Mitra

Common card · No. 235923

Mitra (Proto-Indo-Iranian: *mitrás) is the name of an Indo-Iranian divinity that came out of the Rigvedic Mitrá and Avestan Mithra. The names, and some characteristics, of these established deities subsequently influenced other figures: Maitreya, a vrddhi-derived form of Sanskrit mitra, a bodhisattva in Buddhist tradition. Latin Mithras, the principal figure of the first-century Roman mystery cult of Mithraism, whose name derives from the Avestan theonym via Greek and some Anatolian intermediate. In Hellenistic-era Asia Minor, Avestan Mithra was conflated with various local and Greek figures leading to several different variants of Apollo-Helios-Mithras-Hermes-Stilbon. In Middle Iranian, the Avestan theonym evolved (among other Middle Iranian forms) into Sogdian Miši, Middle Persian and Parthian Mihr, and Bactrian Miuro (/mihru/). Aside from Avestan Mithra, these derivative names were also used for Greco-Bactrian Mithro, Miiro, Mioro, and Miuro. Mithra, the "first messenger" of Iranian...

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