Bibliography

Every citation in the compendium, grouped by tier. No reference here is fabricated; a consensus (flagged) item is an honestly-flagged scholarly position awaiting a verified secondary citation.

primary (49)

DNa §1; DPd; DE; DSe (the creation preamble, Old Persian royal inscriptions) → Ahura Mazdā
Behistun (DB) §5 and passim — Ahuramazda grants the kingship → Ahura Mazdā
The Gāthās (Yasna 28–34, 43–51, 53) — Ahura Mazdā as the Wise Lord → Ahura Mazdā
Herodotus 1.131 — the Persians sacrifice to 'Zeus' (the sky/high god) on the mountaintops → Ahura Mazdā
Behistun (DB) §§10, 52–54, 63–64 — the rebels as 'lie-followers', Ahuramazda's aid to the truthful king → Arta (Truth, right order)
DNb §§2, 8 (Darius's tomb creed: friend to the right; the doer of the Lie punished) → Arta (Truth, right order)
Herodotus 1.138 — lying and debt as the Persians' greatest disgraces → Arta (Truth, right order)
Avesta, the Gāthās, on aša as cosmic + moral order → Arta (Truth, right order)
DB (the Behistun inscription), Old Persian text; ed. Kent, Old Persian (1953); Schmitt, Corpus Inscriptionum Iranicarum → The Behistun Inscription (DB)
The Aramaic version of DB among the Elephantine papyri (Cowley 1923) → The Behistun Inscription (DB)
Herodotus 3.61–79 — the Greek tradition of Gaumāta and the accession, to compare → The Behistun Inscription (DB)
The Behistun inscription (DB), Darius's own res gestae → Darius I
DNa, DNb (Darius's tomb inscriptions at Naqsh-e Rostam); DPd, DSe, DSf (Susa) → Darius I
Herodotus 3.61–160 (accession, administration, the satrapies and tribute list), 4–6 (Scythia, Ionia, Marathon) → Darius I
The Persepolis Fortification tablets — the administrative record of the reign → Darius I
Herodotus 1.131–140 — Persian religion and customs → Herodotus, The Histories
Herodotus 3.61–88 — the accession of Darius and the constitutional debate → Herodotus, The Histories
Herodotus 3.89–97 — the satrapies and the tribute assessment → Herodotus, The Histories
Herodotus 7–9 — Xerxes' invasion, Thermopylae, Salamis, Plataea → Herodotus, The Histories
The Mihr Yašt (Yasht 10) — the Avestan hymn to Mithra → Mithra
Inscriptions of Artaxerxes II (A²Sa, A²Ha) and III (A³Pa) — the Ahuramazdā–Anāhitā–Mithra triad → Mithra
Herodotus 1.131 (the confused 'Mitra'); Strabo 15.3.13; Ctesias and Duris on the Mithrakana festival → Mithra
DNa and DNb — the inscriptions on the tomb of Darius I at Naqsh-e Rostam → Naqsh-e Rostam
The Achaemenid tomb reliefs (king, platform borne by the peoples, fire-holder, winged figure) → Naqsh-e Rostam
Old Persian royal inscriptions: DB (Behistun); DNa, DNb (Darius's tomb); XPh (Xerxes' daiva inscription) → Religion & the Lie: the Achaemenid religious world
Herodotus 1.131–140 — the fullest classical account of Persian religion → Religion & the Lie: the Achaemenid religious world
Strabo 15.3.13–15; Xenophon, Cyropaedia 8.1, 8.3 — the Magi and royal rites → Religion & the Lie: the Achaemenid religious world
The Persepolis Fortification tablets — rations for Ahura Mazdā and other gods together → Religion & the Lie: the Achaemenid religious world
Ezra 1, 6; Isaiah 45; the Cyrus Cylinder — the tolerationist self-presentation → Religion & the Lie: the Achaemenid religious world
Behistun (DB) §10–15 and the rebellion narrative — Darius's account of Gaumāta and the restoration → The Accession of Darius (522 BCE)
Herodotus 3.61–79 — the Greek tradition of the false Smerdis and the Seven → The Accession of Darius (522 BCE)
Ctesias, Persica (fragments in Photius) — a variant tradition → The Accession of Darius (522 BCE)
The Oxus Treasure gold votive plaques, British Museum → Gold plaque of a barsom-bearer (Oxus Treasure)
Herodotus 1.132; the Avestan barsom (barəsman) of the Yasna liturgy — the rite the plaques depict → Gold plaque of a barsom-bearer (Oxus Treasure)
Behistun (DB) §§10–11, 52, 54, 63–67 — the pretenders 'lied'; the warning against the Lie → The Drauga (the Lie)
DNb §8 — the doer of the Lie is not befriended; is punished → The Drauga (the Lie)
Herodotus 1.138 — lying the greatest Persian disgrace → The Drauga (the Lie)
Herodotus 1.101 (a Median tribe), 1.132 (no sacrifice without a magus; the chant), 1.140 (the killing of creatures; exposure of the dead) → The Magi
Herodotus 3.61–79 — Gaumāta the Magus and the magophonia → The Magi
Strabo 15.3.13–15 — the Magi, the fire, the barsom, the rites in Cappadocia and Persis → The Magi
Behistun (DB) §§11–13 — Gaumāta the magus and his overthrow (Darius's account) → The Magi
Herodotus 1.131–132 — no temples or altars; sacrifice in high places → The Sacred Fire
Strabo 15.3.13–15 — the Magi, the fire-sanctuaries and the tended fire (Hellenistic, use with care) → The Sacred Fire
The fire-holder on the tomb relief of Darius (DNa), Naqsh-e Rostam; the stone plinths at Pasargadae → The Sacred Fire
The winged figure on the reliefs at Behistun (DB), Persepolis, and the tombs at Naqsh-e Rostam (DNa) → The Winged Symbol (the figure in the winged ring)
The Assyrian winged-disc-with-figure and the Egyptian winged sun-disc — the iconographic antecedents → The Winged Symbol (the figure in the winged ring)
The Gāthās (Yasna 28–34, 43–46, 47–50, 51, 53) — Zarathustra's own hymns → Zarathustra
The traditional date '258 years before Alexander' (preserved in the Bundahišn and Arda Wirāz, echoed in Greek sources) → Zarathustra
Plato, Alcibiades I 122a; Plutarch, De Iside et Osiride 46–47; Diogenes Laertius, Proem 2 — the Greek 'Zoroaster' → Zarathustra

