Anahit

Most-popularly-venerated goddess of the Armenian polytheistic pantheon; fertility, healing, and motherland-patroness. Her Erznka temple gold cult-statue was the most-famous Armenian polytheistic cult image; the bronze head fragment in the British Museum (acquired 1872) is widely attributed to her cult, though the British-Museum-attribution is contested by some scholars. Her Vardavar water-festival continued in folk-residual form as the Christian Vardavar (Transfiguration-water-pouring) — among the most-actively-preserved Armenian polytheistic rituals in modern practice. The variant father-Aramazd / consort-Aramazd framing (see Aramazd entry) places her either as daughter or consort depending on source, with the consort-framing more prominent in Agathangelos.

Powers

• Give life and fertility
• Heal the sick

Epithets

• Ոսկեմայր armenian · Voskemayr'Golden Mother' — Anahit's epithet from her gold cult-statue at ErznkaAgathangelos, History of the Armenians §22, §53 (primary)
• Մեծ տիկին armenian · Mec tikin'Great Lady' — Anahit as the mother-patroness of ArmeniaAgathangelos, History of the Armenians §53 (primary)

Relations

• equated with: Aredvi Sura AnahitaReciprocal of zoroastrian_aredvi_sura_anahita.equated-with — Anahit is the Armenian reflex of Anahita, and became the nation's most beloved goddess ('mother of all sobriety'). Preserves waters, fertility, healing; the Armenian cult adds golden-statue motherland patronage.J. R. Russell, Zoroastrianism in Armenia (1987) (secondary)

Sources

• existence: Khorenatsi 2.12-14, 49 (primary); Agathangelos Ch. 778-810 (primary); Erznka temple gold-statue head (British Museum bronze fragment) (archaeological)