Topic: ritual (5)

• ObjectGold plaque of a barsom-bearer (Oxus Treasure)

  One of the small gold votive plaques of the Oxus Treasure showing a figure in Median dress holding a bundle of rods — the barsom of Iranian ritual; the clearest surviving material image of the rite the texts describe.

• Survey essayReligion & the Lie: the Achaemenid religious world

  A survey of Achaemenid religion: the worship of Ahura Mazdā and the ideology of Truth against the Lie; the Magi and their rites of fire, oath, and death; the toleration of subject gods; and the vexed question of the kings' relationship to Zoroaster.

• PeopleThe Magi

  The hereditary Iranian priestly class (originally, Herodotus says, a Median tribe) who conducted sacrifice, tended the sacred fire, interpreted dreams and omens, and presided over rites of birth, oath, and death in the Achaemenid world.

• ConceptThe Sacred Fire

  Fire, the purest of the creations and the visible focus of Iranian worship, tended by the Magi in the open air at stone fire-holders; the enclosed fire-temple of later Zoroastrianism is a Sasanian development and an anachronism for the Achaemenid period.

• PersonZarathustra

  The Iranian prophet whose hymns, the Gāthās, exalt Ahura Mazdā and the choice between Truth and the Lie; his date, homeland and exact relation to Achaemenid religion are among the most disputed questions in the field.