls the "great Lady Anahit, the glory of our nation and vivifier ...; mother of all chastity, and issue of the great and valiant Aramazd." The historian Berossus identifies Anahit with Aphrodite, while medieval Armenian scribes identify her with Artemis. According to Strabo, Anahit's worship included rituals of sacred prostitution, but later Christian writers do not mention such a custom.{{cite book |title= Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics: Algonquins-Art |last =Hastings |first= James |year= 2001 |publisher= Elibron Classics |isbn= 978-1-4021-9433-7 |page= 797 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=NyzDrkPG2nIC&q=Anahit&pg=PA797 |access-date=2010-12-19}} In honour of her there caled a Anahit corona in Venus

References

Bibliography

References

1. {{harvnb. Boyce. 1983
2. {{harvnb. Boyce. 1983
3. {{harvnb. Boyce. 1983
4. [[Agathangelos]] 21.
5. Cicero, ''[no title]'' 9.23.
6. [[Pliny the Elder]], ''[[Natural History (Pliny). Naturalis Historia]]'' [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:latinLit:phi0978.phi001.perseus-eng1:33.24 XXXIII.24].
7. Pliny the Elder, ''Naturalis Historia'' [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:latinLit:phi0978.phi001.perseus-eng1:5.20 V.20].
8. [[Cassius Dio]], ''Historia Romana'' [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/36*.html XXXVI.48.1]
9. Cassius Dio, ''Historia Romana'' [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/36*.html XXXVI.53.5]. Dio calls the river "Cyrnus" rather than "Cyrus".
10. Piotrovsky, Boris B. (1969) The Ancient Civilization of Urartu: An Archaeological Adventure. Cowles Book Co. {{ISBN. 9780214667930
11. Canepa, Matthew P.. (2020). "The Iranian Expanse: Transforming Royal Identity Through Architecture, Landscape, and the Built Environment, 550 BCE–642 CE". University of California Press.
12. Baumer, Christoph. (2021). "History of the Caucasus". Bloomsbury Publishing.
13. Strabo, ''Geography'' [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Strabo/11N*.html XI.14.16]

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