Where many deities in the Armenian pantheon are depicted as distantly powerful and impersonal, ANAHIT, goddess of springs, rivers and waters, fertility and birth, was an intimate and much-loved deity, often sculpted with a child in her arms and with the distinctive hairstyle of Armenian women. 'The Great Lady', the 'golden mother', the 'glory', is depicted as the daughter or wife of sun-god and Armenian all-father ARAMAZD. As Anahita she is technically Persian, but there's a strong suspicion among scholars that she is cognate with the Babylonian ISHTAR under the name of ANATU, or the Elamite NAHUNTA. Thanks to her adoption by the conquering Persians under Ataxerxes II her worship spread through the Persian empire, where it survived long enough to be carried into the Greek pantheon. Here she is identified with ATHENA, ARTEMIS and APHRODITE. She also turns up in Rome; a mountain in the district of Sophene was described as Anahit's throne (Ator Anahta). A peculiarity of her worship was that noble Armenian families were obliged to offer sex in her name in her temples to all who wanted it
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