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Zoroastrian Deities
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The divine beings of Zoroastrianism, the ancient Iranian religion still practised by the Parsis of India and by Zoroastrians in Iran and the diaspora. At its head is Ahura Mazda, the one wise creator, surrounded by the Amesha Spentas, the Bounteous Immortals who personify his aspects, and the yazatas, beings worthy of worship who watch over elements of the world. Their opposition to the forces of the Lie gives the tradition its strongly ethical, dualistic cast.
Facts
Attestation
Era of AttestationThe Gathas of Zarathushtra are placed on linguistic grounds in the second millennium BCE. The earliest datable attestation of the tradition's gods is the Achaemenid royal inscriptions naming Ahura Mazda from the late sixth century BCE. The religion is practised today. 2 Veneration TodayVenerated today by the Parsi and Iranian Zoroastrian communities and their diaspora. 2 Overview
What Defines This GroupingThe divine beings of Zoroastrianism: Ahura Mazda, the Amesha Spentas who personify aspects of the good creation, and the yazatas, beings worthy of worship, several of them older Iranian gods retained. Whether these amount to a pantheon at all is a live question in and about the tradition, which understands itself as monotheist while giving the yazatas cult. 2 Status
Standing as a Comparative CategoryWhether the Amesha Spentas and yazatas are deities, aspects of one God, or a class with no equivalent elsewhere has been argued within the tradition and in the scholarship for over a century, and the answer changes what this grouping is a grouping of. 2 Learn More
The Divine Beings of Zoroastrianism
This group holds the divine figures of Zoroastrianism, the ancient Iranian religion founded on the teaching of Zarathushtra (Zoroaster). Its theology is distinctive: a supreme good creator, Ahura Mazda, opposed by the hostile spirit Angra Mainyu (Ahriman), with the cosmos the arena of their struggle, a dualism that influenced later Western religion.
The browser will find Ahura Mazda; the Amesha Spentas, the beneficent immortals who personify aspects of the good creation; the yazatas, lesser worshipful beings such as Mithra and Anahita; and the adversary and his demons. The atlas notes the tradition's great antiquity and its survival among the Parsi and Iranian Zoroastrian communities today.
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