Anahita (Arədvī Sūrā Anāhita / Ardwisur Anāhīd)

In Zoroastrian scripture (notably the Aban Yasht) she appears as Arədvī Sūrā Anāhita — a compound name combining a divinity-specific element Arədvī (perhaps originally meaning 'moist'), sūra ('mighty') and anāhīta ('pure'). She functions both as a personified goddess and as the mythical river that is the source of all waters, described in the Yasht as 'as great in bigness as all these waters which flow forth upon the earth.' Scholars connect her to the Indo‑Iranian heavenly-river tradition (cognate to Sanskrit Sarasvatī / Proto-Iranian *Harahwatī) and note that regional western-Iranian forms (Anāhiti/Anaïtis) and contact with Ishtar-like figures shaped later aspects of her cult.

The Aban Yasht presents her in literary myth as 'a beautiful strong maiden, clad in beaver skins, who drives a chariot drawn by four horses—wind (vayu-), rain, cloud and sleet.' Later historical evidence and scholarly hypothesis indicate that the cult produced anthropomorphic representations in some periods (scholars such as Mary Boyce have argued for an introduction of cult images in the Achaemenid period followed by a Sasanian iconoclastic replacement of images with sacred fire), but the primary textual depiction in the Yasht is the chariot-driving maiden.

As a water divinity she is the source and personification of waters and thus governs the fertility of land, reproduction of flocks and crops, and general well‑being linked to water. She is invoked for fertility, procreation, and wisdom, and warriors petitioned her for victory. Through historical conflation with a western-Iranian Anāhiti analogue and Ishtar-like figures she came to be associated in some traditions with the planet Venus and acquired martial attributes.