Mitra

2025-09-30T20:25:18Z

103.172.153.135:

{{other uses}}
{{short description|Indo-Iranian divinity}}
'''''Mitra''''' ([[Proto-Indo-Iranian language|Proto-Indo-Iranian]]: [[wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-Iranian/mitrás|''*mitrás'']]) is the name of an [[Indo-Iranians#Religion|Indo-Iranian]] divinity that came out of the [[Rigveda|Rigvedic]] [[Mitra (Hindu god)|Mitrá]] and [[Avestan]] [[Mithra]].

The names, and some characteristics, of these established deities subsequently influenced other figures:
* [[Maitreya]], a [[vṛddhi|vrddhi-derived]] form of Sanskrit ''mitra'', a [[bodhisattva]] in [[Buddhist]] tradition.
* Latin [[Mithraic mysteries|Mithras]], the principal figure of the first-century Roman [[Mithraism|mystery cult of Mithraism]], whose name derives from the Avestan theonym via Greek and some Anatolian intermediate.
* In Hellenistic-era [[Asia Minor]], Avestan Mithra was conflated with various local and Greek figures leading to several different variants of [[Apollo]]-[[Helios]]-[[Mithras]]-[[Hermes]]-[[Stilbon (mythology)|Stilbon]].
* In Middle Iranian, the Avestan theonym evolved (among other Middle Iranian forms) into [[Sogdian language|Sogdian]] ''Miši'', [[Middle Persian]] and [[Parthian language|Parthian]] ''Mihr'', and [[Bactrian language|Bactrian]] ''Miuro'' (/mihru/).{{citation needed|date=February 2016}} Aside from Avestan Mithra, these derivative names were also used for Greco-Bactrian ''Mithro'', ''Miiro'', ''Mioro'', and ''Miuro''.
* Mithra, the "first messenger" of Iranian [[Manichaeans]].{{efn|"The Iranian Manichaeans adopted the name of the Zoroastrian god Mithra (Av. ''Miθra''; Mid. Pers. ''Mihr'') and used it to designate one of their own deities. [...] The name appears in Middle Persian as ''Mihr'' (''myhr'', unrelated to Old Persian form *''miça''-), in Parthian as ''Mihr'' (''myhr'') and in Sogdian as ''Miši'' (''myšyy''; Sundermann, 1979a, p. 10, sub 3/11.2). The spellings ''mytr, mytrg'', however, are not variants of the name ''Mithra'', they rather denote ''Maitreya''."<ref>{{cite encyclopedia
|first=Werner |last=Sundermann
|year=2002
|title=Mithra; iii. in Manichaeism
|encyclopedia=[[Encyclopedia Iranica]]
|url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/mithra-in-manicheism-1
}}</ref>}}

==Indian religious texts==
Both [[Vedic Sanskrit|Vedic]] Mitra and Avestan Mithra derive from an Indo-Iranian common noun ''*mitra-'', generally reconstructed to have meant "[[wikt:covenant|covenant]], [[treaty]], agreement, [[promise]]." This meaning is preserved in Avestan ''miθra'' "covenant". In [[Sanskrit]] and modern [[Indo-Aryan language]]s, ''{{IAST|mitra}}'' means "friend", one of the aspects of [[human bonding|bonding]] and alliance.

The Indo-Iranian reconstruction is attributed<ref name="Schmidt_2006">{{citation|last=Schmidt|first=Hans-Peter|chapter=Mithra i: Mithra in Old Indian and Mithra in Old Iranian|year=2006|title=Encyclopaedia Iranica|location=New York|publisher=iranica.com|chapter-url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/mithra-i}} (accessed April 2011)</ref> to Christian Bartholomae,<ref name="Bartholomae_1904_c1183">{{citation|last=Bartholomae|first=Christian|title=Altiranisches Wörterbuch|year=1904|location=Strassburg |publisher=Trübner}} (fasc., 1979, Berlin: de Gruyter), at column 1183.</ref> and was subsequently refined by A. Meillet (1907), who suggested derivation from the Proto-Indo-European root ''*mey-'' "to exchange".

A suggested alternative derivation was ''*meh'' "to measure" (Gray 1929). Pokorny ([[IEW]] 1959) refined Meillet's ''*mei'' as "to bind". Combining the root ''*mei'' with the "tool suffix" ''-tra-'' "that which [causes] ..." (also found in ''[[mantra|man-tra-]]'', "that which causes to think"), then literally means "that which binds", and thus "covenant, treaty, agreement, promise, oath" etc. Pokorny's interpretation also supports "to fasten, strengthen", which may be found in Latin ''moenia'' "city wall, fortification", and in an antonymic form, Old English ''(ge)maere'' "border, boundary-post".

