#of heroics and healing | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

tired-reader-writer · 1 month ago

Text

Something possessed me these past few days (as I was coughing my lungs out T_T) and I just for no reason started collecting snippets from the Khorda Avesta site? Anything and everything that caught my attention????

I'm still not sure if I can formulate these into a proper post since I was aimlessly exploring when I picked these up but... I'm gonna try—

[EDIT: I suddenly remembered the reason as I was compiling the quotes in the drafts! I was curious about the royal bracelets' design (which @innerchorus pointed out likely drew inspiration from tauroctony scenes as they were described as being engraved with a design of a young man on the back of a bull, stabbing the bull in the head with a short sword) and I thought, okay, why does specifically this imagery indicate royalty? And so I started looking around about the tauroctony, then Mithraism, then Mithra, then cue me scratching my head and screaming in confusion, then going around for the actual prayers 😭]

I won't get too deep into the tauroctony stuff (mainly bc there just isn't much to get into in the first place) but long story short it's a Roman thing, not a Persian thing, it was the cult of “Mithras” and though they shared a deity/name, I don't think there was any substantial link between Mithraism and Zoroastrianism— David Ulansey even apparently said that “there is no evidence that the Iranian god Mithra ever had anything to do with killing a bull” and I think I am inclined to agree, considering that he in Zoroastrianism is a protector of cattle instead. (In the hymn dedicated to him, he is repeatedly referred to as “lord of wide pastures”).

So anyways, I don't currently have a concrete explanation on why imagery connected to Mithra (kinda, not really) was used to indicate the potential royal status of three characters in the second part of the novels, but I may have concocted... something.

Bear in mind that this has nothing, nothing to do with real history, do not take it as such, by me trying to adapt things to fit the ArSen narrative we've already left the harbor of historical accuracy. So here goes—

I posit that in Pars, Ahura Mazda, Mithra, and Anahita in particular are revered as “civilization-building” deities, aka foundational to the prosperity and functioning of a nation as opposed to individual and spiritual righteousness.

Yeah, this still doesn't quite explain the tauroctony imagery, I got nothing for that, I think I might just end up changing shit, we'll... see...

Mithra is the divinity of covenants, light, oaths, justice, the sun, contracts, friendship, and also a judicial figure, an all-seeing protector of Truth (Asha), the guardian of cattle, the harvest, and the Waters (Anahita)— which, a lot of it sounds pretty essential to a prosperous civilization functioning, doesn't it?

Mithra is invoked in several royal Achaemenid inscriptions:

“Ahura Mazda, Anahita, and Mithra protect me against all evil” — Artaxerxes II's inscription at Susa and Hamadan, where he “beseeches them to protect what he has built”

“Ahura Mazda and the God Mithra preserve me, my country, and what has been built by me.” — inscription of Artaxerxes III

Mithra is also featured in rock reliefs depicting the coronations of Ardashir II and Khosrow II

Mithra is considered a member of the “Ahuric Triad” along with Apam Napat (this one is complicated, more on that later) and none other than Ahura Mazda himself

“The ruffian who lies unto Mithra brings death unto the whole country, injuring as much the faithful world as a hundred evil-doers could do.”

“Mithra, the lord of wide pastures, gives swiftness to the horses of those who lie not unto Mithra. Fire, the son of Ahura Mazda, gives the straightest way to those who lie not unto Mithra.”

(I... will get into the whole Mithra-Asha thing later on, I promise, I'm assuming “fire” here refers to Asha due to the truth divinity's associations to fire)

“We sacrifice unto Mithra, the lord of wide pastures, who is truth-speaking, a chief in assemblies, with a thousand ears, well-shapen, with ten thousand eyes, high, with full knowledge, strong, sleepless, and ever awake; To whom the chiefs of nations offer up sacrifices, as they go to the field, against havocking hosts, against enemies coming in battle array, in the strife of conflicting nations.”

“We sacrifice unto Mithra, the lord of wide pastures, .... sleepless, and ever awake; Unto whom nobody must lie, neither the master of a house, nor the lord of a borough, nor the lord of a town, nor the lord of a province. If the master of a house lies unto him, or the lord of a borough, or the lord of a town, or the lord of a province, then comes Mithra, angry and offended, and he breaks asunder the house, the borough, the town, the province; and the masters of the houses, the lords of the boroughs, the lords of the towns, the lords of the provinces, and the foremost men of the provinces.”

