Ameretat
Encyclopedia
is the Avestan language
name of the Zoroastrian
divinity/divine concept of "not dying." As the hypostasis
of immortality, Ameretat is the Amesha Spenta
of long life on earth and perpetuality in the hereafter.
Etymologically, Avestan ameretat derives from an Indo-Iranian
root and is linguistically related to Vedic Sanskrit
amṛtatva
. The Indo-Iranian root has in turn Indo-European
origins. In Common Era
Zoroastrian tradition, Ameretat appears as Middle Persian
Amurdad, continuing in New Persian
as Mordad or Amordad.
The word ameretat is grammatically feminine and the divinity Ameretat is a female entity.
s also, Ameretat is already attested in the Gathas
, the oldest texts of the Zoroastrianism and considered to have been composed by Zoroaster
himself. And like most other principles, Ameretat is not unambiguously an entity in those hymns. Unlike four of the other Amesha Spentas, Ameretat does not have a standing epithet that in later Avesta texts becomes an element of her proper name.
Already in the Gathas, Ameretat is closely allied with Haurvatat
, the Amesha Spenta of "Wholeness" and health. Addressing Ahura Mazda
in Yasna
34.11, the prophet Zoroaster
exclaims that "both Wholeness and Immortality are for sustenance" in the Kingdom of God. In the same verse, as also in Yasna 45.10 and 51.7, parallels are drawn between Ameretat and Haurvatat on the one hand and "endurance and strength" on the other.
1.2; 3.1; 4.1; 6.17; 7.26; 8.1 etc.; Yasht
1.15; 10.92). The Younger Avestan texts allude to their respective guardianships of plant life and water (comparable with the Gathic allusion to sustenence), but these identifications are only properly developed in later tradition (see below). These associations with also reflect the Zoroastrian cosmological model in which each of the Amesha Spentas is identified with one aspect of creation.
The antithetical counterpart of Ameretat is the demon (daeva
) Shud "hunger", while Haurvatat's counterpart is Tarshna "thirst". Ameretat and Haurvatat are the only two Amesha Spentas who are not already assigned an antithetical counterpart in the Gathas. In the eschatological framework of Yasht 1.25, Ameretat and Haurvatat represent the reward of the righteous after death (cf. Ashi
and ashavan
).
, a Zoroastrian account of creation completed in the 12th century, Ameretat and Haurvatat appear—together with Spenta Armaiti (MP: Spendarmad), the third female Amesha Spenta—on the left hand of Ahura Mazda (Bundahishn 26.8). Throughout Zoroastrian scripture and tradition, these three principles are most consistently identified with the creations that they represent: respectively plant life, water, and earth.
According to the cosmological legends of the Bundahishn, when Angra Mainyu
(MP: Ahriman) withered the primordial plant, Ameretat crushed it to pulp and mixed it with water. Tishtrya
then took the water and spread it over the world as rain, which in turn caused a multitude of other plants to grow up.
In the calendrical dedication of Siroza 1.7, Ameretat is invoked on the seventh day of each month together with the Gaokarena (the "White Haoma
"). This Younger Avestan allusion to immortality is properly developed in Bundahishn 27.2, where White Haoma is considered to be the "death-dispelling chief of plants." From this White Hom, the ambrosia of immortality will be prepared at the final renovation of the world (Bd. 19.13; 30.25). Other chapters have the nectar being created from Ameretat herself (e.g. Bd. 26.113).
According to the Denkard' s
recollection of lost Avestan texts, Zoroaster's tan-gohr, his material self, was under the protection of Ameretat and Haurvatat up until the prophet's conception. The divinities caused the rains to nourish the grass, which six white cows then ate. Upon drinking the milk from those cows, Zoroaster's mother absorbed his tan-gohr. (Denkard 7.2.19ff)
Through the association with plants and water, Ameretat and Haurvatat are consequently identified with food and drink (cf. sustenance in the Gathas, above), and traditionally it was out of respect for these two Amesha Spentas that meals were to be taken in silence. In Book of Arda Viraz
23.6-8, the righteous Viraz sees a man punished in hell "for consuming Hordad and Amurdad while unlawfully chattering while he chewed."
