“Mithras and Mithraism
By Payam Nabaraz
Originally published at Lughnasa 1999

According to Persian traditions, the god Mithras was actually incarnated into the human form of the Saviour expected by Zarathustra. Mithras was born of Anahita, an immaculate virgin mother once worshipped as a fertility goddess before the hierarchical reformation. Anahita was said to have conceived the Saviour from the seed of Zarathustra preserved in the waters of Lake Hamun in the Persian province of Sistan. Mithra's ascension to heaven was said to have occurred in 208 B.C., 64 years after his birth. This birth took place in a cave or grotto, where shepherds attended him and regaled him with gifts, at the winter solstice.”

Since I am writing this two weeks before Christmas it all looks rather familiar. I included the above quote to keep clear in my own mind the role of Mithras and the Zoroastrians. Historians generally agree that Zoroaster (Zarathustra) was born in north-eastern Iran, possibly around 1,000 BC, although some date his birth much earlier.

Eternal Flame, Zoroastrian Temple, Yazd. (Sorry - through glass and much resized)

We visited two Mithraic fire temples (I missed out on the second one on account of I had an argument with some prawns) and a Zoroastrian Temple (Atashkade) at Yazd where an eternal flame burns. As our guide pointed out to us, many different religions see God as light or as a flame.

Detail from Zoroastrian Temple, Yazd

There are about 130,000 Zoroastrians living mainly in India and Iran with about 45,000 of them in Iran where the numbers are dwindling due to emigration and conversion to Islam.The Zoroastrian Temple at Yazd was built in 1934 but the eternal flame is said to have burned since about 470 AD, being brought from the Nahd-e-Pars temple in India via Ardakan.

Notice board at ZoroastrianTemple, Yazd

Traditionally, Zoroastrians did not bury their dead in the but left the bodies exposed to the elements - and vultures - in pits in open-topped towers. For health reasons this practice is no longer allowed and they now bury their bodies.

Tower of Silence where bodies used to be exposed