Persian Mythology

[Mehrbod]

Sarsaok
aka: Hadhayosh

A primordial cow in Zoastrian mythology of Persia. This cow carried the first humans across the ocean known as Voutukasha. By using the fat of this beast and combining it with the white haoma herbs of sacrifice, a wave of immortality will be produced and there will be a resurrection of all those that have done good in their lives.

The Sarsaok resembles a gigantic ox with a skin made of polished brass and a mane of pure flames. Six huge solid brass horns sprout from the creatures' head with one pair at the sides like that of a common ox while the other two pairs curve frontwards like that of some accursed demon. Each Sarsaok is said to be exactly 52 feet tall and weighing approximately 57 tonnes. The precision of proportion for all these creatures gives more evidence to support the theory that the Sarsaok were created by a very precise god of the forge.

Despite their massive size and incredible power, the Sarsaok behave very much similarly like the modern mundane ox, spending most part of their lifetime wandering around grazing. Their behaviour and habits are although quite peculiar and interesting to study. Their bodies seem to require a very little amount of food for a creature so vast feeding on only the foliage of a few trees to keep them going for weeks. They also possess the sustenance against any type of liquid they drink or touch, for instance, hot magma. The Sarsaok for reasons beknownst to them, avoid visiting a place twice and leaving it for at least an year before coming back to it. Although seeming harmless, the Sarsaok can charge and attack ferociously if threatened, and only the mightiest dragon would dare challenge them.

The Sarsaok(Hadhayosh) is often likened to the Behemoth of modern and Hebrew culture.



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[Mehrbod]

Karshipta
aka: Karshipta, Karshift

A bird in Persian mythology which can speak. Karshipta was sent to spread the religion of Ahura Mazda to the men assembled by Yima in his vara (enclosure). They were gathered there to protect themselves from the scourging winter that was to destroy mankind.

originally conceived as a "winged" sun, Karshipta's outstretched “eagle-spread” wings are remarkably similar to those of the Kalahamsa in full flight.

The bird Karshipta dwells in the heavens: were he living on the earth, he would be the king of birds. He brought the Religion into the Var of Vima, and recites the Avesta in the language of birds.

Karshipta is the human mind-soul, and the deity thereof, symbolized in ancient Magianism by a bird, as the Greeks symbolized it by a butterfly. No sooner had Karshipta entered the Vara or man, than he understood the law of Mazda, or Divine Wisdom. . . . With the Kabalists it was a like symbol. 'Bird' was a Chaldean, and has become a Hebrew synonym and symbol for Angel, a Soul, a Spirit, or Deva; and the 'Bird's Nest' was with both Heaven, and is God's bosom in the Zohar.

This allegory describes the descent of the manasaputras during the third root-race: a high intelligence able to wing its way in the celestial realms entering man's constitution and awakening the faculty enabling him to understand and to recite "the Law" as imbodied in the highest divinities to and for the human species.

[Mehrbod]

Bakhtak

Bakhtak is a ghost or an evil creature that cause Sleep paralysis.

Suffer from excruciating nightmares? Ever wake up with a weight on your chest, unable to move or breathe? That may be the work of the Bakhtak, a creepy being of Persian folklore that sits on your chest while you’re sleeping. No one is quite sure why the Bakhtak takes such glee in filling you with bad dreams or causing ne
ar-suffocation and sleep paralysis, but we do know the Bakhtak gets around. The Bakhtak of Iranian fame is often depicted as a little goblin-like creature, but the same concept takes on the guise of an Old Hag in English folklore and is similar to the "mare" of Scandinavian origin.

Christians have the same thing: Incubus, The male demon of desire and counterpart to succubus! (female demon of desire). Waking up with a feeling of heavy pressure on ur chest is believed to be an Incubus trying to have sex with u while u were asleep!

[Mehrbod]

Manticore
aka: Mantikhoras, Martyaxwar

The manticore is a Persian legendary creature similar to the Egyptian sphinx. It has the body of a red lion, a human head with three rows of sharp teeth (like a shark), and a trumpet-like voice. Other aspects of the creature vary from story to story. It may be horned, winged, or both. The tail is that of either a dragon or a scorpion, and it may shoot poiso
nous spines to either paralyze or kill its victims. It devours its prey whole and leaves no clothes, bones, or possessions of the prey behind. The manticore myth was of Persian origin, where its name was "man-eater".

The manticore is said to be able to shoot its spines either in front or behind, curving its tail over its body to shoot forwards, or straightening it tail to shoot them backwards. The only creature reputed to survive the poisonous stings is the elephant. Thus, hunters rode elephants when hunting the manticore. The manticore is said to be able to leap in high and far bounds; it is an excellent hunter, and is said to have a special appetite for human flesh. Occasionally, a manticore will possess wings of some description.

The earliest accounts of the existence of the manticore come from the Persian courts in the fifth century B.C., documented by Ctesias, a Greek physician at the Persian court. Greek and Roman authors (Aristotle, Pliny) described the beast the same way the Persians had.