“We sacrifice unto Mithra, the lord of wide pastures, .... sleepless, and ever awake; Who upholds the columns of the lofty house and makes its pillars solid; who gives herds of oxen and male children to that house in which he has been satisfied; he breaks to pieces those in which he has been offended. Thou, O Mithra! art both bad and good to nations; thou, O Mithra! art both bad and good to men; thou, O Mithra! keepest in thy hands both peace and trouble for nations.”

— Mihr Yasht (Hymn to Mithra)

A lot of nation imagery there!!

So then, my attention was drawn towards the rest of the Ahuric Triad, but I'm choosing to make it that for Pars in this fictional setting, Anahita is there in Apam Napat's stead.

Here are my reasons:

It is very likely that Anahita, even irl, gradually usurped the position of Apam Napat in the Triad, causing the latter's place to be lost and his veneration to become limited to the obligatory verses recited at the Ab-Zohr.

She is described as “life-increasing, herd-increasing, fold-increasing, who makes prosperity for all countries” in the hymn dedicated to her.

Anahita is featured in a rock relief depicting the coronation of Khosrow II, the same one Mithra featured in

As a river divinity, she is responsible for the fertility of the soil and for the growth of crops that nurture both man and beast.

The hymn dedicated to her features like. Multiple stanzas(?) of multiple people praying to her “that [they] may become the sovereign lord of all countries” which is super interesting

I don't know how related this is to everything else I've written so far but I also found it interesting that apparently, due to the association between water and wisdom, she is “the divinity to whom priests and pupils should pray for insight and knowledge”.

Anyways here are some of the verses I yoinked:

“Offer up a sacrifice, O Spitama Zarathushtra! unto this spring of mine, Ardvi Sura Anahita, the wide-expanding and health-giving, who hates the Daevas and obeys the laws of Ahura, who is worthy of sacrifice in the material world, worthy of prayer in the material world; the life-increasing and holy, the herd-increasing and holy, the fold-increasing and holy, the wealth-increasing and holy, the country-increasing and holy;”

“To her did Haoshyangha, the Paradhata, offer up a sacrifice on the enclosure of the Hara, with a hundred male horses, a thousand oxen, and ten thousand lambs. He begged of her a boon, saying: "Grant me this, O good, most beneficent Ardvi Sura Anahita, that I may become the sovereign lord of all countries, of the Daevas and men, of the Yatus and Pairikas, of the oppressors, the blind and the deaf; and that I may smite down two thirds of the Daevas of Mazana and of the fiends of Varena." Ardvi Sura Anahita granted him that boon, as he was offering libations, giving gifts, sacrificing, and entreating that she would grant him that boon.”

(there were multiple instances of multiple people asking her for a boon, and she either gives that boon or withholds it depending on who's asking)

“Offer up a sacrifice, O Spitama Zarathushtra! unto this spring of mine, Ardvi Sura Anahita... Whom Ahura Mazda the merciful ordered thus, saying: "Come, O Ardvi Sura Anahita, come from those stars down to the earth made by Ahura, that the great lords may worship thee, the masters of the countries, and their sons.”

— Aban Yasht (Hymn to the Waters)

So yeah. A modified Ahuric Triad of sorts being revered for the more “practical”, society-wide, civilization-related domains. Or, well, Ahura Mazda is Ahura Mazda. One can't not include him as he is the god of light and everything good. (Tanaka seemed to have taken Ahura Mazda out of Pars' faith entirely, oh whatever I'm putting him back in)

Yeah. Still haven't really... figured out a way to connect the tauroctony to any of this. Maybe I'll have the design to feature Mithra and Anahita instead, blessing a royal birth of sorts (Anahita is associated with fertility, after all! She is said to purify the wombs of women and the seed of men, as well as encouraging the flow of milk for newborns. Plus, it's a royal birth. Surely something could be bullshitted here?

