AP Human Geography Unit 3. Zarathustra reformed existing Persian polytheism with his teachings about the highest god, Ahura Mazdā, and his primeval clash with Angra Mainyu, the Destructive Spirit. Contrary to the Christian or Manichaean (from Manichaeism—a Hellenistic, dualistic religion founded by the Iranian prophet Mani) attitude, fasting and celibacy are proscribed except as part of the purificatory ritual. All of these gods also are found in the Vedas but only the first one in the Avesta, except that Indra and Nāñhaithya appear in the Avesta as demons; Varuna may have survived under another name. Can you spell these 10 commonly misspelled words? question. Please select which sections you would like to print: Corrections? Vishtāspa, the prophet’s protector, can only be the namesake of the father of Darius, the Achaemenid king. At Susa, for instance, which had been one of the capital cities of the Achaemenids but where the religion of Auramazda was not indigenous, the coinage of the Seleucid and Arsacid periods does not represent a single Iranian deity. Zoroastrianism. answer. In Commagene in the middle of the 1st century bce, gods bear combinations of Greek and Iranian names: Zeus Oromazdes, Apollo Mithra, Helios Hermes, Artagnes Herakles Ares. ap human geography unit 2. Again, the historical connection with Zarathustra—whom Herodotus also ignores—is a hazy one. Zoroastrianism, ancient pre-Islamic religion of Iran with both monotheistic and dualistic elements that likely influenced the other major religions, including in angelology and eschatology. There is, moreover, a list of Indo-Iranian gods in a treaty concluded about 1380 bce between the Hittite emperor and the king of Mitanni. ETHNIC RELIGIONS: 17. AP Human Geography Chapter 7: Religion. God’s omnipotence is thus only temporarily limited. question. Xerxes, successor to Darius, mentioned in one of his inscriptions how at a certain (unnamed) place he substituted the worship of Auramazda for that of the daivas, which does not mean that he opposed the daeva cult as such, as a true Zoroastrian would have done, but only that he eradicated somewhere—probably in Babylon—the cult of deities alien to the religion of the ahuras. Author of. One possible explanation of these events is that Gaumata had adopted Zoroastrianism, a doctrine that relied on the allegiance of the common people, and therefore destroyed temples or altars to deities of the nobility. Ex. Have you ever wondered when popular religions started to develop? 14 October 2020 . Zoroastrianism is one of the world’s oldest monotheistic religions, having originated in ancient Persia. It has to be studied indirectly on the basis of later documents and by a comparative approach. Delivered to your inbox! Zoroastrianism *Definition:* Persian monotheistic religion. Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. See the full definition for Zoroastrianism in the English Language Learners Dictionary. For a discussion of the context in which Zoroastrianism arose, see ancient Iranian religion. It points to a change of attitude, compared with Cyrus’s tolerance of alien religions, such as the Babylonian or the Jewish religion. Zarathustra’s teachings grew to dominate Persia, but they fluctuated in popularity as various empires and cultures overtook the region. Not a single place or person mentioned in them is known from any other source. Important changes, then, must have taken place on the Iranian side, not all of which can be attributed to the prophet.