In the middle ages, the manticore was the emblem for the profit [sic] Jeremiah because the manticore lives in the depths of the earth and Jeremiah had been thrown into a dung pit. At the same time, the manticore became the symbol of tyranny, disparagement and envy, and ultimately the embodiment of evil. As late as the 1930s it was still considered by the peasants of Spain, to be a beast of ill omen.

[Mehrbod]

Asho-zushta
aka: Asho zusta

The bird Asho-zushta has the Avesta on his tongue, and when he recites the words the demons are frightened. When the nails of a Zoroastrian are cut, the faithful must say:
"O Asho-zushta bird! these nails I present to thee and consecrate to thee. May they be for thee so many spears and knives, so many bows and eagle-winged arrows, so many sling-stones against the Maz
ainyan demons".

If one recites this formula, the fiends tremble and do not take up the nails, but if the parings have had no spell uttered over them, the demons and wizards use them as arrows against the bird Asho-zushta and kill him. Therefore, when the nails have had a charm spoken over them, the bird takes them and eats them, that the fiends may do no harm by their means. Asho-zushta is probably the theological name of the owl .

The word literally means 'friend of holiness. For the bird Asho-zushta they recite the Avesta formula; if they recite it, the fiends tremble and do not take up the nails.

[Mehrbod]

Mardāzmā

She is such an old jinn among the Baluch(an ethnic group who mainly inhabit the Balochistan region in the southeast corner of the Iranian plateau). her name means tester of men. If the person is not frightened by it, the mardāzmā becomes his friend and helps him in life, otherwise it will drive him mad with fear. Some opinion believe that the mardāzmā is a male jinn, who offers sexual intercourse to his victims.

[Mehrbod]

Peri

"All human beings must in beauty yield
To you, a Peri I have ne'er beheld" - Saadi(One of the major Persian poets of the medieval period)


In Persian mythology, the Peri are descended from fallen angels who have been denied paradise until they have done penance. In earlier sources they are described as agents of evil; later, they are benevolent. They are exquisite, winged, fairy-like creatures ranking between angels and evil spirits. They sometimes visit the realm of mortals.

The Peri has been styled "the fairest creation of poetical imagination." No description can equal the beauty of the female Peri, and the highest compliment a Persian poet can pay a lady is to liken her to one of these lovely aerial beings.Thus Saadi, in the lines prefixed to this section, declares that only the beauty of a Peri can be compared with that of the fair one he addresses.

At the start of Ferdowsi's epic poem Shahnameh, "The Book of Kings", the divinity Sorush appears in the form of a Peri to warn Keyumars (the mythological first man and shah of the world) and his son Siamak of the threats posed by the destructive Ahriman. Peris also form part of the mythological army that Kaiumers eventually draws up to defeat Ahriman and his demonic son. In the Rostam and Sohrab section of the poem, Rostam's paramour, the princess Tahmina, is referred to as "Peri-faced" (since she is wearing a veil, the term Peri may include a secondary meaning of disguise or being hidden).

From this sublime system of religion probably arose the Peri or Fairy-system of modern Persia; and thus what was once taught by sages, and believed by monarchs, has shared the fate of everything human, and has sunk from its pristine rank to become the material and the machinery of poets and romancers. The wars waged by the fanatical successors of the Prophet, in which literature was confounded with idolatry, have deprived us of the means of judging of this system in its perfect form; and in what has been written respecting the Peries and their country since Persia has received the law of Mohammed, the admixture of the tenets and ideas of Islam is evidently perceptible. If, however, Orientalists be right in their interpretation of the name of Artaxerxes' queen, Parisatis, as Pari-zadeh (Peri-born), the Peri must be coeval with the religion of Zoroaster.

The Peries and Deevs of the modern Persians answer to the good and evil Jinn of the Arabs, of whose origin and nature we shall presently give an account. The same Suleymans ruled over them as over the Jinn, and both alike were punished for disobedience. It is difficult to say which is the original; but when we recollect in how much higher a state of culture the Persians were than the Arabs, and how well this view accords with their ancient system of religion, we shall feel inclined to believe that the Arabs were the borrowers, and that by mingling with the Persian system ideas derived from the Jews, that one was formed by them which is now the common property of all Moslems.



Peri, 1875 Kalighat painting:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped.../0/0e/Peri.jpg



Artwork by master Mahmoud Farshchian


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[Mehrbod]

Sphinx

Persian sphinxes, unlike the Greek ones and similar to the Egyptian ones, are male. The Persian sphinx is a composite of four creatures, which appear in many ancient carvings and become the four symbolic creatures of the Bible. The body and tail is a lion, the head is a man, the head has horns and ears like a bull, and it has wings like an eagle. These creatures also signify the four directions and four traditional elements.

