250 THE KEY. W. ST. CLAIK TISDALL, D.D., ON MITHRAISM. 



destroyed. Even the creatures he made ^Yere* destructive. Od 

 the other hand, all that was conducive to the production and 

 growth of plants, harmless animals and men, was associated 

 with Ahura Mazda and his allies. To them the term speTita^ 

 often rendered " holy," but really meaning " productive,"f was 

 applied as a consequence of this. The procreative side of 

 Mithra's character was therefore readily developed. In all 

 systenjs of Physiolatry, sky and earth, the sun and water, heatj 

 and moisture, are deified as the procreative§ powers of nature. 

 So in Persia, Mithra the Sungod was associated with Aredvi 

 Sura, which was a mythical river called ancihita or " unclefiled" 

 because of the purity of its waters. This was personified as 

 the goddess ofjl fertility, and became knowm as Anahita (in 

 Greek 'Avair [<>:). In Armenia especially the " Golden Anahit 

 was as popular a deity as "golden Aphrodite" in the Hellenic 

 world, anci was served with much the same abominable rites as 

 the Cyprian goddess.lF It was but natural that Mithraism 

 through its early association with the worship of Anahita 

 should in Phrygia form the same close alliance with that of the 



* Vide, e.g., Veiididad, Fargard I. 



+ The root sfcui, = Skt. svi, "to swell, grow." The PahlavJ 



commentary renders spehta hy afzunik, "causing to increase." So anra, 

 "evil," comes from the root ang/i (Germ, eng), "to narrow, decrease, 

 destroy." Anro Mainvns is therefore often described as PoiLru-mahrlca, 

 " fuh of death." 



X Cf. what the Egyptians said to Solon, that Neitli (Athene) had 

 reared certain people, e/c T/y? 76 Kai 'B(paia~ov -o oTrcpjaa TrapaXafBovaa 

 (Plato, Timceus, 3). 



§ Cf. Albrecht Dieterich's " Mutter Erde," also Frazer, " Adonis, Attis, 

 Osiris," passim. 



II Cf. Porphyry, De Antro y^jmpharum, cap. 17 : Ewepr^ei r^iap '^(evtnct 

 TO viivp ' Cio Ka( fcV 7o?v KpcnTjpai Kal ctin(f)i(f)opevGi TiOai/Swaoovac 

 /bLeXiaaai, tCov fiev Kparijp'xv avfiiBoXov twv Tnjr^fucv (pepoiyricu., kxOw^ 

 Trapa t(<3 Mt^/ja o Kpa~i]p olvtl rrj^ Trrf'^pj^ TcrxKrat, tujv c' a/LKpicfyopetw, 

 iv oh T« OTTO TTrfpl-v apvcneOa. He adds that anciently soids were 

 represented by the bees, and that the ancients called Demeter's priestesses 

 bees as /u'o-Ttce? of the Earth goddess. 



IT So Strabo, p. iS2, and others, ^^ide my Hist, of Conversion of Armenia 

 pp. 45, 46 ; also tlie Armenian Fntir Hatouadsner, Tiflis, 1889, pp. 118 

 sqq. In Agaihangelos, King Tiridates calls Anahit not only "Queen " but 

 also "the glory and life-giver of our nation," and says that through her 

 "the land of the Armenians lives and supports its vitality'' (ch. v : Tiflis 

 Ed. of Armenian text, pp. 40, 41, 47, 48). On the whole rejDulsive subject, 

 see Dr. Frazer s Golden Bough and Adoyiis, Attis, Osiris : also Armenia in 

 Hastings' Encyclopaedia of Reh'gion and Ethics. On Anahita's popularity 

 in Armenia vide Pliny, Hist. Nat., Lib. xxx, 24. The 5th Yasht is in her 

 honour. 



