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Sacred Correspondences
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All Adversaries

Figures cast as the opponent, filed with the tradition that casts them. The heading records a role, not a nature, and the role is not the same in each case. Angra Mainyu is a genuine counter principle in Zoroastrian thought. The satan of the Hebrew Bible is an accuser within the divine court rather than an enemy of God. Mara tempts the Buddha but remains subject to the same conditions as any other being, and Iblis in the Quran is a jinn who refuses to bow. Set was worshipped as an Egyptian god long before later readers made him a villain.

Facts
Status
Standing as a Comparative Category
Used, but its validity as a comparative category is disputed. Reading Angra Mainyu, Satan, Iblis and Mara as one role flattens genuinely different accounts: in Zoroastrianism the hostile spirit is a counter-principle coeval with the good creator, which is exactly what the adversary of the monotheisms is not. 3
Overview
What Defines This Grouping
A comparative heading rather than a category any one tradition uses: figures cast as the opponent of a tradition's central figures or of the moral order. 2
Directory
Category
Figures 1
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The adversaries

This group gathers adversaries, the figures who oppose the heroes, gods or faithful of a tradition: tempters, enemies and embodiments of resistance to the divine or moral order. The adversary is a recurring role across mythologies.

The browser will find the opposing figures the atlas classes here. The entries describe each within their narrative, noting how different traditions frame the source and meaning of opposition to the good.

All Adversaries
Filter Results22 entries

Angra Mainyu (Ahriman)

Adversaries

Cain

Adversaries

Duryodhana

Adversaries

Goliath

Adversaries

Haman

Adversaries

Iblis

Adversaries

Jezebel

Adversaries

Lucifer

Adversaries

Mara

Adversaries

Mastema

Adversaries

Mordred

Adversaries

Ravana

Adversaries

Samael

Adversaries

Satan

Adversaries

Set

Adversaries

Simon Magus

Adversaries

Surtr

Adversaries

The Antichrist

Adversaries

The Dajjal

Adversaries

The Demiurge (Yaldabaoth)

Adversaries

The Kauravas

Adversaries

Zahhak

Adversaries
Sources
1. Divinity Atlas Directory Taxonomy, First Edition Category Tree
2. Encyclopedia of Religion
Mircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.), Macmillan Reference, 2005The classification of religious figuresView the Source
3. A History of Zoroastrianism
Mary Boyce, Brill, 1989on Angra Mainyu and the two primal spiritsView the Source
Divinity Atlas Directory Prose, First Edition Category Descriptions
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