Mithraic names in Iranian Central Asia: a bird’s-eye view

This short paper forms part of a broader investigation into Mithraic onomastics within the Iranian cultural sphere. The overarching aim of this research is to trace the diffusion and semantic range of Middle Iranian theophoric names incorporating Old Iranian Mithra. An initial, preliminary contribution to this subject was published in the Festschrift for A.V. Rossi in 2019. A second study, focusing primarily on Mithraic names in Middle Persian and Parthian, is forthcoming in the proceedings of the conference Mithra, “Lord of All Lands”, held in Irvine on April 17, 2023, promoted by Nastaran Akhavan.