In the hierarchy of yazatas
, Ameretat has Rashnu
, Arshtat
, and Zam
as assistants or cooperators (hamkars). Rashnu and Arshtat both have roles in Zoroastrian eschatology while Zam is the divinity of the earth and nourisher of plants.
In the day-name and month-name dedications of the Zoroastrian calendar
, the seventh day of the month and fifth month of the year are named after Ameretat/Amurdad/Mordad and are under her protection. The Iranian civil calendar
of 1925 follows Zoroastrian month-naming conventions and hence also has Mordad as the fifth month of the year.
texts as hrwwt mrwwt. A relationship to Armenian
hawrot mawrot has been suggested but is not confirmed. According to Georges Vajda (Encyclopedia of Islam, 2.III:236-237), the angels Hārūt and Mārūt of Qur'an
2:96 derive their names from those of the Amesha Spentas.
Avestan language
Avestan is an East Iranian language known only from its use as the language of Zoroastrian scripture, i.e. the Avesta, from which it derives its name...
name of the Zoroastrian
Zoroastrianism
Zoroastrianism is a religion and philosophy based on the teachings of prophet Zoroaster and was formerly among the world's largest religions. It was probably founded some time before the 6th century BCE in Greater Iran.In Zoroastrianism, the Creator Ahura Mazda is all good, and no evil...
divinity/divine concept of "not dying." As the hypostasis
Hypostasis (linguistics)
In linguistics, a hypostasis , is a relationship between a name and a known quantity, as a cultural personification of an entity or quality...
of immortality, Ameretat is the Amesha Spenta
Amesha Spenta
' is an Avestan language term for a class of divine entities in Zoroastrianism, and literally means "Bounteous Immortal" The noun is amesha "immortal", and spenta "furthering, strengthening, bounteous, holy" is an adjective of it...
of long life on earth and perpetuality in the hereafter.
Etymologically, Avestan ameretat derives from an Indo-Iranian
Proto-Indo-Iranian language
Proto-Indo-Iranian is the reconstructed proto-language of the Indo-Iranian branch of Indo-European. Its speakers, the hypothetical Proto-Indo-Iranians, are assumed to have lived in the late 3rd millennium BC, and are usually connected with the early Andronovo archaeological...
root and is linguistically related to Vedic Sanskrit
Vedic Sanskrit
Vedic Sanskrit is an old Indo-Aryan language. It is an archaic form of Sanskrit, an early descendant of Proto-Indo-Iranian. It is closely related to Avestan, the oldest preserved Iranian language...
amṛtatva
Amrita
Amrit is a Sanskrit word that literally means "immortality", and is often referred to in texts as nectar. The word's earliest occurrence is in the Rigveda where it is one of several synonyms of soma, the drink which confers immortality upon the gods. It is related etymologically to the Greek...
. The Indo-Iranian root has in turn Indo-European
Proto-Indo-European language
The Proto-Indo-European language is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European languages, spoken by the Proto-Indo-Europeans...
origins. In Common Era
Common Era
Common Era ,abbreviated as CE, is an alternative designation for the calendar era originally introduced by Dionysius Exiguus in the 6th century, traditionally identified with Anno Domini .Dates before the year 1 CE are indicated by the usage of BCE, short for Before the Common Era Common Era...
Zoroastrian tradition, Ameretat appears as Middle Persian
Middle Persian
Middle Persian , indigenously known as "Pârsig" sometimes referred to as Pahlavi or Pehlevi, is the Middle Iranian language/ethnolect of Southwestern Iran that during Sassanid times became a prestige dialect and so came to be spoken in other regions as well. Middle Persian is classified as a...
Amurdad, continuing in New Persian
Persian language
Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...
as Mordad or Amordad.
The word ameretat is grammatically feminine and the divinity Ameretat is a female entity.
In the Gathas
Like the other Amesha SpentaAmesha Spenta
' is an Avestan language term for a class of divine entities in Zoroastrianism, and literally means "Bounteous Immortal" The noun is amesha "immortal", and spenta "furthering, strengthening, bounteous, holy" is an adjective of it...
s also, Ameretat is already attested in the Gathas
Gathas
The Gathas are 17 hymns believed to have been composed by Zarathusthra himself. They are the most sacred texts of the Zoroastrian faith.-Structure and organization:...
