Atar

Atar (Fire) in Zoroastrianism is regarded as the son of Ahura Mazda, the Wise Lord. Humans were expected to offer meat as a sacrifice to Atar, at the same time holding a bundle of sacred twigs (barsom) in the hand. Every house was expected to have a hearth for making sacrifices, in front of which prayers could be said:
... O Atar, son of Ahura Mazda! Thou art worthy of sacrifice and invocati
on; mayest thou receive the sacrifice and the invocation in the houses of men.

Atar is the Zoroastrian concept of holy fire, sometimes described in abstract terms as "burning and unburning fire" or "visible and invisible fire".

Atar is closely associated with the god Mithra: for example, together they succeed in rescuing the Divine Glory from the demon Azhi Dahaka. Atar is described as riding behind Mithra's chariot.

To this day, fire has continued to play a prominent part in Zoroastrian religion and is still worshipped in fire-temples. Fire is a symbol of Zoroastrianism. In Sassanian times there were three famous eternal fires, each representing one of the three classes of society: the Farnabag fire (priests), the Gushnasp fire (warriors) and the Burzin Mihr fire (workers). The Gushnasp fire was probably burning at Takht-i Sulaiman in north-western Iran. To this day the Bahrain fire, the most sacred of all fires, is necessary to fight the forces of darkness and evil and is regarded as the symbol of truth.

During the late Achaemenid era, Atar—as the quintessence of the Yazata Atar—was incorporated in the Zoroastrian hierarchy of angels. In that position, Atar is a helper of Asha Vahishta (Avestan, middle Persian: Ardvahisht), the Amesha Spenta responsible for the luminaries. From among the flowers associated with the Zoroastrian angels, Atar's is the marigold (calendula)

The importance of the divinity Atar is evident from a dedication to the entity in the Zoroastrian calendar: Atar one of only five lower-ranking divinities that have a month-name dedication. Additionally, Atar is the name of the ninth day of the month in the Zoroastrian religious calendar, and the ninth month of the year of the civil Iranian calendar of 1925 (modern Persian: Azar) which has month-names derived from those used by the Zoroastrian calendar.

In Zoroastrian cosmogony, Atar was the seventh of the seven creations of the material universe. It is only with Atars assistance, who serves as the life-force, that the other six creations begin their work.