Mithra

The Lord of Covenants

Domain: Covenants, Light & Justice
Alignment: Lawful Good
Element: Light
Relics of Power: Mace of a Thousand Points

Speak with Mithra

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4 sections of this entry are open to everyone: the summary, the people, the symbols, the lineage and the sources. The other 9 (Name and epithets, In the ancient sources, The myths, Worship and archaeology, How the god was depicted, What scholars debate, After antiquity, Did you know?, Codex relic) are part of the full Codex: PRO opens the whole study of all 500 deities, and without a subscription you can read one full entry a day, just like in the app.

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The People

People

Persians (Zoroastrians)

Region

Persia (modern Iran)

Period

c. 1500 BC – 650 AD

The Persian deities belong to Zoroastrianism, the faith of the ancient Persian Empire, founded on the teachings of Zarathustra. Centered on the cosmic struggle between good (Ahura Mazda) and evil (Angra Mainyu), it influenced Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. It is still practiced by Zoroastrian communities in Iran and India (the Parsis).

In the fire temples, priests keep sacred flames that have burned for centuries — the one in Yazd, Iran, for over 1,500 years. Nowruz, the Persian new year at the spring equinox, and Yalda night, at the winter solstice, celebrate the victory of light over darkness.

At a glance

Mithra (Avestan: Miθra; Old Persian: Mitra; Middle Persian: Mihr) is the preeminent divinity of covenants, contractual integrity, pre-dawn radiance, and judicial righteousness in ancient Iranian religion and Zoroastrianism. Revered since the Proto-Indo-Iranian period in close correspondence with the Vedic god Mitra, his worship and theological portfolio are preserved primarily in the Mihr Yasht (Yasht 10 of the Avesta), one of the longest and most archaic devotional hymns within Zoroastrian sacred literature. As stated in the opening verse of that hymn, the supreme creator Ahura Mazda created Mithra to be as worthy of sacrifice and prayer as Ahura Mazda himself, appointing him with the inviolable duty of watching over every agreement made between human beings. Endowed with a thousand ears and ten thousand sleepless eyes, Mithra traverses the earth upon his golden chariot before the rising sun ascends over Mount Hara Berezaiti, inspecting every territory inhabited by the Aryan peoples. Anyone who violates their pledged word (branded a Mithradruj, or 'contract-breaker') incurs severe divine retribution: Mithra deflects the weapons of perjurers in battle and shatters their strongholds. During the Achaemenid and Sasanian eras, Mithra stood as the celestial guarantor of political loyalty and legitimate sovereign rule, invoked alongside Ahuramazda and the goddess Anahita in royal monumental inscriptions. In later Zoroastrian eschatology, codified in Pahlavi treatises such as the Menog-i Khrad and the Bundahishn, Mithra presides as supreme magistrate at the post-mortem tribunal of the Chinvat Bridge, cooperating with Rashnu, who holds the scales of absolute justice, and Sraosha, personification of sacred obedience, to judge the destiny of each departed soul without partiality.

8 min read · Reviewed on September 30, 2026 · How we research

Sacred symbols

The sun, the mace, the celestial chariot and the bull

Sources and further reading

Primary sources

Zarathushtra (Attributed) & Darmesteter, James (Trans.), Khorda Avesta: 10. Mihr Yasht ('Hymn to Mithra'). translation: Sacred Books of the East, Vol. 23 (Digital edition at Avesta.org). read
Geldner, Karl F. (Ed.), Avesta, the Sacred Books of the Parsis: Yasht 10 (Mihr Yasht). translation: Critical Avestan edition preserved in the digital Zoroastrian archive. read
Artaxerxes II / Lendering, Jona (Ed.), Achaemenid Royal Inscriptions: A2Sa (Susa Column Bases). translation: English translation and epigraphic transcription on Livius.org. read
Darmesteter, James (Trad.), The Zend-Avesta, Part I: The Vendîdâd (Table of Contents and Translation). translation: Sacred Books of the East, Vol. 4 (Digital archive at Avesta.org). read
West, E. W. (Trans.), Menog-i Khrad ('The Spirit of Wisdom', Chapter 2: The Fate of the Soul at the Chinvat Bridge). translation: Sacred Books of the East, Vol. 24 (Digital edition at Avesta.org). read

Studies

Schmidt, Hanns-Peter, MITHRA i. Mitra in Old Indian and Mithra in Old Iranian. Encyclopaedia Iranica, Online Edition, 2006/2018. open
Grenet, Frantz, MITHRA ii. Iconography in Iran and Central Asia. Encyclopaedia Iranica, Online Edition, 2016. open
Boyce, Mary, The Religion of the Achaemenians: Mithra, Anahita and the Royal Inscriptions. Handbuch der Orientalistik, Brill, 1982. open
Boyce, Mary, Zoroastrians: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices (Chapter on the Yazatas and Mihragan). Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1979. open
Gershevitch, Ilya, The Avestan Hymn to Mithra. Cambridge University Press, 1959. open

Name and epithets

The Avestan theonym Miθra and its Old Persian counterpart Mitra derive directly from Proto-Indo-Iranian *mitra-, an appellative neuter noun denoting a contract, formal treaty, covenant, or reciprocal bond of trust and f…

In the ancient sources

Avesta (Mihr Yasht / Yasht 10), Archaic oral composition; standardized in written form during the Sasanian period..

The myths

Divine Creation and the Universal Sanctity of the Covenant. In the opening section of the Mihr Yasht (Yasht 10.1–2), the Creator Ahura Mazda speaks directly to the prophet Spitama Zarathushtra to reveal the transcendent…

Worship and archaeology

Mithra's cult in ancient Iranian religion was centered on the liturgical recitation of the Mihr Yasht and the performance of the sacred Yasna sacrifice, during which consecrated haoma sap was pressed and mingled with mi…

How the god was depicted

Achaemenid royal art largely avoided anthropomorphic statues of minor divinities. The most significant historical depiction of Mithra within Iran appears in Sasanian rock reliefs at Taq-e Bostan near Kermanshah.

What scholars debate

The Origin of Roman Mithraic Mysteries and Iranian Parallels. For decades, Franz Cumont's thesis argued that Roman Mithraism represented an unbroken western propagation of Persian Zoroastrianism transmitted by Iranian m…

After antiquity

Mithra's conceptual framework left an enduring imprint on neighboring ancient cultures. In the 5th century BCE, Herodotus mentioned Mithra in his Histories (1.131), albeit confusing his name with an astral goddess.

Did you know?

In modern Persian, the word 'Mihr' retains the concurrent meanings of the physical 'Sun' and 'loving kindness', preserving the ancient association between radiant celestial light and genuine ethical affection.

Codex relic

Mace of a Thousand Points. The weapon with which he punishes oath-breakers, watching over the covenants between men and nations.

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