(as for Ahura Mazda, I saw in the Zoroastrianism subreddit that you can't really depict Ahura Mazda, he's just a strong, pure light, he can't be captured in image, which probably is true? I haven't been able to confirm it but I think it makes sense. ANYWAYS—)

Also very neat how Ashaya (the secret royal child who rejects their origins) has like, people who kinda sorta represent Mithra and Anahita in her life— Farangis' entire existence, of course, but also Shapur keeping the promise he gave to Sâyezân, the whole Mardi clan situation coming from a broken oath, and then the Mardi clan embodying the whole life-increasing herd-increasing healing fertility thing with their magic and such.

And I based her name on Asha, the Zoroastrian divinity of... ah, fuck. I'll just leave this here:

Asha (/ˈʌʃə/) or arta (/ˈɑːrtə/; Avestan: 𐬀𐬴𐬀 Aṣ̌a / Arta) is a Zoroastrian concept with a complex and highly nuanced range of meaning. It is commonly summarized in accord with its contextual implications of 'truth' and 'right' (or 'righteousness'), 'order' and 'right working'. It is of cardinal importance to Zoroastrian theology and doctrine. In the moral sphere, aṣ̌a/arta represents what has been called "the decisive confessional concept of Zoroastrianism". The opposite of aṣ̌a is druj (Avestan: 𐬛𐬭𐬎𐬘, lit. 'deceit, falsehood').

Look, for the purposes of this post I'm gonna grossly simplify it into “truth” and “righteousness”. It's more complicated than that even in the AU Parsian society, but I don't think I'm equipped to get into it.

(also I've been referring to Asha as feminine all this time before this post, apparently the hymns refer to Asha as a male... do I wanna modify this or not................ arrrrrrrrrrrgh)

Remember that “Fire, the son of Ahura Mazda” thing? So I've been thinking about it. I don't think Zoroastrianism has a genealogy and such like say the Greek pantheon situation, but maybe for the AU version of the Parsian faith (which I'd named “khuda-yasna” for “khuda” being the Persian word for “god”, more than likely referring to Ahura Mazda but let's just say that here the meaning expands to the other divinities as well) (kinda kills me inside a little that faith and religion in ArSen is just flattened down and lumped in with nationality like “Parsian faith” like, could you not have named it?? Also the Yaldabaoth religion? Does it not have a name??) (anyways back on track) I had imagined taking this snippet rather literally. Asha is the child (or the closest child) of Ahura Mazda the holy light. And Mithra is who serves and protects Asha. They're both really tied together, aren't they? Truth and oaths and lies and such. Maybe, in Pars, in this setting, Asha is the spiritual and moral righteousness that must be nurtured in every individual person while Mithra has to do w those civilization/society stuff. Not that I think Asha would be any less revered? Just different axes, different paradigms of worship and veneration, if that makes sense?

Anyways here are some snippets that caught my eye:

“He will smite the most oppressive of the oppressors of men, he will afflict most oppressive of the oppressors of men.”

“The most lying words of falsehood fled away; the Jahi, addicted to the Yatu, fled away; the Jahi, who makes one pine, fled away; the wind that blows from the North fled away; the wind that blows from the North vanished away.”

“He smites the most lying words of falsehood; he smites the Jahi, addicted to the Yatu; he smites the Jahi, who makes one pine. He smites the wind that blows from the North; the wind that blows from the North vanished away.”

— Ardwahisht Yasht (Hymn to the Highest Asha)

(the part about smiting oppressors in particular made me go 👀👀👀)

Anyways I just wanted to lay out some stuff for the AU worldbuilding to help myself make heads and tails out of this really, I don't have a conclusions, uhhhh hope y'all enjoy this

#arslan senki #the heroic legend of arslan #heroic legend of arslan #wolfpack au #winds of wolfsong #uhhhh how tf do I tag this #had thoughts about structuring the themes of the AU around these three divinities #broken/kept/restored oaths #righteousness and lack thereof #restoration and healing and amplifying #bearing witness to truth / speaking it / refusing to face it #also smth smth ashavan smth smth #I DUNNO #this is a post about worldbuilding so I didn't wanna interject w theme thoughts #what do y'all think of this?

35 notes · View notes