Ahura Mazdah
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Posted by Ali Argis in Non Famous section |
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Ahura Mazdah ("Lord Wisdom"), the Persian sun god was the supreme god, he who created the heavens and the Earth son of Zurvan Zurvan ("Time") . He was born as the twin brother of the dark god Ahriman (Angra Mainyu) from the womb of Infinite Time, the Primal Creator.
The fight between the brothers, resulting in Ahriman's fall from "Heaven," had the same cause as the rivalry between Cain and Abel of the Bible - that is, the sacrificial offering of one was accepted by the older deity, Vayu; the other was rejected. Vayu was probably a derivative of the Vedic celestial Bi-sexual god Varuna, or Mitra-Varuna, whose other name became "Mithra".
The story of the battle and the fall might have been a revision of the ancient creation myth concerning the Goddess's punishment of her first-created serpent-consort for his pride (or Hubris). The name Ahura was once a feminine name.
According to Zoroaster, Ahura Mazda created the universe and the cosmic order that he maintains. He created the twin spirits Spenta Mainyu and Angra Mainyu --the former beneficent, choosing truth, light, and life, the latter destructive, choosing deceit, darkness, and death. The struggle of the spirits against each other makes up the history of the world.
Ahura Mazdah, was worshiped by the Persian king Darius I (reigned 522 BC-486 BC) and his successors as the greatest of all gods and protector of the just king.
In Zoroastrianism as reflected in the Avesta, Ahura Mazda is identified with the beneficent spirit and directly opposed to the destructive one. He is all wise, bounteous, undeceiving, and the creator of everything good. The beneficent and evil spirits are conceived as mutually limiting, coeternal beings, the one above and the other beneath, with the world in between as their battleground.
Middle Persian forms of the name were Ormazd, Ormizd, or Hormizd. These names were commonly taken by kings who embodied the god’s solar spirit, especially kings of the Iranian Sassarian dynasty.3 Being naturally deified after death, such kings had cult centers and groups of priests who kept up their worship.
One of these apparently became converted to Christianity and contributed another apocryphal saint to the Christian canon, usually misspelled “St. Hormidz,” although Hormidz was obviously meant. This saint was vaguely placed in the 5th century C.E. and declared a Persian martyr, even though his legend lacked every kind of foundation, even that of common sense. For example, it was claimed that, for a refusal to renounce Christianity, St. Hormidz was condemned to serve as a military camel-driver - which may not been exactly a life of luxury and riches, but hardly a qualification for martyrdom or Sainthood.
This sun-god-turned-saint was revered through the early Middle Ages by cult centers located in Persia and Iraq.
References:
Graves, Robert. The Greek Myths (2 vols.).
Budge, Sir E.A. Egyptian Magic.
Attwater, Donald. The Penguin Dictionary of Saints.
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