secondary (2)

Erich F. Schmidt, Persepolis III: The Royal Tombs and Other Monuments (Oriental Institute, 1970) — the standard excavation report; specific page/plate citations to be added on fetch → Naqsh-e Rostam
O. M. Dalton, The Treasure of the Oxus, with Other Examples of Early Oriental Metal-Work (British Museum, 3rd ed. 1964) — the standard catalogue; specific plaque/plate numbers to be added on fetch → Gold plaque of a barsom-bearer (Oxus Treasure)

consensus (flagged) (13)

On the Mazdaean-not-necessarily-Zoroastrian consensus and the winged-disc debate — the standard surveys treat the state cult as Mazdaean and the disc-figure as contested; upgrade with specific references when the works are fetched + checked → Ahura Mazdā
On Rawlinson's decipherment and on the 'Darius as usurper' minority reading — upgrade with specific references when the works are fetched + checked → The Behistun Inscription (DB)
Modern reassessment of Darius's reign and the usurpation question — the standard treatments (Briant, Kuhrt, Wiesehöfer, and the Behistun scholarship) — upgrade to specific references when fetched + checked → Darius I
Modern Herodotean scholarship on his reliability and sources — the source-critical literature on Herodotus and Persia — upgrade to specific references when fetched + checked → Herodotus, The Histories
Scholarship on Iranian Mithra and its distinction from Roman Mithras — upgrade to specific references (e.g. Boyce, Gershevitch on the Mihr Yašt) when fetched + checked → Mithra
The debate on the function of the Kaʿba-ye Zartošt — upgrade to specific references when fetched + checked → Naqsh-e Rostam
The scholarly consensus on Mazdaism vs Zoroastrianism, and on the daiva inscription — upgrade to specific secondary citations (Briant, Kuhrt, de Jong, etc.) as fetched + verified → Religion & the Lie: the Achaemenid religious world
The modern 'Darius as usurper' debate — the argument that Bardiya was genuine and the impostor a fiction — upgrade to specific references when fetched + checked → The Accession of Darius (522 BCE)
The debate on the provenance and unity of the Oxus Treasure — upgrade to specific references when fetched + checked → Gold plaque of a barsom-bearer (Oxus Treasure)
On the modern suspicion that Darius, not Gaumāta, was the usurper — a live scholarly minority position; upgrade with specific references when checked → The Drauga (the Lie)
The scholarly consensus on open-air Achaemenid worship and the Sasanian date of the fire-temple — e.g. the work of Mary Boyce on Iranian fire worship — upgrade to specific references when fetched + checked → The Sacred Fire
The identification debate: Ahura Mazdā vs the khvarnah/royal glory vs the fravashi — the khvarnah argument of A. Sh. Shahbazi and the counter-positions — upgrade to specific references when fetched + checked → The Winged Symbol (the figure in the winged ring)
The scholarly debate on Zarathustra's date and homeland, and on the Gāthās' Old Avestan — the linguistic-early vs traditional-late positions (Boyce, Skjærvø, Kellens, and others) — upgrade to specific references when fetched + checked → Zarathustra