ANAHITA

(Women and Mythical Deities)

1. Nearly every ancient religion has preserved the memory of the mother

goddess in whose person people venerated the very principle of existence.

It was a symbol of fertility and abundance which the naïve image represented.

These were represented, in varying degrees of crudity, in a female personage;

and, they are found on a great number of archaeological sites in the Iranian Plateau. The decorative repertory of the pottery of the forth millennium is made up of such elements as the horns of a bull or an ibex, a bird wing, a lion's head and the foot of some wading birds, to mention but a few examples. Her cult was subsequently replaced by that of male deities, of whom she remained both wife and mother.

2. In the pre-Zoroastrian Iran, Anahita was the goddess for water, rain, abundance, blessing, fertility, marriage, love, motherhood, birth and victory. This goddess was the manifestation of women's perfection. Ancient kings were crowned by their queens in Anahita's temple in order to gain her protection and support. Anahita's blessing would bring fertility and abundance to the country.