Meillet and Pokorny's "contract" did however have its detractors. Lentz (1964, 1970) refused to accept abstract "contract" for so exalted a divinity and preferred the more religious "piety". Because present-day Sanskrit ''mitra'' means "friend", and New Persian ''mihr'' means "love" or "friendship", Gonda (1972, 1973) insisted on a Vedic meaning of "friend, friendship", not "contract".

Meillet's analysis also "rectified earlier interpretations"<ref name="Schmidt_2006" /> that suggested that the Indo-Iranian common noun ''*mitra-'' had anything to do with the light or the sun. When H. Lommel suggested<ref>{{citation|last=Lommel |first=Herman|chapter=Die Sonne das Schlechteste?|pages=360–376|title=Zarathustra|editor-last=Schlerath|editor-first=Bernfried|year=1970|location=Darmstadt|publisher=Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft}}</ref> that such an association was implied in the Younger Avesta (since the 6th century BCE), that too was conclusively dismissed.<ref>{{citation|last=Gershevitch|first=Ilya|chapter=Die Sonne das Beste|pages=68–89|title=Mithraic Studies: Proceedings of the First International Congress of Mithraic Studies.|volume=1|editor-last=Hinnells|editor-first=John R.|year=1975|location=Manchester|publisher=UP/Rowman & Littlefield}}</ref> Today, it is certain that "(al)though Miθra is closely associated with the sun in the [[Avesta]], he is not the sun" and "Vedic Mitra is not either."<ref name="Schmidt_2006" />

Old Persian ''Miθra''  or ''Miθ<sup style="font-size:90%">r</sup>a''  – both only attested in a handful of 4th-century BCE inscriptions of [[Artaxerxes II]] and [[Artaxerxes III|III]] – "is generally admitted [to be] a borrowing from the Avesta,"<ref name="WareKent_1924_55">{{citation|last1=Ware|first1=James R.|last2=Kent|first2=Roland G.|title=The Old Persian Cuneiform Inscriptions of Artaxerxes II and Artaxerxes III|journal=Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association|volume=55|year=1924|pages=52–61|doi=10.2307/283007|publisher=The Johns Hopkins University Press|jstor=283007}} at p. 55.</ref> the genuine Old Persian form being reconstructed as ''*Miça''. (Kent initially suggested [[Sanskrit]]<ref name="Kent_1953_31b">{{citation|last=Kent|first=Ronald G.|title=Old Persian: Grammar, Lexicon, Texts|edition=2nd|year=1953|location=New Haven|publisher=American Oriental Society|at=§78/p. 31b}}</ref> but later<ref name="WareKent_1924_55" /> changed his mind). [[Middle Iranian languages|Middle Iranian]] ''myhr'' (Parthian, also in living Armenian usage) and ''mihr'' (Middle Persian), derive from Avestan ''Mithra''. 

Greek/Latin "Mithras," the focal deity of the [[Greco-Roman]] cult of [[Mithraism]] is the nominative form of vocative Mithra. In contrast to the original Avestan meaning of "contract" or "covenant" (and still evident in post-Sassanid Middle Persian texts), the Greco-Roman Mithraists probably thought the name meant "mediator". In Plutarch's 1st-century discussion of dualistic theologies, ''Isis and Osiris'' (46.7) the Greek historiographer provides the following explanation of the name in his summary of the Zoroastrian religion: Mithra is a ''meson'' ("in the middle") between "the good [[Ahura Mazda|Horomazdes]] and the evil [[Angra Mainyu|Aremanius]] [...] and this is why the [[Iranian peoples|''Pérsai'']] call the Mediator Mithra". Zaehner<ref name="Zaehner_1955_101_102">{{Citation|last=Zaehner|first=Richard Charles|title=Zurvan, a Zoroastrian dilemma|year=1955|publisher=Clarendon|location=Oxford}} at pp. 101–102.</ref> attributes this false etymology to a role that Mithra (and the sun) played in the now extinct branch of Zoroastrianism known as [[Zurvanism]].

==Indian Mitra==
{{Main|Mitra (Vedic)}}

[[Historical Vedic religion|Vedic]] Mitra is a prominent deity of the [[Rigveda]] distinguished by a relationship to [[Varuna]], the protector of ''[[rta]]'' as described in hymn 2, Mandala 1 of Rigveda. Together with Varuna, he counted among the [[Ādityas|Aditya]]s, a group of [[solar deity|solar deities]], also in later Vedic texts. Vedic Mitra is the patron divinity of honesty, friendship, contracts and meetings.

