Dictionary Of God And Godedesses

AHURA MAZDA 9upraised arms. They wear loin cloths with distinctivecross-hatching.Ah Patnar Uinicob (owners of the jars men)Attendant water gods. Mayan (Yucatec, classicalMesoamerican) [Mexico]. Four huge deities whopour water on to the earth from jars. The end ofthe dry season is marked on May 3, completing aneight-day rain ceremony.Ah PekuThunder god. Mayan (Lacandon, classicalMesoamerican) [Mexico]. He lives on the tops ofhills and climbs into the clouds before it rains.Ah TabaiHunting god. Mayan (classical Mesoamerican)[Mexico]. One of a number of deities in Mayanreligion identified with the hunt and the protectionof animals.Ah Uincir Dz’acabGod of healing. Mayan (Chorti, classical Mesoamerican)[eastern Guatemala]. The patron ofherbalists and concerned with the preparation ofremedies, he is depicted as having male andfemale identities, each concerned with the healingof their respective sexes. Also Ah Uincir Kopot.Ah Uuc TicabChthonic god. Mayan (classical Mesoamerican)[Mexico]. Minor fertility and vegetation deity.Aha (grandmother)River spirit. Yakut [central Siberia]. The guardianand apotheosis of rivers.AhrimanChthonic god of darkness. Zoroastrian (Farsi-Persian).The antagonist of AHURA MAZDA, god oflight, and his attendant, MITHRA. The name is amodern derivation of the original Avestan titleANGRU MAINYU. Ahriman is said to have tried topersuade his attendant animals, including the scorpion,ant and snake, to drink the blood of the bullslain by Mithra in the primeval legend of dualisticconflict (see Mithra); if he had succeeded he wouldhave prevented life from forming on earth. Inanother legend he tried to thwart Ahura Mazda bysending a flood to destroy the world. Also recognizedin Roman Mithraism. Rituals included animalsacrifice. Also ARIMANIUS (Roman).AHURA MAZDAORIGIN Persian [Iran]. God of light.KNOWN PERIOD OF WORSHIP circa 1500 BC toend of Roman Empire period, circa AD 400.SYNONYMS none.CENTER(S) OF CULT throughout ancient Near Eastduring Persian and Roman Empire periods.ART REFERENCES various sculptures and reliefs.LITERARY SOURCES Avestia.Ahura Mazda probably originates as the HinduVedic god VARUNA. In Persian religion hebecomes the god of light and truth in the Zoroastrianconcept of dualism. His chief attendant godis MITHRA(S) and his adversary is AHRIMAN, thegod of darkness. According to tradition his firstcreation, a wild bull, was confined to a cave byMITHRAS. When it escaped, Mithras was chargedwith finding and slaying it. The bull’s blood fell toearth and from the drops life formed. AhuraMazda is not mentioned in Roman Mithraicinscriptions but he is, by implication, the centralfigure in Mithraism. In the Mithraeum in Rome(S. Prisca), Ahura Mazda is considered to be areclining figure on whom Mithras attends.