Mithra

This article is about the Zoroastrian yazata. For other uses, see Mithra (disambiguation).

Mithra
God of Covenant and Light
Relief from Taq-e Bostan in Kermanshah Iran. In this relief, Ardashir II is in the middle and to his right is Shapur II and to the left of the king, the god Mithra, with beams of light like the sun emanating from his head in all directions, and he is standing on a sacred lotus flower.
Avestan	Miθra 𐬨𐬌𐬚𐬭𐬀
Affiliation	The Thirty-Three Deities, Guardians of the Days of the Month, The Twelve Deities
Abode	Hara Berezaiti
Symbol	Sunlight, light, Lion, Cypress tree
Sacred flower	Scarlet Rose
Attributes	God of the Covenant, God of Light and Brightness, God of War, God of Truth, Guardian of the Covenant, Judge of Deeds on the Final Day
Day	16th of each month in the Iranian calendar، Sunday of each week
Mount	Chariot
Gender	Male
Temples	Mithraeum
Festivals	Mehregan, Yalda Night (Birth of Mithra)
Associated deities	Verethragna, Rashnu, Sraosha
Equivalents
Greek	Mithras
Hindu	Mitra
Roman	Mithras
Armenian	Mihr
Babylonian	Shamash
Ossetian	Uastyrdzhi
Yazidi	Ezdan

Mithra (Avestan: 𐬨𐬌𐬚𐬭𐬀, Miθra; Old Persian: 𐎷𐎰𐎼, Miθraʰ‍) is an ancient Iranian deity (yazata) of covenants, light, oaths, justice, the Sun, contracts, and friendship. In addition to being the divinity of contracts, Mithra is also a judicial figure, an all-seeing protector of Truth (Asha), and the guardian of cattle, the harvest, and the Waters.

A marble relief of the tauroctony in later Roman Mithraism, 2nd – 3rd century CE

The Romans attributed their Mithraic mysteries to Zoroastrian Persian sources relating to Mithra. Since the early 1970s, the dominant scholarship has noted dissimilarities between the Persian and Roman traditions, making it, at most, the result of Roman perceptions of Zoroastrian ideas. Several characteristics of the later Roman Mithras are present in the Avesta. The tenth book of Yashts shows the deity's close connections with the social and cosmic order, the securing of fertility and water supply, the connection to the sun, and the ethical conditions imposed on the faithful. These four important themes appear in a different, but recognizable form in the Roman cult. According to Boyce, the earliest literary references to the Mithraic mysteries are by the Latin poet Statius, about 80 CE, and Plutarch (c. 100 CE).

4486 Mithra, a near-Earth asteroid, is named after Mithra.