The first extant record of Indo-Aryan <ref>{{Citation|title=The 'Aryan' Gods of the Mitanni Treaties|last=Thieme|first=Paul|journal=Journal of the American Oriental Society|volume=80|year=1960| issue=4 |pages=301–317 | doi=10.2307/595878 | jstor=595878 |postscript=.}} pp. 301–317.</ref> Mitra, in the form ''mi-it-ra-'', is in the inscribed peace treaty of c. 1400 BC between [[Hittites]] and the [[Hurrians|Hurrian]] kingdom of the [[Mitanni]] in the area southeast of [[Lake Van]] in [[Asia Minor]]. Mitra appears there together with four other Indic divinities as witnesses and keepers of the pact.

==Iranian Mithra==
[[File:Taq-e Bostan - High-relief of Ardeshir II investiture.jpg|thumb|200px|[[Mithra]] (left) in a 4th-century investiture sculpture at [[Taq-e Bostan]] in western Iran.]]
{{Main|Mithra}}

In [[Zoroastrianism]], Mithra is a member of the trinity of ''[[ahura]]s'', protectors of ''[[asha]]/arta'', "truth" or "[that which is] right". Mithra's standard appellation is "of wide pastures" suggesting omnipresence. Mithra is "truth-speaking, ... with a thousand ears, ... with ten thousand eyes, high, with full knowledge, strong, sleepless, and ever awake." (''Yasht'' 10.7). As preserver of [[Covenant (religion)|covenants]], Mithra is also protector and keeper of all aspects of interpersonal relationships, such as friendship and love.

Related to his position as protector of truth, Mithra is a judge (''ratu''), ensuring that individuals who break promises or are not righteous (''artavan'') are not admitted to [[paradise]]. As also in Indo-Iranian tradition, Mithra is associated with (the divinity of) the sun but [[Hvare-khshaeta|originally distinct from it]]. Mithra is closely associated with the feminine [[yazata]] [[Aredvi Sura Anahita]], the hypostasis of knowledge.

==Mithra in Commagene==
[[File:Mithra&Antiochus.jpg|upright|thumb|Mithras-Helios, in Phrygian cap with solar rays, with 1st century BC [[Antiochus I Theos of Commagene]], found at [[Mount Nemrut]], in present-day eastern Turkey]]

There is a deity Mithra mentioned on monuments in [[Commagene]]. According to the archaeologist Maarten Vermaseren, 1st century BC evidence from Commagene demonstrates the "reverence paid to Mithras" but does not refer to "the mysteries".{{efn|
Other early evidence of the first decades B.C. refers only to the reverence paid to Mithras without mentioning the mysteries: Examples which may be quoted are the tomb inscriptions of King Antiochus I of Commagene at Nemrud Dagh, and of his father Mithridates at Arsameia on the Orontes. Both the kings had erected on vast terraces a number of colossal statues seated on thrones to the honour of their ancestral gods. At Nemrud we find in their midst King Antiochus (69–34 BC and in the inscription Mithras is mentioned ...<ref name=Vermaseren-1963-p29/>
}}<ref name=Vermaseren-1963-p29>
{{cite book
|last=Vermaseren |first=M.J.
|year=1963
|title=Mithras: The secret god
|location=London, UK
|publisher=Chatto and Windus
|page=29
}}
</ref>

In the colossal statuary erected by King [[Antiochus I of Commagene|Antiochus I]] (69–34 BC) at [[Mount Nemrut]], Mithras is shown beardless, wearing a [[Phrygian cap]],<ref name="hopfe-5">
{{cite book
|first=Lewis M. |last=Hopfe
|year=1994
|section=Archaeological indications on the origins of Roman Mithraism
|editor-first=Lewis M. |editor-last=Hopfe
|title=Uncovering Ancient Stones: Essays in memory of H. Neil Richardson
|publisher=Eisenbrauns
|pages=147–158, esp. 156
}}
</ref><ref name="CIMRM 29">
{{cite book
|editor-last=Vermaseren |editor-first=Maarten Jozef
|year=1956
|title=Corpus inscriptionum et monumentorum religionis mithriacae
|location=The Hague
|publisher=Martinus Nijhoff
|at=CIMRM 29
|quote=Head of a beardless Mithras in Phrygian cap, point of which is missing.
}}
</ref>
and was originally seated on a throne alongside other deities and the king himself.<ref>
{{cite book
|last=Vermaseren |first=Maarten Jozef
|year=1956
|title=Corpus Inscriptionum et Monumentorum Religionis Mithriacae
|location=The Hague
|publisher=Martinus Nijhoff
|at=CIMRM 28
|quote=The gods are represented in a sitting position on a throne and are: Apollo-Mithras (see below); Tyche-Commagene; Zeus-Ahura-Mazda; Antiochus himself and finally Ares-Artagnes.
}}
</ref>
On the back of the thrones there is an inscription in Greek, which includes the name Apollo-Mithras-Helios in the genitive case ({{math|Ἀπόλλωνος Μίθρου Ἡλίου}}).<ref>
{{cite book
|last=Vermaseren |first=Maarten Jozef
|year=1956
|title=Corpus Inscriptionum et Monumentorum Religionis Mithriacae
|location=The Hague
|publisher=Martinus Nijhoff
|at=CIMRM 32, verse 55
}}
</ref>

