Tra cielo e terra. Riflessioni sul culto della dea Anāhitā e sui rituali in suo onore

Antonio C. D. Panaino

Dipartimento di Beni Culturali

Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna, Accademico Effettivo

Abstract

The present article deals with a special invocation to the Mazdean goddess Anāhitā, occurring three times in the fifth Yašt (Yt. 5,85; 88; 132) of the Avesta. By means of a unique formula, the goddess is asked to come down from the nocturnal sky. The special ban of nocturnal ceremonies in favour of Anāhitā seems to apparently stay in contradiction with this kind of nocturnal invo- cation, although it probably implies that the goddess descends from heaven only when the stars have set. Furthermore, some of the cosmological and ceremonial implications of this “invita- tion” are discussed within the framework of the debate about the rationale of the liturgical dis- position of the Great Yašts and of the economy of the Zoroastrian organization of the sacrifice.

Keywords

Anāhitā, Stars, Great Yašts, Animal sacrifice, Night, Rituals.

© Antonio C. D. Panaino, 2025 / Doi: 10.30682/annalesm2503s

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the CC BY 4.0 license