Anahita

c. 500 BCE – 650 CEattested

Iran

• Iranian

Goddess of the waters, fertility and, unusually, of warriors, driving a chariot pulled by wind, rain, cloud and sleet. Artaxerxes II broke with precedent by putting up statues of her, which Zoroastrianism had avoided.

Known for

• the heavenly river
• a chariot of four weathers
• the first statues in a cult that avoided them

Dates are estimates. A great deal of what this atlas covers is only datable to within a century.

Credits