Vermaseren also reports about a Mithras cult in [[Fayum]] in the 3rd century BC.{{efn|
According to Vermaseren, there was a Mithras cult in the [[Fayum]] in the third century BC, and according to Pettazzoni the figure of Aion has its iconographic origin in Egypt.<ref name=Barnett-1975-p467ff/>
}}<ref name=Barnett-1975-p467ff>
{{cite conference
|last=Barnett |first=R.D.
|year=1975
|editor-last=Hinnells |editor-first=John R.
|book-title=Mithraic Studies
|conference=First International Congress of Mithraic Studies
|volume=II |page=467 ff
|place=Manchester, UK
|publisher=Manchester University Press ND
}}
</ref>
R.D. Barnett has argued that the royal seal of King Saussatar of Mitanni from {{circa|1450 BC}} depicts a tauroctonous Mithras.{{efn|
I ... see these figures, or some of them, in the impression of the remarkable royal seal of King Saussatar of Mitanni ({{circa|1450 BC}} great-great-grandfather of Kurtiwaza): The only royal Mitannian seal that we possess. ... Mithra ''tauroctonos'' – characteristically kneeling on the bull to despatch it. We can even see also the dog and snake ... below him are twin figures, one marked by a star, each fighting lions ... below a winged disc between lions and ravens, stands a winged, human-headed lion, ...<ref name=Barnett-1975-pp467–468/>
}}<ref name=Barnett-1975-pp467–468>
{{cite conference
|last=Barnett |first=R.D.
|year=1975
|editor-last=Hinnells |editor-first=John R.
|book-title=Mithraic Studies
|conference=First International Congress of Mithraic Studies
|volume=II |pages=467–468
|place=Manchester, UK
|publisher=Manchester University Press ND
}}
</ref>

==Buddhist Maitreya ==
{{Main|Maitreya }}
Maitreya is sometimes represented seated on a throne, and venerated both in [[Mahāyāna]] and non-Mahāyāna Buddhism. Some have speculated that inspiration for Maitreya may have come from the ancient [[Proto-Indo-Iranian religion|Iranian]] [[deity]] ''Mithra''. The primary comparison between the two characters appears to be the similarity of their names. According to Tiele (1917) "''No one who has studied the Zoroastrian doctrine of the [[Saoshyant]]s or the coming saviour-prophets can fail to see their resemblance to the future Maitreya.''"<ref name="Tiele, p. 159.">{{cite book |first=C.P. |last=Tiele |title=The Religion of the Iranian Peoples |translator-first=G.K. |translator-last=Nariman |location=Bombay |publisher=The Parsi Publishing Co. |year=1917 |url=https://archive.org/stream/religionofirania00tielrich#page/158/mode/2up |page=159}}</ref>

[[Paul Williams (philosopher)|Paul Williams]] claims that some [[Zoroastrian]] ideas like Saoshyant influenced the beliefs about Maitreya , such as expectations of a heavenly helper, the need to opt for positive righteousness, the future millennium, and universal salvation.{{citation needed|date=June 2019}} Possible objections are that these characteristics are not unique to Zoroastrianism, nor are they necessarily characteristic of the belief in Maitreya .

==Graeco-Roman Mithras==
{{main|Mithraism}}
[[Image:0 Relief représentant Mithra - Louvre-Lens (2).JPG|thumb|Relief of Roman [[Mithraism|Mithras]], in a [[tauroctony]] scene]]

The name Mithra was adopted by the Greeks and Romans as ''[[Mithras]]'', chief figure in the [[mystery religion]] of [[Mithraism]]. At first identified with the Sun-god [[Helios]] by the Greeks, the [[Syncretism|syncretic]] Mithra-Helios was transformed into the figure Mithras during the 2nd century BC, probably at [[Pergamon]]. This new cult was taken to Rome around the 1st century BC and was dispersed throughout the [[Roman Empire]]. Popular among the Roman military, Mithraism was spread as far north as [[Hadrian's Wall]] and the [[Germanic Limes]].

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{reflist|25em}}

==External links==
{{wiktionary inline|Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-Iranian/mitra}}

{{Authority control}}

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