The Ideology Of The Ninth And Tenth Centuries 111
with Zurvan, is called both “big brother” and “big sister”.432 According to Iu.
Stoianov, “In Manichaeism, the Mother of Life, who is preceded only by the
Father of Greatness (Zurvan) in the Manichaean pantheon, is associated with
the “mother” of Ohrmazd and Ahriman, who evolved into an independent
deity figure in Zurvanian mythology”.433 The Armenian Pavlikians, who were
accused of adhering to Zoroastrian customs, worshiped the Virgin Mary “not
only as the mother of Jesus Christ, but also as “Celestial Jerusalem”.434
In Tibetan religion Bon Ishtar, Astarte (Aphrodite) and Anahita are embodied
by “the mother of the sphere Satrig Ersang”. She was the cause of all prosper-
ity that came at all times. She was the ruler of all three worlds (the Celestial
one, the Terrestrial and the Infernal one) and was regarded as the mother of
the whole world. She had a celestial palace of gold, where she sat on a throne,
made of two huge lions. It was believed that Satrig Ersang dispersed darkness.
Like Astarte, this brings her closer to Venus (the Morning Star). By her left side
she held a mirror, perhaps an image of the Moon.435 A goddess holding a mir-
ror is often depicted in Scythian golden clasps. A young Scythian stands before
her with a rhyton. This scene probably depicts the belief of the marriage of the
Scythian king with Tabiti.436
The cult of Anahita is associated with fire.437 Lions, panthers and tigers are
the sacred animals of Ishtar-Anahita. A deity sitting on a lion with the inscrip-
tion of “Nano” is depicted on the late Kushan coins of Huvishka. Ancient
Khwarezm is known for the cult of a goddess bearing a royal crown and hold-
ing the symbols of the Sun and the Moon in her hands, flanked by a lion and
a leopard.438 The coins of the Khwarezmian Siyavushids contain the image
432 Stoianov 2006b, 369; in Mithraism, Zurvan Akarana embodies infinite, all-consuming
time. He lacks a name, sex or emotions. He is depicted with a lion’s head and a body
encircled by a snake. “He creates and destroys all things; he is the Lord and master of the
four elements that compose the universe, he virtually unites in his person the power of
all the gods, whom he alone has begotten” (Cumont 1999, 92–93). “The lion is symbolic
of solar light, which is eternal; the serpent, of the rhythmic, circling round of the lunar
tides of time, which never cease. Thus, the figure is precisely what its name teils: Zurvan
Akarana, “Boundless Time”, in which eternity and time are one, yet two” (Campbell 2005,
274).
433 Stoianov 2006b, 369.
434 Stoianov 2006b, 166–168.
435 Kuznetsov 1998, 98–99 and 175–176.
436 Raevskii 1985, 157.
437 Vishnevskaia and Rapoport 1979, 109.
438 Basilov 1998, 254–257.