Anahita /ɑːnəˈhiːtə/ is an Iranian goddess. She is praised in the Aban Yasht, one of the Zoroastrian hymns contained in the Avesta, under the name Aradvi Sura Anahita (Arədvī Sūrā Anāhita). In Middle Persian, her name was rendered Ardwisur Anahid.
She is thought to have developed from an Indo-Iranian divinity of the mythical river which is the source of all the waters of the world.
Characteristically for a water divinity, Anahita is associated with fertility, procreation, and wisdom. Like the Indian Sarasvati, Anahita nurtures crops and herds; she is hailed both as a divinity and as the mythical river which she personifies, "as great in bigness as all these waters which flow forth upon the earth" (Yasht 5.3). In the Aban Yasht, she is depicted as a "beautiful strong maiden, clad in beaver skins, who drives a chariot drawn by four horses—wind (vayu-), rain, cloud and sleet." She is also connected with luxuries like horses, chariots, weapons, and household goods, and it is said that warriors prayed to her for victory. The Greeks identified Anahita with several of their own goddesses; most frequently, they viewed her as the Persian Artemis.
The cosmological qualities of the world river are alluded to in Yasht 5, but properly developed only in the Bundahishn, a Zoroastrian account of creation finished in the 11th or 12th century CE. In both texts, Aredvi Sura Anahita is not only a divinity, but also the source of the world river and the (name of the) world river itself. The cosmological legend runs as follows:
All the waters of the world created by Ahura Mazda originate from the source Aredvi Sura Anahita, the life-increasing, herd-increasing, fold-increasing, who makes prosperity for all countries. This source is at the top of the world mountain Hara Berezaiti, "High Hara", around which the sky revolves and that is at the center of Airyanem Vaejah, the first of the lands created by Mazda.
The water, warm and clear, flows through a hundred thousand golden channels towards Mount Hugar, "the Lofty", one of the daughter-peaks of Hara Berezaiti. On the summit of that mountain is Lake Urvis, "the Turmoil", into which the waters flow, becoming quite purified and exiting through another golden channel. Through that channel, which is at the height of a thousand men, one portion of the great spring Aredvi Sura Anahita drizzles in moisture upon the whole earth, where it dispels the dryness of the air and all the creatures of Mazda acquire health from it. Another portion runs down to Vourukasha, the great sea upon which the earth rests, and from which it flows to the seas and oceans of the world and purifies them.
