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Mithra was an ancient Persian god, who became a major deity of
Zoroastrianism. He is cognate with the Hindu god Mitra.
The Persian Mithra apparently was the prototype for the Roman god Mithras, which
became the object of a popular mystery religion in the Roman Empire; see Mithraism.
The Apollo asteroid 4486 Mithra was named after this Persian god.
Origins
The cult of this deity in Persia and India
is very ancient, for there are references to Mithra in the Avestas and to Mitra in
the Vedic hymns. Mithra gained stature with the rise of Zoroastrianism, which made Ahuramazda its supreme
deity.
The name of Mithra is ancient. It may suggest "contract" or "friendship." (additional information is needed here)
Mithra in Zoroastrianism
As the protector of truth and the enemy of error, Mithra occupied an intermediate position in the Zoroastrian pantheon as the
greatest of the yazatas, the beings created by Ahuramazda to aid in the destruction of evil and the administration of
the world. He was thus a deity of the realms of air and light, and, by transfer to the moral realm, the god of truth and loyalty.
As the enemy of darkness and evil spirits, he protected souls, accompanying them to paradise (a Persian concept and even a Persian
word), and was thus a redeemer. Because light is accompanied by heat, he was the god of vegetation and increase; he rewarded the
good with prosperity and annihilated the bad.
As a god who gave victory, Mithra was prominent in the official cult of the first Persian empire, where the seventh month and the sixteenth day of other months were consecrated to him. His
worship spread first with the empire of the Persians throughout Asia Minor, then throughout the empire of Alexander and his successors. In Mesopotamia, Mithra was easily
identified with Shamash, god of the sun.
Mithra in the Greco/Roman world
In the Hellenitic culture, Mithra could be identified with Apollo and Helios. Around the year
200 BC, somewhere in the Eastern Mediterranean (possibly in Phrygia), the figure of Mitra/Helios was transformed into Mithras, the central god of a new syncretic religion, Mithraism. Although this new cult never caught on in the Greek homeland, it was taken to
Rome around the 1st century BC by returning soldiers, and became a
major religion of the Roman Empire.
See also
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