Azi Dahaka - Part 1
aka: Zahhak

Azi Dahaka is a storm demon from Persian mythology. He steals cattle and brings harm to humans. It is a snake-like monster with three heads and six eyes who also personifies the Babylonian oppression of Persia. The monster will be captured by the warrior god Thraetaona and placed on the mountain top Dermawend. In a final revival of evil, it will escape its prison, b
ut at the end of time (fraso-kereti) it will die in the river of fire Ayohsust.

Zahhak is an evil figure in Persian mythology, evident in ancient Iranian folklore as Azi Dahaka, the name by which he also appears in the texts of the Avesta. In Middle Persian he is called Dahāg or Bēvar-Asp, the latter meaning "[he who has] 10,000 horses". Within Zoroastrianism, Zahhak (going under the name Azi Dahaka) is considered the son of Angra Mainyu(Ahriman), the foe of Ahura Mazda.

Azi Dahaka derives from the Indo-Iranian myth of the cosmic snake who prevents the full unfolding of the cosmos by withholding water. In the Iranian national myth of kingship, he overthrows the first man and king (Yima, Jamshed) and subjects Iran to evil rule until he is slain by the hero Thraetaona (Fredon).

Aži Dahāka appears in several of the Avestan myths and is mentioned parenthetically in many more places in Zoroastrian literature. In a post-Avestan Zoroastrian text, the Dēnkard, Aži Dahāka is possessed of all possible sins and evil counsels, the opposite of the good king Jam. The name Dahāg (Dahāka) is punningly interpreted as meaning "having ten (dah) sins." His mother is Wadag (or Ōdag), herself described as a great sinner, who committed incest with her son.

In the Avesta, Aži Dahāka is said to have lived in the inaccessible fortress of Kuuirinta in the land of Baβri, where he worshipped the yazatas Aredvi Sura (Anahita), divinity of the rivers, and Vayu, divinity of the storm-wind. Based on the similarity between Baβri and Old Persian Bābiru (Babylon), later Zoroastrians localized Aži Dahāka in Mesopotamia, though the identification is open to doubt. Aži Dahāka asked these two yazatas for power to depopulate the world. Being representatives of the Good, they refused.
In one Avestan text, Aži Dahāka has a brother named Spitiyura. Together they attack the hero Yima (Jamshid) and cut him in half with a saw, but are then beaten back by the yazata Ātar, the divine spirit of Fire.


Art by Sarah Perryman

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