[Mehrbod]

Aka Manah
aka: Akem Manah, Akoman, Akvan
In Persian: Akuman


Aka Manah is one of the Daevas. He is the personification of sensual desire who was sent by Ahriman to seduce the prophet Zarathustra. His eternal opponent is Vohu Manah.

Aka Manah is the Avestan language name for the Zoroastrian daeva "Evil Mind", "Evil Purpose", "Evil Thinking" or "Evil Intention".

In the Younger Avesta, Akem Manah is unambiguously a demonic entity, an auxiliary of Angra Mainyu. In Yasht 19.46, Aka Manah, Aeshma, Azi Dahaka and Spityura battle Vohu Manah, Asha Vahishta and Atar for the possession of khvarenah. Later in the same hymn (19.96), Aka Manah is predicted to be in battle with Vohu Manah at the final renovation of the world, at which time Aka Manah – as all the other daevas also - will be vanquished.

In Vendidad(one of the books of the Avesta) 19's account of the temptation of Zoroaster, Aka Manah poses ninety-nine questions to weaken the prophet's conviction in Ahura Mazda. Zoroaster does not succumb to the trick.

In the Epistles of Zadspram (14.8), Akoman is first among the demons who try to injure Zoroaster before and at his birth. He was however "easily defeated by his own weapon of deceit being turned against him. Vohuman, who had chased him to the spot, schemingly turned back and asked him to enter the house. Akoman thought that as his rival was leaving the place, his own work was finished, and consequently [left as well] without accomplishing anything."

The ability to make righteous decisions is blunted by Akoman (Denkard 3.116). He is the cause of evil intent, and a mortal so afflicted searches for "gross defects" in others while hiding his own (3.255). Denkard 8 attributes the crying of new-born infants to Akoman, reasoning that the demon frightens the children with ghastly images of the final renovation of the world.

According to Denkard, Akoman causes a mortal's failure to discriminate between good and evil. He so introduces discord and - as a consequence - physical evil in the world (Denkard 6). He perverts a man's thoughts and makes him miserable. Among all the demons, Akoman is to be dreaded the most (Denkard 9).

In Ferdowsi's Shahnameh, Akvan is described as having long hair, blue eyes and a head like an elephants with a mouthful of tusks instead of teeth. In one of the tales, the demon traps Rostam while the hero is asleep, and carries him up into the sky. He then asks Rostam whether he would prefer to be thrown upon a mountain, or into the sea. Rostam, aware that the demon's mind is perverse (cf. In the Pahlavi texts above), asks to be thrown upon a mountain, and the demon in response throws him into the sea. Rescuing himself from the waters, Rostam recovers his horse and confronts the demon again, subsequently beheading it.



p.s.
Perhaps related to Agamemnon, despite the slight difference in meaning, too close a cognate to ignore

Agamemnon