Editing Ahriman (section)

==In the Avesta==
===In Zoroaster's revelation===
Avestan ''angra mainyu''<!-- lower case when in Gathic context --> "seems to have been an original conception of [[Zoroaster]]'s."<ref name=JDG_1982_670_673>
{{cite encyclopedia
 |last=Duchesne-Guillemin |first=Jacques
 |year=1982
 |title=Ahriman
 |encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia Iranica
 |volume=1 |pages=670–673
 |place=New York, NY
 |publisher=Routledge & Kegan Paul
 |url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/ahriman
 |via=iranicaonline.org
}}
</ref> In the [[Gathas]], which are the oldest texts of Zoroastrianism and are attributed to Zoroaster, ''angra mainyu'' is not yet a proper name.<ref group=lower-alpha>Proper names are altogether rare in the Gathas. In these texts, even [[Ahura Mazda]] and [[Amesha Spenta]] are not yet proper names.</ref> In the one instance in these hymns where the two words appear together, the concept spoken of is that of a ''mainyu'' ("mind", "spirit" or otherwise an abstract energy etc.)<ref group=lower-alpha>The translation of ''mainyu'' as "spirit" is the common approximation. The stem of ''mainyu'' is "man", "thought", and "spirit" is here meant in the sense of "mind".</ref> that is ''angra'' ("destructive", "chaotic", "disorderly", "inhibitive", "malign" etc., of which a manifestation can be [[anger]]). In this single instance – in ''[[Yasna]]'' 45.2 – the "more bounteous of the spirits twain" declares ''angra mainyu'' to be its "absolute [[antithesis]]".<ref name="JDG_1982_670_673" />

A similar statement occurs in ''Yasna'' 30.3, where the antithesis is however ''aka mainyu'', ''aka'' being the Avestan language word for "evil". Hence, ''aka mainyu'' is the "evil spirit" or "evil mind" or "evil thought," as contrasted with ''[[Amesha Spenta|spenta mainyu]]'', the "bounteous spirit" with which [[Ahura Mazda]] conceived of creation, which then "was".

The ''aka mainyu'' epithet recurs in ''Yasna'' 32.5, when the principle is identified with the [[daeva|''daeva''s]] that deceive humankind and themselves. While in later Zoroastrianism, the ''daevas'' are demons, this is not yet evident in the Gathas: Zoroaster stated that the ''daevas'' are "wrong gods" or "false gods" that are to be rejected, but they are not yet demons.<ref name="Hellenschmidt_1993_599_602">{{citation|chapter=Daiva|author1=Hellenschmidt, Clarice  |author2=Kellens, Jean|title=Encyclopaedia Iranica|location=Costa Mesa|publisher=Mazda|year=1993|volume=6|pages=599–602}}</ref> Some have also proposed a connection between ''Angra Mainyu'' and the sage [[Angiras]] of the Rigveda.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dpkoAAAAYAAJ&q=angra+mainyu+angiras|title=The Rigveda: A Historical Analysis|last=Talageri|first=Shrikant G.|date=2000|publisher=Aditya Prakashan|isbn=9788177420104|pages=179|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ywfsCgAAQBAJ&q=angra+mainyu+angiras&pg=PT138|title=Boot, Hooves and Wheels: And the Social Dynamics behind South Asian Warfare|last=Bose|first=Saikat K.|date=2015-06-20|publisher=Vij Books India Pvt Ltd|isbn=9789384464547|language=en}}</ref> If this is true, it could be understood as evidence for a religious schism between the deva-worshiping [[Vedic]] [[Indo-Aryan languages|Indo-Aryans]] and early Zoroastrians.

In ''Yasna'' 32.3, these ''daevas'' are identified as the offspring, not of Angra Mainyu, but of ''[[Akem Manah|akem manah]]'', "evil thinking". A few verses earlier it is however the ''daebaaman'', "deceiver" – not otherwise identified but "probably Angra Mainyu"<ref name="JDG_1982_670_673" /> – who induces the ''daevas'' to choose ''achistem manah'' – "worst thinking." In ''Yasna'' 32.13, the abode of the wicked is not the abode of Angra Mainyu, but the abode of the same "worst thinking". "One would have expected [Angra Mainyu] to reign in hell, since he had created 'death and how, at the end, the worst existence shall be for the deceitful' (''Y.'' 30.4)."<ref name="JDG_1982_670_673" />

===In the Younger Avesta===
''Yasna'' 19.15 recalls that Ahura Mazda's recital of the [[Ahuna Vairya]] invocation puts Angra Mainyu in a stupor. In ''Yasna'' 9.8, Angra Mainyu creates [[Zahhak|Aži Dahaka]], but the serpent recoils at the sight of [[Mithra]]'s mace (''[[Yasht]]'' 10.97, 10.134). In ''[[Yasht]]'' 13, the [[Fravashi]]s defuse Angra Mainyu's plans to dry up the earth, and in ''Yasht'' 8.44 Angra Mainyu battles but cannot defeat [[Tishtrya]] and so prevent the rains. In ''[[Vendidad]]'' 19, Angra Mainyu urges Zoroaster to turn from the good religion by promising him sovereignty of the world. On being rejected, Angra Mainyu assails Zoroaster with legions of demons, but Zoroaster deflects them all. In ''Yasht'' 19.96, a verse that reflects a Gathic injunction, Angra Mainyu will be vanquished and Ahura Mazda will ultimately prevail.

In ''Yasht'' 19.46ff, Angra Mainyu and Spenta Mainyu battle for possession of ''[[Khvarenah|khvaraenah]]'', "divine glory" or "fortune". In some verses of the Yasna (e.g. ''Yasna'' 57.17), the two principles are said to have created the world, which seems to contradict the Gathic principle that declares Ahura Mazda to be the sole creator and which is reiterated in the cosmogony of ''[[Vendidad]]'' 1. In that first chapter, which is the basis for the 9th–12th-century ''[[Bundahishn]]'', the creation of sixteen lands by Ahura Mazda is countered by the Angra Mainyu's creation of sixteen scourges such as winter, sickness, and vice. "This shift in the position of Ahura Mazda, his total assimilation to this Bounteous Spirit [Mazda's instrument of creation], must have taken place in the 4th century BC at the latest; for it is reflected in [[Aristotle]]'s testimony, which confronts Areimanios with Oromazdes (apud Diogenes Laertius, 1.2.6)."<ref name="JDG_1982_670_673" />

''Yasht'' 15.43 assigns Angra Mainyu to the nether world, a world of darkness. So also ''Vendidad '' 19.47, but other passages in the same chapter (19.1 and 19.44) have him dwelling in the region of the ''daeva''s, which the ''Vendidad'' asserts is in the north. There (19.1, 19.43–44), Angra Mainyu is the ''daevanam daevo'', "''daeva'' of ''daeva''s" or chief of the ''daeva''s. The superlative ''daevo.taema'' is however assigned to the demon Paitisha ("opponent"). In an enumeration of the ''daeva''s in Vendidad 1.43, Angra Mainyu appears first and Paitisha appears last. "Nowhere is Angra Mainyu said to be the creator of the ''daeva''s or their father."<ref name="JDG_1982_670_673" />