* In a passage of Philo of Byblos the god is described as having the head of a falcon or an eagle, perhaps by confusion with one of the genii represented on the walls of the palaces.

[Illustration:  013.jpg AN IRANIAN GENIUS IN FORM OF A WINGED BULL]

     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph.

He was named Ahuro-mazdao or Ahura-mazda, the omniscient lord,* Spento-mainyus, the spirit of good, Mainyus-spenishto** the most beneficent of spirits.

* Ahura is derived from Ahu = Lord:  Mazdao can be analysed into the component parts, maz = great, and dao = he who knows.  At first the two terms were interchangeable, and even in the Gathas the form Mazda Ahura is employed much more often than the form Ahura Mazda.  In the Achsemenian inscriptions, Auramazda is only found as a single word, except in an inscription of Xerxes, where the two terms are in one passage separated and declined Aurahya mazdaha.  The form Ormuzd, Ormazd, usually employed by Europeans, is that assumed by the name in modern Persian.

     ** These two names are given to him more especially in
     connection with his antagonism to Angromainyus.

Himself uncreated, he is the creator of all things, but he is assisted in the administration of the universe by legions of beings, who are all subject to him.*

* Darius styles Ahura-mazda, mathishta baganam, the greatest of the gods, and Xerxes invokes the protection of Ahura-mazda along with that of the gods.  The classical writers also mention gods alongside of Ahura-mazda as recognised not only among the Achaemenian Persians, but also among the Parthians.  Darmesteter considers that the earliest Achaemenids worshipped Ahura-mazda alone, “placing the other gods together in a subordinate and anonymous group:  May Ahura-mazda and the other gods protect me.”

[Illustration:  014.jpg AHURA-MAZDA BESTOWING THE TOKENS OF ROYALTY ON AN IRANIAN KING]

     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Dieulafoy.

The most powerful among his ministers were originally nature-gods, such as the sun, the moon, the earth, the winds, and the waters.  The sunny plains of Persia and Media afforded abundant witnesses of their power, as did the snow-clad peaks, the deep gorges through which rushed roaring torrents, and the mountain ranges of Ararat or Taurus, where the force of the subterranean fires was manifested by so many startling exhibitions of spontaneous conflagration.* The same spiritualising tendency which had already considerably modified the essential concept of Ahura-mazda, affected also that of the inferior deities, and tended to tone down in them the grosser traits of their character.  It had already placed at their head six genii of a superior order, six ever-active energies, who, after assisting their master at the creation of the universe, now presided under his guidance over the kingdoms and forces of nature.**