Ahura Mazda
The creator god of Zoroastrianism, the force for good and the opponent of Ahriman; also called Ormazd. The name is Avestan, and means literally ‘wise deity’.
Amesa Spentas
The ‘Bounteous’ (or Holy) Immortals in Zoroastrianism. Zoroaster mentions a number of heavenly forces, the creations of, and therefore subservient to, Ahura Mazda, but powers through which Ahura and ...
Anahita
(Anaitis, Ἀναίτις), Persian goddess of the fertilizing waters (Avesta Yašt 5). Artaxerxes (2) II (404–358 bc) introduced the use of cult-images into the major cities of his empire (Berossus in ...
Angra Mainyu
The ‘Destructive Spirit’ or ‘devil’ in Zoroastrianism. He is thought to have existed ‘from the beginning’, independent of Ahura Mazda (i.e. he is coeval). Angra Mainyu is the source of ...
Armaïti
One of the Amesa Spentas or major deities associated with the Zoroastrian supreme god Ahura Mazda, Spenta Armaiti, or Spendarmat in Pahlavi, is the goddess of the earth and is ...
Arnobius
(3rd–4th cent.), Christian apologist. In his Adversus Nationes he defended the consonance of the Christian religion with the best pagan philosophy.
Avesta
The sacred writings of Zoroastrianism, compiled in the 4th century, and written in an ancient Iranian language closely related to Vedic Sanskrit.
Axial age
Period around the 6th cent. bce, when religions were instrumental in effecting great changes in history and civilization. The term was used by Karl Jaspers to draw attention to the ...
Baha'i
A monotheistic religion founded in the 19th century as a development of Babism, emphasizing the essential oneness of humankind and of all religions and seeking world peace.
Cuchulain
In Irish mythology, Red Branch hero of the Ulster cycle, and nephew of Conchubar; he defends Ulster against the forces of the queen of Connaught, but at last (through the enmity of the Morrigan) is ...
Daevas
(Old Pers., daiva; Middle Pers., dēv: ‘shining one’).One of a group of gods in Ancient Persia (cf. DEVA) who were denounced by Zoroaster as demonic and as gods of war and strife.[...]
Divine child
The divine child, or puer aeternus, is the hero of the monomyth or sometimes the god as a child. Typically, he or she is miraculously conceived, like Jesus, Horus, Zoroaster ...
dualism
1 A metaphysical system which holds that good and evil are the product of separate and equally ultimate first causes.2 The view that in the Incarnate Christ there were not merely two natures but two ...
Gāthās
The seventeen hymns of Zoroaster, and thus texts of fundamental authority for Zoroastrians, especially in the liturgy (yasna). In Hinduism, gāthās are poems which do not appear in the Vedas.[...]
Gayomart
West AsiaLiterally, ‘dying life’. In Persian mythology he was the primeval man, the creation of Ahura Mazdah. For 3000 years Gayomart lived as a spirit before he assumed the corporeal form of a ...
Haoma
West AsiaThe Persian equivalent of the Hindu Soma, the elixir of life. As a celestial deity Haoma was ‘correct in faith and the adversary of death’, the intermediary between earth and heaven. The ...
Horus
[Di]Egyptian falcon god of Edfu, where he is called Horus the Behdetite. He is usually depicted as a hawk‐headed man. The royal god par excellence, since the ruler of the day was considered to be ...
Iranian mythology
Aryans who invaded what is now Iran in the second millennium b.c.e. brought with them a patriarchal “Indo-European” mythology that was similar to that of the Aryans who invaded India ...
Magi
The ‘wise men’ from the East, often referred to as the Three Magi, who brought gifts to the infant Jesus (Matthew 2:1), said in later tradition to be kings named Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar who ...
