Under the supreme God, Ahura-mazda or Ormazd, the ancient Iranic system placed (as has been already observed) a number of angels.  Some of these, as Vohu-mano, “the Good Mind;” Mazda, “the Wise” (?); and Asha, “the True,” are scarcely distinguishable from attributes of the Divinity.  Armaiti, however, the genius of the Earth, and Sraosha or Serosh, an angel, are very clearly and distinctly personified.  Sraosha is Ormazd’s messenger.  He delivers revelations, shows men the paths of happiness, and brings them the blessings which Ormazd has assigned to their share.  Another of his functions is to protect the true faith.  He is called, in a very special sense, “the friend of Ormazd,” and is employed by Ormazd not only to distribute his gifts, but also to conduct to him the souls of the faithful, when this life is over, and they enter on the celestial scene.

Armaiti is at once the genius of the Earth, and the goddess of Piety.  The early Ormazd worshippers were agriculturists, and viewed the cultivation of the soil as a religious duty enjoined upon them by God.  Hence they connected the notion of piety with earth culture; and it was but a step from this to make a single goddess preside over the two.  It is as the angel of Earth that Armaiti has most distinctly a personal character.  She is regarded as wandering from spot to spot, and laboring to convert deserts and wildernesses into fruitful fields and gardens.  She has the agriculturist under her immediate protection, while she endeavors to persuade the shepherd, who persists in the nomadic life, to give up his old habits and commence the cultivation of the soil.  She is of course the giver of fertility, and rewards her votaries by bestowing upon them abundant harvests.  She alone causes all growth.  In a certain cense she pervades the whole material creation, mankind included, in whom she is even sometimes said to “reside.”

Armaiti, further “tells men the everlasting laws, which no one may abolish”—­laws which she has learnt from converse with Ahura-mazda himself.  She is thus naturally the second object of worship to the old Zoroastrian; and converts to the religion were required to profess their faith in her in direct succession to Ahura-mazda.

From Armaiti must be carefully distinguished the geus urva, or “soul of the earth”—­a being who nearly resembles the “anima mundi” of the Greek and Roman philosophers.  This spirit dwells in the earth itself, animating it as a man’s soul animates his body.  In old times, when man first began to plough the soil, geus urva cried aloud, thinking that his life was threatened, and implored the assistance of the archangels.  They however were deaf to his entreaties (since Ormazd had decreed that there should be cultivation), and left him to bear his pains as he best could.  It is to be hoped that in course of time he became callous to them, and made the discovery that mere scratches, though they may be painful, are not dangerous.