, the oldest texts of the Zoroastrianism and considered to have been composed by Zoroaster
Zoroaster
Zoroaster , also known as Zarathustra , was a prophet and the founder of Zoroastrianism who was either born in North Western or Eastern Iran. He is credited with the authorship of the Yasna Haptanghaiti as well as the Gathas, hymns which are at the liturgical core of Zoroastrianism...
himself. And like most other principles, Ameretat is not unambiguously an entity in those hymns. Unlike four of the other Amesha Spentas, Ameretat does not have a standing epithet that in later Avesta texts becomes an element of her proper name.
Already in the Gathas, Ameretat is closely allied with Haurvatat
Haurvatat
Haurvatat is the Avestan language word for the Zoroastrian concept of "wholeness" or "perfection." The hypostasis of that concept is the divinity Haurvatat, who is the Amesha Spenta of water , prosperity, and health....
, the Amesha Spenta of "Wholeness" and health. Addressing Ahura Mazda
Ahura Mazda
Ahura Mazdā is the Avestan name for a divinity of the Old Iranian religion who was proclaimed the uncreated God by Zoroaster, the founder of Zoroastrianism...
in Yasna
Yasna
Yasna is the name of the primary liturgical collection of texts of the Avesta as well as the name of the principal Zoroastrian act of worship at which those verses are recited. The Yasna, or Izeshne, is primarily the name of the ceremony in which the entire book is recited and appropriate...
34.11, the prophet Zoroaster
Zoroaster
Zoroaster , also known as Zarathustra , was a prophet and the founder of Zoroastrianism who was either born in North Western or Eastern Iran. He is credited with the authorship of the Yasna Haptanghaiti as well as the Gathas, hymns which are at the liturgical core of Zoroastrianism...
exclaims that "both Wholeness and Immortality are for sustenance" in the Kingdom of God. In the same verse, as also in Yasna 45.10 and 51.7, parallels are drawn between Ameretat and Haurvatat on the one hand and "endurance and strength" on the other.
In the Younger Avesta
The relationship between Ameretat and Haurvatat is carries forward into the Younger Avesta (YasnaYasna
Yasna is the name of the primary liturgical collection of texts of the Avesta as well as the name of the principal Zoroastrian act of worship at which those verses are recited. The Yasna, or Izeshne, is primarily the name of the ceremony in which the entire book is recited and appropriate...
1.2; 3.1; 4.1; 6.17; 7.26; 8.1 etc.; Yasht
Yasht
The s are a collection of twenty-one hymns in Younger Avestan. Each of these hymns invokes a specific Zoroastrian divinity or concept. Yasht chapter and verse pointers are traditionally abbreviated as Yt....
1.15; 10.92). The Younger Avestan texts allude to their respective guardianships of plant life and water (comparable with the Gathic allusion to sustenence), but these identifications are only properly developed in later tradition (see below). These associations with also reflect the Zoroastrian cosmological model in which each of the Amesha Spentas is identified with one aspect of creation.
The antithetical counterpart of Ameretat is the demon (daeva
Daeva
Daeva in Avestan language meaning "a being of shining light", is a term for a particular sort of supernatural entity with disagreeable characteristics. Equivalents in Iranian languages include Pashto dêw , Baluchi dêw , Persian dīv , Kurdish dêw...
) Shud "hunger", while Haurvatat's counterpart is Tarshna "thirst". Ameretat and Haurvatat are the only two Amesha Spentas who are not already assigned an antithetical counterpart in the Gathas. In the eschatological framework of Yasht 1.25, Ameretat and Haurvatat represent the reward of the righteous after death (cf. Ashi
Ashi
Rav Ashi was a celebrated Jewish religious scholar, a Babylonian amora, who reestablished the academy at Sura and was first editor of the Babylonian Talmud...
and ashavan
Ashavan
Avestan ashavan is a Zoroastrian theological term. It literally means "possessing aša", hence "possessing truth" or "possessing righteousness", but has further implications:...
).
In tradition
In the BundahishnBundahishn
Bundahishn, meaning "Primal Creation", is the name traditionally given to an encyclopædiaic collections of Zoroastrian cosmogony and cosmology written in Book Pahlavi. The original name of the work is not known....
