next world, when his soul has parted from his body.[1] Elaborate rules are accordingly laid down for the purification of the fire defiled by the dead.[2] There is no purification for the man who carries a corpse to the fire.[3] In the case of every pollution of the pure element, Atar is inexorable.
Nairyosangha
Mazda's celestial herald. Nairyosangha corresponds to the Vedic Narashamsa, generally applied to Agni as his epithet. He is expressly spoken of as a Yazata,[4] and is well-shaped.[5] Like Agni who is often called the messenger of gods between heaven and earth, Nairyosangha is the messenger of Ahura Mazda.[6] When the Evil Spirit introduces disease and death in the world, Ahura Mazda dispatches him as his envoy to Airyaman to come with his healing remedies.[7] He is invoked along with Atar, for he is Atar's associate. He is termed the offspring of sovereignty,[8] and as such he is entitled to go in Mithra's chariot with Sraosha,[9] He has his Fravashi.[10]
Ardvi Sura Anahita
The angel of waters. Ardvi Sura, who bears the standing epithet anāhita, 'undefiled,' is the name of a mythical river as well as that of the female divinity of the waters. She resides in the starry regions.[11] This deity of the heavenly stream gets recognition of the Achaemenian kings, and is included in the extremely short list of the Iranian divinities expressly mentioned in their inscriptions.[12] Classical writers speak of her sanctuaries founded at Pasargadae, Ecbatana, Kangavar and other places.[13] At a very early date her cult migrates to distant countries and is there assimilated to Artemis, Aphrodite, Athene-Minerva, Hera, Magna Mater, Ishtar, and Nanaia.[14] She overleaps the barriers
- ↑ Vd. 8. 81, 82.
- ↑ Vd. 8. 73-80.
- ↑ Vd. 7. 25-27.
- ↑ Ys. 17. 11.
- ↑ Ys. 57. 3.
- ↑ Vd. 19. 34.
- ↑ Vd. 22. 7, 13.
- ↑ Ys. 17. 11; Ny. 5. 6.
- ↑ Yt. 10. 52.
- ↑ Yt. 13. 85.
- ↑ Yt. 5. 85, 88, 132.
- ↑ Art. Sus. a; Ham.
- ↑ See Gray, op. cit., p. 57, 58; Fox and Pemberton, op. cit., 34-39, 58, 66, 68, 79.
- ↑ Gray, ib., p. 57.
