A Study of the Status and Biological Rights of Prominent Animals in theAncient Ritual of Mehr

Mehr, Mitra or Mithra is an ancient Aryan or Indo-Iranian divinity before Zoroaster which contains the most important principles and morals including treaty, friendship, devoutness and considering the animals’ and plants’ life rights. Every animal and their symbols contain a nonmaterial, mythical, humane and moral meaning in Mehr ritual and Mithraism, and humans and animals have their own rights. According to the existing documents, Iran is known to be the main hometown of Mehr; however, there has been few monuments left in this land. The influence of Iranian Mehr on the Western Mehr, due to the function and position of pictorial and operational symbols of animals, plants and geometrical figures of Mithra after its penetration into the West and affecting the political system and government of Europe and also the people’s beliefs and ideas has been very significant. The significant point in the ancient ritual of Mehr is considering the animals’ rights with the purpose of not annoying them, preventing the opposition to their realm and respecting their life rights. Considering the fact that animals, plants and other creatures in the nature were valuable in the ancient ritual of Mehr, this paper has tried to study the way of this valuation and its performance and the reasons of the Iranians’ interest in the animals. The current survey is going to study the concepts of the Mehr ritual and the animals’ rights with a focus on five distinguished animals in the different eras of Iran using a descriptive-analytical method based on a historical study.