Herodotus on Ancient Persian Notion of Gods

  November 21, 2020   Read time 1 min
Herodotus on Ancient Persian Notion of Gods
Herodotus's visit to the Ancient Persia was significant in many respects including the inscription of the ancient ideological concepts and theological perspective of the Persians. Herodotus speaks of the customs of the Persians and he majorly focuses on the Persian worldview that is essentially different from that of the Greek.
The customs which I know the Persians to observe are the following: they have no images of the gods, no temples nor altars, and consider the use of them a sign of folly. This comes, I think, from their not believing the gods to have the same nature with men, as the Greeks imagine. Their wont, however, is to ascend the summits of the loftiest mountains, and there to offer sacrifice to Zeus, which is the name they give to the whole circuit of the firmament. They likewise offer to the sun and moon, to the earth, to fire, to water, and to the winds. These are the only gods whose worship has come down to them from ancient times. At a later period they began the worship of Urania, which they borrowed from the Arabians and Assyrians. Mylitta is the name by which the Assyrians know this goddess, whom the Arabians call Alitta, and the Persians Mitra (Source: Encyclopedia of Ancient History).

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