Mitirida'tes
or MITHRADA'TES (
Μιθριδάτης or
Μιθραδάτης), a common name among the Medes and Persians, appears to have been derived from
Mitra or
Mithra, the Persian name for the sun, and the root
da, signifying " to give," which occurs in most of the Indo-Germanic languages.
It therefore signifies "given by the sun," and corresponds to a large class of names in different languages of the Indo Germanic family. Thus in Sanskrit we find the names,
Devadatta, Haradatta, Indradatta, Somadatta, &c. (i. e. given by the gods, by Hara or Siva, by Indra, by Soma or the moon, &c.); in Greek, the names
Theodots, Diodotus, Zenodotas, Herodotus, &c.; and in Persian, the names,
Hormisdates, " given by Ormuzd,"
Pherendates, "given by Behrum," &c.
The name of Mithridates is written in several ways.
Mithridates is the form usually found in the Greek historians; but on coins, and sometimes in writers, we find
Mithradates, which is probably the more correct form. We also meet with
Mitradates (
Μιτραδάτης,
Hdt. 1.110), and in Tacitus (
Tac. Ann. 12.10) a corrupted form Meherdates. (Pott,
Etymologische Forschungen, vol. i. p. xlvii. &c. ; Rosen, in
Journal of Education, vol. ix. pp. 334, 335.)
