Mah (god)

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Rock sculpture in Taq-e Bostan , Iran , with the great king Chosrau II in the middle and the depiction of the crescent moon in the crown above the king's head, with Anahita on the left and Ahura Mazda on the right in the picture

Māh ( Persian : "moon", corresponding to Māonghah / Māwngha / Māvangh in Avestan ) is a Zoroastrian moon god . He is shown with a crescent moon rising over his shoulder. It is known from coins, among other things. It was not until the Parthian period that the moon was understood as a goddess .

In Iranian literature, a hymn of the same name, Māh Yasht , "Hymn to the Moon", is dedicated to the moon. But we already encounter the moon in the Gathas , also in the Khordeh Avesta in the section Māh Niyâyeš , a praise for the moon, and in the Middle Persian Bundahishn . In the Bundahishn the moon appears as the guardian of the original seeds of all animals ( Pahlavi Cihr / Tschihr , Avestisch Cithra ) and plays an essential role in the fight against evil, represented by Ahriman , the "spirit of destruction" (Avestisch Angra Mainyu ).

In the Māh Yasht , too , the moon is honored as the guardian of the original seeds. In this regard, Māh Yasht can be found among other things: "The Amesha Spenta spread his glory over the earth, the Ahura- creators. And while the moon light gains warmth in spring, gold-colored plants grow up out of the earth ... We praise Antare Māwngha , the truthful, the Lord of truthfulness; we praise Perenō Māwngha , the truthful, the Lord of truthfulness; we praise Višaptaθa , the truthful, the Lord of truthfulness. "

According to the Bundahishn Antare Māwngha, the time of the crescent moon from the first to the fifth day of the month, Perenō Māwngha the phase of the full moon from the tenth to the fifteenth day, and Višaptaθa the phase of the waning crescent moon between the twentieth and the twenty-fifth day. In the Iranian pantheon , each of the phases of the moon has its own, specifically corresponding deity, which is worshiped in Yasna and Māh Niyâyeš .

literature

  • Jalil Doostkhah, Avesta . Morvarid, Tehran, 1996. ISBN 964-6026-17-6 .
  • DN MacKenzie, A Concise Pahlavi Dictionary . Routledge Curzon, 2005. ISBN 0-19-713559-5 .
  • Hashem-e Razi, Encyclopaedia of Ancient Iran . Sokhan, Tehran, 2002. ISBN 964-372-027-6 .
  • P. Oktor Skjaervo (Ed.), Young Avestan Glossary . Harvard University.
  • Aurel Stein , Zoroastrian Deities on Indo-Scythian Coins. London 1887.
  • EW West (translator), Pahlavi Texts 5 volumes, Routledge Curzon, 1895-1910, 2004. ISBN 07007-1544-4 .

See also

Web links