[Mehrbod]

Fravashi
aka: fravard, fravahr, fravash, fravaksh

Faravashis Or Arda Fravash (Guardian Angels) are personal guardian angels. Every person is accompanied by a guardian angel, who acts as his or her guide through life. Ahura Mazda ordered Zarathushtra to call upon Faravashis for help as needed. Faravashis ultimately become one with people's souls in after life. They are the manifestation of Ahura's
will. Faravashis are often represented as bird-like angel creatures. Faravashis' shapes are originated from Faravahar, the winged symbol of Zoroastrianism which itself represents a Dual Creature of half man (Ahura Mazda) and half beast (Ahreeman). In original Zoroastrian doctrine, Ahura Mazda and Ahreeman were two faces (sides) of one being. The concept of the fravashi as guardian spirit does not occur in the Gathas of Zarathushtra. But in later Zoroastrianism, it becomes a most important idea.

Although there is no physical description of a fravashi in the Avesta, the faravahar, one of the best known symbols of Zoroastrianism, is commonly believed to be the depiction of one. The attribution of the name (which derives from the Middle Iranian word for fravashi) to the symbol is probably a later development. In Avestan language grammar, the fravashi are unmistakably "female", while the faravahar symbol is unmistakably male.

According to the Avesta every human being has Tanu, Urvan and Fravashi.

1- Tanu is the body or physical self made of flesh, blood and bones.
2- Urvan is the soul, the nature of every human. It is the decision maker for it controls the body and is responsible for all the decisions and actions done by the humans in this world.
3- Fravashi is the spiritual guide, the active presence of Ahura Mazda in every human being. It guides and helps the soul but does not interfere in the decision making. The soul is free to choose what it wants to do with its life on this earth and the Fravashi is that inner voice that warns the soul of evil and guides it away from spiritual danger.

Ahura Mazda advises Zarathushtra to invoke them for help whenever he finds himself in danger. If not for their guardianship, animals and people could not have continued to exist, because the wicked Druj would have destroyed them all. The Fravashi also serves as an ideal which the soul has to strive for and emulate, and ultimately becomes one with after death. They manifest the energy of God, and preserve order in the creation. They are said to fly like winged birds, and are represented by a winged disk, often with a person superimposed.

The term Fravashi is made up of two parts, Fra which has been interpreted as "to go forward" and, vashi which comes from the root vaksh, meaning "to grow". So Fravashi is that power in a substance which enables it to move forward i.e. to progress. The Avesta tells us that the Fravashi is inherent in every animate and inanimate object of Nature and helps in its development. The Fravashis constitute the internal essence of things as opposed to the contingent and, work as spiritual entities for all of Ahura Mazda’s creations. The Fravadin Yasht, the longest of the twenty-two yashts (hymns), is dedicated to the Fravashis and mentions that Ahura Mazda created the Fravashis before he created the universe. This implies that Ahura Mazda had conceived a complete and perfect Universe from the very beginning by forming the spiritual essence of all objects before their creation. The earth, sun, moon stars, trees and human beings, all have their Fravashis and the duty of the Fravashis is to watch over the orderly growth of the world and to make it prosper.

artwork by: A. Andrew Gonzalez

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[Mehrbod]

Atar

Atar (Fire) in Zoroastrianism is regarded as the son of Ahura Mazda, the Wise Lord. Humans were expected to offer meat as a sacrifice to Atar, at the same time holding a bundle of sacred twigs (barsom) in the hand. Every house was expected to have a hearth for making sacrifices, in front of which prayers could be said:
... O Atar, son of Ahura Mazda! Thou art worthy of sacrifice and invocati
on; mayest thou receive the sacrifice and the invocation in the houses of men.

Atar is the Zoroastrian concept of holy fire, sometimes described in abstract terms as "burning and unburning fire" or "visible and invisible fire".

Atar is closely associated with the god Mithra: for example, together they succeed in rescuing the Divine Glory from the demon Azhi Dahaka. Atar is described as riding behind Mithra's chariot.

To this day, fire has continued to play a prominent part in Zoroastrian religion and is still worshipped in fire-temples. Fire is a symbol of Zoroastrianism. In Sassanian times there were three famous eternal fires, each representing one of the three classes of society: the Farnabag fire (priests), the Gushnasp fire (warriors) and the Burzin Mihr fire (workers). The Gushnasp fire was probably burning at Takht-i Sulaiman in north-western Iran. To this day the Bahrain fire, the most sacred of all fires, is necessary to fight the forces of darkness and evil and is regarded as the symbol of truth.

During the late Achaemenid era, Atar—as the quintessence of the Yazata Atar—was incorporated in the Zoroastrian hierarchy of angels. In that position, Atar is a helper of Asha Vahishta (Avestan, middle Persian: Ardvahisht), the Amesha Spenta responsible for the luminaries. From among the flowers associated with the Zoroastrian angels, Atar's is the marigold (calendula)

The importance of the divinity Atar is evident from a dedication to the entity in the Zoroastrian calendar: Atar one of only five lower-ranking divinities that have a month-name dedication. Additionally, Atar is the name of the ninth day of the month in the Zoroastrian religious calendar, and the ninth month of the year of the civil Iranian calendar of 1925 (modern Persian: Azar) which has month-names derived from those used by the Zoroastrian calendar.

In Zoroastrian cosmogony, Atar was the seventh of the seven creations of the material universe. It is only with Atars assistance, who serves as the life-force, that the other six creations begin their work.