Persian mythology or Iranian mythology (Persian:اساطیرشناسی ایرانی) is the body of the myths originally told by ancient Persians and other Iranian peoples, and a genre of Ancient Persian folklore. These stories concern the origin and nature of the world, the lives and activities of deities, heroes, and mythological creatures, and the origins and significance of the ancient Persians’ own cult and ritual practices. Modern scholars study the myths to shed light on the religious and political institutions of not only modern-day Iran but the Greater Iran, which includes regions of West Asia, Central Asia, South Asia and Transcaucasia where Iranian culture has had significant influence. Historically, these were regions long ruled by dynasties of various Iranian empires, that incorporated considerable aspects of Persian culture through extensive contact with them, or where sufficient Iranian peoples settled to still maintain communities who patronize their respective cultures. It roughly corresponds to the Iranian plateau and its bordering plains. The Encyclopædia Iranica uses the term Iranian Cultural Continent for this region.
ANCIENT IRANIAN GODS
Ahuramazda is The God in Zoroastrianism. He is a wise master, ultimate God, absolute good, wisdom and recognition, the creator of the Sun, stars, darkness and light, human beings and animals and all mental and physical activities. Ahriman is an evil spirit, the opposite of Ahuramazda who always tries to destroy the truth and world and harms human beings and animals. In this world, life is a reflection of universal struggle between Ahuramazda and Ahriman. All men must choose either of these too.
Anahita is the goddess of all waters on the earth and the source of all oceans in the universe. She is on a chariot being drawn by four horses: wind, rain, cloud and hail. Because of Anahita’s connection with life, warriors ask her to keep them alive and give them victory during wars.
Verethraghna is the god of warriors and assaulters and is the source of victorious power against demons. Ahuramazda advised Zoroaster to take a feather of Verethraghna from a bird’s body while trapped in adversary’s magic.
Mithra is the most famous ancient Iranian goddess. She was believed to watch human beings and their actions, agreements and contracts. She led people in the right path and protected them from attacks. She controlled the order prevailing in the universe.
Vayuo is the god of wind attacking evil spirits in supporting Ahuramazda’s good creatures. He reigns between the realms of Ahuramazda and Ahriman, meaning between light and darkness.
Tishtar is the god of rain originating from Varukasha Sea (Farakhkart) and distributing water among all countries.
Atar, fire, is Ahuramazda’s son. People were expected to present meat to fire as sacrifice while having a bunch of sacred plant called barsom in their hands.
Hoom is a god who presents health and power and blesses children and crops.
Iranian myths and legends incorporate a variety oftraditions. The many precise parallels between Iranian mythology and much early Indian imagery clearly reflect their common heritage—for example, the respective myths concerning the first human being and parallels between Ir. Yima and Ind. Yama, the god of death in Vedic thought. The remarkable parallels between Iranian eschatology and Norse myths are so striking that some scholars have suggested they reflect fossilized versions of Indo-European mythology (Puhvel). Some Achaemenid inscriptions on royal reliefs suggest that the Persian empire not only incorporated the Babylonian kingdom, but also some of its myths about kingship (Hinnells, 1985, pp. 98-109). Eastern Iran appears to have had especially rich traditions of myths and legends. This article cannot cover all the many bodies of material which flourished in Iran, such as the Ossetic tradition or Manicheism. It focuses on the diverse body of material preserved in Zoroastrian literature, the great Iranian epic, the Šāh-nāma (Levy), and the romance of Vis and Ramin (Morrison). It also includes some references to Greek traditions about the great Zoroastrian monarchs. Much of the material was transmitted by priests in the religious setting, for myths were part of Zoroastrian teaching. Legendary material, and some myths, were transmitted by minstrels at court or in numerous public events for musicians and singers.
Mithra, also spelled Mithras, Sanskrit Mitra, in ancient Indo-Iranian mythology, the god of light, whose cult spread from India in the east to as far west as Spain, Great Britain, and Germany. (See Mithraism.) The first written mention of the Vedic Mitra dates to 1400 BC. His worship spread to Persia and, after the defeat of the Persians by Alexander the Great, throughout the Hellenic world. In the 3rd and 4th centuries AD, the cult of Mithra, carried and supported by the soldiers of the Roman Empire, was the chief rival to the newly developing religion of Christianity. The Roman emperors Commodus and Julian were initiates of Mithraism, and in 307 Diocletian consecrated a temple on the Danube River to Mithra, “Protector of the Empire.” According to myth, Mithra was born, bearing a torch and armed with a knife, beside a sacred stream and under a sacred tree, a child of the earth itself. He soon rode, and later killed, the life-giving cosmic bull, whose blood fertilizes all vegetation. Mithra’s slaying of the bull was a popular subject of Hellenic art and became the prototype for a bull-slaying ritual of fertility in the Mithraic cult.
During the second half of the 2nd millennium BCE, two groups of culturally and linguistically related peoples who called themselves arya (“nobles”) migrated from the steppes down into the Middle East, the Iranian plateau, and the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent. One group settled in Anatolia and India. The other settled in greater Iran. These people were originally seminomadic pastoralists whose chief economic base was cattle, primarily bovines but also sheep and goats. They bred horses, which they used for riding and pulling chariots in warfare and sport. It is not at all clear how rigidly their society was originally segmented. There were specialists in religious matters, and men who could afford horses and chariots were reckoned as warriors and leaders. By the Achaemenian period there developed a more rigid division of society into four basic classes: priests, nobles, farmers/herdsmen, and artisans. Society generally was patriarchal, and male dominance was strongly reflected in the religion.
