Iconography of Deities and Demons: Electronic Pre-Publication 1/2

Last Revision: 20 November 2006

Mithra The Persians certainly did conceive of

their gods in anthropomorphic form (BOYCE
Iranian god, →DDD. Mithra is an 1982a: 179; comprehensively JACOBS 2001:
ancient Aryan deity first documented with 84-86). Although no Persian cult images
the Indo-Aryans dispersal into Anatolia in (agalmata) were known to Herodotus
connection with the “Aryan migrations” (Historiae 1.131), they might well have
(Mitanni contract of Shuppiluliuma I [c. existed (see GARRISON 2000: 143 with n.
1335-1320]: Mi-it-ra-). The god is also 64). We cannot therefore exclude a priori
mentioned in the Veda (Mitrá-); the Avesta the possibility of a pictorial representation
(Miṯra-), where a single Yašt (no. 10) is of pre-Hellenistic M. However, while there
dedicated to him; and in OP inscriptions can be no doubt about M.’s relative
(Miṯ/tra-) (MAYRHOFER 1978). The wide importance in Iranian religion since the 2nd
diffusion of theophoric names compounded mill. and a particular development of the
with M. in pre-Achaemenid and Achae- god toward solar qualities during the late
menid times west of the central Iranian salt Achaemenid period, pictorial representa-
deserts (MAYRHOFER 1973: 8.1138-8.1150, tions of the god predating the Hellenistic
8.1167-8.1169; SCHMITT 1978: 395-455, period have not yet been identified as such
esp. 415-426; ZADOK 2002: 129) leaves no in Western Asia. Tentative identifications of
doubt that M. was venerated in Persia long the four-winged divine being (→Auramaz-
before the 4th cent., when the god is first da) as M. (e.g., UEHLINGER 1999: 178) can
mentioned in Achaemenid royal inscriptions hardly be substantiated, nor do later
from the reign of Artaxerxes II (404-359; representations of M. such as those
KENT 1950: 154f A2Sa 4f; A2Sd 4; A2Ha 5f; preserved in Roman mithraea (cf. JACOBS
A2Hb) and Artaxerxes III (358-338; KENT 1999 with extensive referencing) provide
1950: 156 A3Pa 25). any clues as to how M. was conceived in the
Basing themselves mainly on the Achaemenid and earlier periods.
references to M., as well as to →Anahita, in
Selected Bibliography
the Achaemenid inscriptions, scholars have GERSHEVITCH 1959 • DRIJVERS /DE JONG 1999
speculated about radical changes in
religious politics during the time of Bruno Jacobs
Artaxerxes II. Those changes have been
associated either with a cultic reorientation
initiated by the king within the Achaemenid
royal house (BOYCE 1982a: 1004), or a
“pagan counter-revolution,” rooted in pre-
Zoroastrian concepts, against the mono-
theistic tendencies of Zoroastrianism (thus,
e.g., HINZ 1961: 160f; cf. GERSHEVITCH
1959: 19f; MALANDRA 1983: 4, 24f). These
hypotheses rest, however, on highly
problematic assumptions regarding the
aniconic and/or monotheistic nature of
Persian religion prior to Artaxerxes II (cf.
→Anahita). The mention of M. in late
Achaemenid royal inscriptions merely
testifies to his relatively important position
in the Persian pantheon (cf. also Duris of
Samos, ap. Athen. X 45, 434 e-f; Strabo,
Geographia XI 14, 9), and to the preference
for this god on the part of those kings in
whose inscriptions he is mentioned.
In the course of the Achaemenid period
M. became increasingly associated with the
sun god (→Solar deities), with whom he
was finally identified (Strabo, Geographia
XV 3, 13; Curtius Rufus, Historiae
Alexandri Magni Macedonis IV 13, 12;
Plutrach, Vita Artaxerxis 30, 7-8; JACOBS
1991: 55-57; on the disputed mention of M.
in Herodotus, Historiae 1.131 cf.
NAGEL/JACOBS 1984: 369f; EDWARDS
1990; CORSTEN 1991).

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