Mithʹra or Mithʹras

The highest of the twenty-eight second-class divinities of the ancient Persians, and the ruler of the universe. Sometimes used as a synonym for the sun. The word means friend, and this deity is so called because he befriends man in this life, and protects him against evil spirits after death. He is represented as a young man with a Phrygian cap, a tunic, a mantle on his left shoulder, and plunging a sword into the neck of a bull: (Sanskrit, mitram, a friend.) (See Thebais, i)