Mitra 100203 223465549 2008-07-04T05:13:50Z Nishkid64 747326 Reverted edits by [[Special:Contributions/12.10.219.36|12.10.219.36]] ([[User talk:12.10.219.36|talk]]) to last version by DOI bot {{otheruses}} '''''*mitra''''' ([[Proto-Indo-Iranian]], nominative '''''*mitras''''') was an important [[Indo-Iranian]] divinity. Following the prehistoric cultural split of Indian and Iranian cultures, names descended from ''*mitra'' were used for the following religious entities: * '''[[Mitra (Vedic)|Mitra]]''' ([[Sanskrit]] {{IAST|Mitrá-, Mitráḥ}}), a deity ([[asura]]) who appears frequently in the ancient Indian text of the [[Rigveda]]. * '''[[Mithra]]''' ([[Avestan language|Avestan]] Miθra-, Miθrō), a [[yazata]] mentioned in the [[Zoroastrian]] sacred scripture of the [[Avesta]], whose modern Persian equivalent is [[Mehr]]. * '''[[Mithras]]''', the principal figure of the [[Greco-Roman culture|Greco-Roman]] religion of [[Mithraism]]. ==Etymology== Both [[Vedic Sanskrit|Vedic]] Mitra and [[Avestan]] Mithra derive from an Indo-Iranian common noun ''*mitra-'', generally reconstructed to have meant "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 binding 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|volume=OT 10|location=New York|publisher=iranica.com|url=http://www.iranica.com/newsite/articles/ot_grp10/ot_mithra_i_20060114.html}}</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 ''*mei'' "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 "peity." 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 (>6th c. BCE), that too was conclusively dismissed.<!-- "lays to rest in a closely argued and detailed way" --><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 ''Mitra'' <!-- (5x)--> or ''Miθ<sup style="font-size:90%">r</sup>a'' <!--(4x), -θr- represents a sibilant, see Meillet "Gammar" 56, also applied by Ward/Kent --> - 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|last=Ware|first=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}} at p. 55.</ref> the genuine Old Persian form being reconstructed as ''*Miça''. (Kent initially suggested [[Sanskrit]]<!-- Quote: "Skt. mitra- 'friend' borrowed into Iranian as epithet of a divinity,..."--><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).<!-- In the Babylonian version of the Artaxerxes inscription the name appears as ''mi-iš-ša'', which has been interpreted to perhaps indicate local usage. --> [[Middle Iranian languages|Middle Iranian]] ''myhr'' (Parthian, also in living Armenian usage) and ''mihr'' (Middle Persian), derive from Avestan ''Mithra''.<!-- e.g. Boyce, Z1:26; Widengren, Stand und Aufgaben II; --> <!-- This form must already have been in use by the 3rd century BCE: a commemorative inscription (found in [[Phyrgia]]) dateable to this period refers to the annual festival of Mithra as ''[[Mihragan|Mihrakana]]''. In comment because my sloppy notes don't tell me where this came from. --> 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 first 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''<!-- Πέρσαι -->]] call the Mediator Mithra"<!-- following Zaehner 101 & 448 -->. Zaehner<ref name="Zaehner_1955_101_102">{{cite book|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]]. ==Indic 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]]''. Together with Varuna, he counted among the [[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>{{cite journal|title=The 'Aryan' Gods of the Mitanni Treaties|last=Thieme|first=Paul|journal=Journal of the American Oriental Society|volume=80.4|year=<!--Oct-Dec-->1960}} 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]]. There Mitra appears together with four other Indo-Aryan divinities as witnesses and keepers of the pact. ==Iranian Mithra== {{Main|Mithra}} In [[Zoroastrianism]], Mithra is a member of the trinity of ''[[ahura]]s'', protectors of ''[[asha|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]]s, 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 originally distinct from it. Mithra is closely associated with the feminine [[yazata]] [[Aredvi Sura Anahita]], the hypostasis of knowledge. ==Graeco-Roman Mithras== {{main|Mithras}} 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]]. ==References== {{reflist|2}} [[Category:Indo-European mythology]] [[Category:Legal history]] [[Category:Oaths]] <!-- caution: interwiki only those pages that deal with Indo-Iranian *mitra --> [[ca:Mitra (mitologia)]] [[de:Mitra (Begriffsklärung)]] [[he:מיתרה]] [[it:Mitra]] [[ja:ミスラ]] [[no:Mithra]] [[pl:Mitra]] [[ru:Митра]] [[sr:Mitra]] [[zh:密特拉]]