This page groups figures by the year their life is said to have begun. Wikipedia notes that "questions of historicity frequently arise in relation to historical studies of religion," since a birth year for an ancient figure is often an estimate rather than a fixed record. Browsing by lifespan start year lets a visitor compare how far back one figure's own life reaches against another's.
Facts
Status
Standing as a Comparative CategoryUsed, 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 GroupingA 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 Learn More
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.
1st century
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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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