This page groups deities by how actively they are still venerated today, from gods with a living cult to ones whose worship has died out entirely. Wikipedia defines veneration as "the practice of honoring people and articles of religious significance, for example, the veneration of saints and the veneration of relics." Browsing this way lets a visitor tell a deity that still receives offerings apart from one preserved only in historical study.
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.
No Cult Attested
Filter Results1 entry
Sources
1. Divinity Atlas Directory Taxonomy, First Edition Category Tree
2. A History of Zoroastrianism
Divinity Atlas Directory Prose, First Edition Category Descriptions
Reader Challenges (0)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.
Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.