Anahita, Persian Goddess of Water: the Painting Anahid

Anahid is a painting of Anahita, the ancient Persian goddess of water, fertility and healing. Mixed media on canvas, 120 × 120 cm, painted in 2025 by Maryam Moghaddam, an abstract figurative painter — women, myth and movement — with studios in Newmarket, Ontario and Sweden. Anahid is the form of the goddess’s name that is still given to daughters today.

The story of Anahita

In the Avesta, the oldest scriptures of Iran, she is Aredvi Sura Anahita: the moist, the mighty, the immaculate. Her name means “the unstained one”. She is the source of every river and every rain, the one who makes the seed of men and the wombs of women fruitful, who eases childbirth and brings milk to mothers. The hymn sung in her honour describes a tall, strong young woman in a golden mantle and a crown of a hundred stars, driving a chariot drawn by four white horses named Wind, Rain, Cloud and Sleet.

Her worship outlived empires. Artaxerxes II raised statues to her in Susa, Ecbatana, Babylon and Persepolis; the Greeks saw in her their own Aphrodite and Artemis; a great ruin at Kangavar in western Iran still bears her name, and the Sasanian dynasty rose from a family of custodians of her temple at Istakhr. In modern Persian the planet Venus is still called Nahid.

How the painting is made

The artist calls the work “an ode to the ancient Persian goddess whose essence flows through water, fertility, and feminine wisdom” and “a meditation on healing — not only of the body, but of the soul.” Anahita is drawn in profile, her hair streaming out into ripples and blossoms, while a bird lifts away at the left: “blossoms speak of renewal and the winged presence whispers of freedom.” The palette runs from violet and deep blue through spring green and coral to cream. It is mixed media on canvas, worked in layers, and the surface carries enough texture that the painting cannot be rolled; it travels in a custom wooden crate.

Where it would live

At 120 × 120 cm the square canvas is generous without being overwhelming: it fills the wall above a sofa, a bed or a sideboard, or anchors the end of a wide hallway. The colours are at their best in daylight, and the subject suits rooms meant for rest and recovery — a bedroom, a reading room, a yoga or wellness studio, a clinic waiting room. It sits easily against white, pale grey, sage or soft lilac walls.

Collect

The original Anahid (120 × 120 cm, mixed media on canvas, CAD 9,500) is a one-of-a-kind work, signed by the artist, shipped crated and insured worldwide from Newmarket, Ontario with a certificate of authenticity: see the original painting. The same image is also available as a fine-art print on paper, canvas, metal or acrylic, in square sizes from 14 to 48 inches: see the Anahid print.