| “ | "He does not think, nor speak, nor act for the welfare (nadukih) of the creatures of Ohrmazd, and his business is unmercifulness and the destruction of this welfare so that the creatures which Ohrmazd shall increase he will destroy; and his eyesight (chashm michihsn) does not refrain from doing the creatures harm".
Ahriman
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Ahriman (also known as Angra Mainyu), also called by his New Persian name Ahriman, is the powerful god of evil and destruction and darkness in Zoroastrianism and is comparable to the Devil in some Abrahamic religions, however, unlike most portrayals of Satan, Angra Mainyu is seen as a deity rather than a demon (though the two can overlap).
Mythology[]
Greco-Roman world[]
Ahriman was identified with Hades/Pluto via interpretatio Graeca.
The Greek philosopher Plutarch in his work Moralia in the section of Isis and Osiris stated that Zoroaster taught the worship of Ahriman. He stated that Zoroaster taught the Persians to sacrifice to Areimanios “offerings for averting ill, and things of gloom. For, pounding in a mortar a herb called omomi, they invoke Hades and darkness; then having mingled it with the blood of a slaughtered wolf, they bear it forth into a sunless place and cast it away.” [1]
| “ | Zoroaster the sage, who, they record, lived five thousand years before the time of the Trojan War. He called the one Oromazes and the other Areimanius; and he further declared that among all the things perceptible to the senses, Oromazes may best be compared to light, and Areimanius, conversely, to darkness and ignorance, and midway between the two is Mithras ; for this reason the Persians give to Mithras the name, of ‘Mediator.’ Zoroaster has also taught that men should make votive offerings and thank-offerings to Oromazes, and averting and mourning offerings to Areimanius. They pound up in a mortar a certain plant called omomi, at the same time invoking Hades and Darkness ; then they mix it with the blood of a wolf that has been sacrificed, and carry it out and cast it into a place where the sun never shines. In fact, they believe that some of the plants belong to the good god and others to the evil daemon ; so also of the animals they think that dogs, fowls, and hedgehogs, for example, belong to the good god, but that water-rats belong to the evil one ; therefore the man who has killed the most of these they hold to be fortunate. | ” |
–Moralia, On Isis and Osiris, Plutarch | ||
Besides this several statues called Ahrimanus were very common in Roman Mithraic temples. Such a cult must have passed to the mysteries of Mithra, where dedications are found Deo Arimanio.
Zoroastrianism[]
And the Dēnkard passage (p. 182.6) says: “The perverted, devilish, unrighteous rite of the ‘mystery of the sorcerers’ consists in praising Ahriman, the destroyer.”
Zurvanism[]
In the Zurvanite cosmogony both Ahriman and Ahura Mazda are born from the primordial god of time called Zurvan, in the story Ahriman is the first born son of Zurvan and therefore the older brother of Ahura Mazda, both twins represents the two sides of Zurvan, Ahriman represents regret and Ahura Mazda represents desire.
Zurvanism had a dualistic theology as its main topic, and currently this ideology exists in current Zoroastrianism
Anthropology[]
According to Rudolf Steiner the founder of the esoteric cult Anthroposophy, Ahriman is use to name one of two extreme forces which pull humanity away from the centering influence of God. So Ahriman would be the inferior spirit that materialism, science, heredity, objectivity, and soul-hardening. Besides Rudolf believed hat contemporary Christianity was subject to Ahrimanic influence. Because the Christianity had materialistic interpretations.
Ahriman in the Dictionnaire Infernal[]
The Infernal Dictionary is a book of demonology written in 1818 by the French occultist Jacques Auguste Simon Collin de Plancy. The entry for Ahriman is as follows:
| “ | Ariman, prince of the underworld among the ancient Persians, source of evil, black demon, born in darkness, enemy of Oromaze or Or-muzd, principle of good. But the latter is eternal, while Ariman is created and must one day perish.[2] | ” |
In Popular Culture[]
Video Games.[]
- Ahriman is the main villain of Prince of Persia (2008).
- Ahriman is a semi-recurrent demon in the Megami Series.
- Mithra´s design are based on Ahriman, more specifically of the Ahrimanus statues of the Roman Mithraic temples rather than the representations of the Iranic or Vedic Mithra.
- Ahriman is a recurrent monster in the Final Fantasy Series.
- Angra Mainyu appears as a 0 star Avenger class servant in Fate Grand Order
Anime.[]
- Ahriman is an Avenger class servant in the Fate series, first appearing in Fate Hollow Ataraxia.
Comics[]
- Unicron from Transformers may be based on Ahriman.
- Ahriman is an alternative name for the One-Below-All.
Gallery[]