In Persian, The world Iranian or Large Iran is called Iranzamin (ایرانزمین), which means “The land of Iran”. Iranzamin was in mythical times opposed to Turanzamin, the “land of Turan”, which was located in the northern part of Central Asia. A founding story of Iranian culture, a mythical and historical epic, the Shahnameh Where Book of kings, was composed in Persian at the beginning of the 11th century by the poet Ferdowsi. The extent of the episodes described, since the creation of the world and the birth of civilization Persian pre-Islamic until the Arab conquest of Iran in the middle of the seventh century, makes it a work without equal in world literature. Copied and illuminated almost uninterruptedly, it gave birth to a body of several thousand manuscripts and some of the finest miniatures in the history of Persian art.
Storytelling has an important presence in Iranian culture. In classical Iran, minstrels performed for their audiences in royal courts and in public theaters. A minstrel was called by the Parthians gōsān in Parthian and by the Sasanians as huniyāgar in Middle Persian. Since the days of the Safavid dynasty, storytellers and poetry readers have appeared in cafes.
PERSIAN MYTHOLOGY (TEXTS)
The Thousand and One Nights (Persian Mythology)
Epic tale Amir Arsalan (Persian mythology)
Rustem’s Epic Tale (Persian Mythology)
Epic tale the SHÁH NÁMEH (Persian mythology)
Epic tale Gulistan (Persian mythology)
Epic tale SAMAK-E ʿAYYĀR (Persian mythology)
Tales of Kermani and Bakhtiari origin
Persia and Sufism: JALÁLU’D-DÍN RÚMÍ
The Faravahar is arguably the best-known symbol of the Persian Zoroastrian faith. This symbol consists of a winged disc with a man emerging from it. The man is shown holding a ring. Whilst the symbol is well known, the meaning behind it is more complicated. The Faravahar was adopted as a secular symbol to represent the modern nation of Iran. ‘Faravahar’ is a Pahlavi (known also as Middle Persian) word and is said to be derived from the Avestan word (the language of the Avesta, the Zoroastrian scripture) “fravarane,” which translates to mean “I choose.” Alternatively, it has been suggested that the name of this symbol is connected to the Old Persian word “fravarti” or “fravashi,” meaning “to protect.” The former implies the choice one makes to follow the teachings of Zoroastrianism, whereas the latter implies the divine protection of a guardian spirit. Incidentally, the name “Faravahar” was given to the symbol in more recent times, and it is unclear as to how the ancient Persians referred to this symbol.
Twelve Ancient Persian Mythological Creatures
Persian mythology developed in what is now Iran around 1500 bce. About a thousand years later, a religion known as Zoroastrianism (pronounced zor-oh-AS-tree-uhn-iz-m) emerged in the region. It held on to many of the earlier beliefs but added new themes, gods, and myths. The result was a mythology based on a vision of grand-scale conflict between good and evil. The roots of Persian mythology lie in the steppes—grass-covered plains—of southern Russia and Central Asia. Between 1500 and 1000 bce, Indo-European peoples migrated south from the steppes into the regions now known as Turkey, Iran, and northern India. Those who settled in Iran became the Persians. Their mythology had much in common with that of the early Hindus and probably developed from a common source. In time, the Persians also absorbed influences from an area called Mesopotamia (pronounced mess-uh-puh-TAY-mee-uh) on their western border. A religious leader named Zoroaster (pronounced ZOR-oh-as-tur; probably born around 628 bce), founded the faith that was most popular in Persia until the arrival of Islam in the 600s ce. The best information about Persian mythology comes from Zoroastrianism’s sacred book, the Zend-Avesta or Avesta. Much of the original Zend-Avesta was lost after Alexander the Great conquered Persia in 334 bce. What survives is a set of writings gathered and arranged between 200 and 600 ce. One section, the Gathas, consists of songs believed to have been composed by Zoroaster. Much mythological material can be found in another section containing Yashts, hymns addressed to angels and heroes.
5 Scary Creatures in Persian Mythology
Persian Mythological Creatures and Their Stories
In ancient Persian mythology, you can find many creatures with supernatural powers. Encountering some of them can bring joy and bliss to your life while seeing others will doom your destiny. These creatures have entered Iranian culture from other cultures, especially Arabs. So reading the story of Persian mythical creatures can be a window to a mysterious yet exciting place. These stories can make your heart pump harder out of excitement and bring more joy to your dull summer days when you are forced to stay at home and you are bored to death.
- Gelim Goosh, The Invisible Elephant-ear People
- Davalpa, The Handsome Evil Stucker
- Jen, The Parallel Worlds’s Creature
- Looloo Khor Khoreh, Persian Kids’ Childhood Nightmare
- Foolad Zereh, The Evil Persian Achilles
- Nane Sarma AKA Grandma Frost
- Siavash, Fire and Nobility
- Nowruz Mythology: How the New Year Begins
- Amoo Nowruz: The New Year’s Spirit
- Haji Firooz: The Nowruz’s Messenger
Persian Mythological Creatures and Their Stories
Ancient Iranians believed that everything was created in a specific order beginning with heaven, water, earth, fire, human being, respectively. Some of the things created first were very well respected like the Alborz, the first mountain, Simorgh, the first bird, etc. When the first sin was committed, the whole creation was filled with corruption and decay and replaced peace and order. In Persian mythology, you can find heroic actions, powerful ancient gods and goddesses and get inspired by how these stories were created to fit the level of people’s understanding of the phenomena. These stories were shaped in a way to address human beings’ curious minds and help them see the world through a simpler perspective. There are many stories about Persian divinities that you can compare to Greek or other kinds of mythology, which can make you surprised and excited. But, there are some major differences which we should get straight before jumping into the stories: First, as far as historians believe, Iran has always been a monotheist country which means that Iranians believe in one God! Therefore, although these deities are also known as gods and goddesses, they are basically divinities.
Indigenous Peoples Literature 