, a Zoroastrian account of creation completed in the 12th century, Ameretat and Haurvatat appear—together with Spenta Armaiti (MP: Spendarmad), the third female Amesha Spenta—on the left hand of Ahura Mazda (Bundahishn 26.8). Throughout Zoroastrian scripture and tradition, these three principles are most consistently identified with the creations that they represent: respectively plant life, water, and earth.
According to the cosmological legends of the Bundahishn, when Angra Mainyu
Angra Mainyu
Angra Mainyu is the Avestan-language name of Zoroastrianism's hypostasis of the "destructive spirit". The Middle Persian equivalent is Ahriman.-In Zoroaster's revelation:...
(MP: Ahriman) withered the primordial plant, Ameretat crushed it to pulp and mixed it with water. Tishtrya
Tishtrya
Tishtrya is the Avestan language name of an Zoroastrian benevolent divinity associated with life-bringing rainfall and fertility. Tishtrya is Tir in Middle- and Modern Persian...
then took the water and spread it over the world as rain, which in turn caused a multitude of other plants to grow up.
In the calendrical dedication of Siroza 1.7, Ameretat is invoked on the seventh day of each month together with the Gaokarena (the "White Haoma
Haoma
Haoma is the Avestan language name of a plant and its divinity, both of which play a role in Zoroastrian doctrine and in later Persian culture and mythology. The Middle Persian form of the name is hōm, which continues to be the name in Modern Persian and other living Iranian languages.Sacred haoma...
"). This Younger Avestan allusion to immortality is properly developed in Bundahishn 27.2, where White Haoma is considered to be the "death-dispelling chief of plants." From this White Hom, the ambrosia of immortality will be prepared at the final renovation of the world (Bd. 19.13; 30.25). Other chapters have the nectar being created from Ameretat herself (e.g. Bd. 26.113).
According to the Denkard
Denkard
The Dēnkard or Dēnkart is a 10th century compendium of the Mazdaen Zoroastrian beliefs and customs. The Denkard is to a great extent an "Encyclopedia of Mazdaism" and is a most valuable source of information on the religion...
recollection of lost Avestan texts, Zoroaster's tan-gohr, his material self, was under the protection of Ameretat and Haurvatat up until the prophet's conception. The divinities caused the rains to nourish the grass, which six white cows then ate. Upon drinking the milk from those cows, Zoroaster's mother absorbed his tan-gohr. (Denkard 7.2.19ff)
Through the association with plants and water, Ameretat and Haurvatat are consequently identified with food and drink (cf. sustenance in the Gathas, above), and traditionally it was out of respect for these two Amesha Spentas that meals were to be taken in silence. In Book of Arda Viraz
Book of Arda Viraf
The Book of Arda Viraf is a Zoroastrian religious text of Sassanid era in Middle Persian language,contains about 8,800 words. It describes the dream-journey of a devout Zoroastrian through the next world. Due to the ambiguity inherent to Pahlavi script, 'Viraf' may also be transliterated as...
23.6-8, the righteous Viraz sees a man punished in hell "for consuming Hordad and Amurdad while unlawfully chattering while he chewed."
In the hierarchy of yazatas
Yazata
Yazata is the Avestan language word for a Zoroastrian concept. The word has a wide range of meanings but generally signifies a divinity...
, Ameretat has Rashnu
Rashnu
Rashnu is the Avestan language name of the Zoroastrian yazata of justice. Together with Mithra and Sraosha, Rashnu is one of the three judges who pass judgment on the souls of people after death...
, Arshtat
Arshtat
Arshtat is the Avestan language name of a Zoroastrian principle and signifies either "justice" or "honesty." As a substantive, arshtat designates the divinity Arshtat, the hypostasis of "Rectitude" and "Justice"...
, and Zam
Zam
Zam is the Avestan language term for the Zoroastrian concept of "earth", in both the sense of land and soil and in the sense of the world...
as assistants or cooperators (hamkars). Rashnu and Arshtat both have roles in Zoroastrian eschatology while Zam is the divinity of the earth and nourisher of plants.
In the day-name and month-name dedications of the Zoroastrian calendar
Zoroastrian calendar
This article treats of the reckoning of days, months and years in the calendar used by adherents of the Zoroastrian faith. Zoroastrian religious festivals are discussed elsewhere, but have a fixed relationship to Nawruz, the New Year festival, whose timing is discussed below...
, the seventh day of the month and fifth month of the year are named after Ameretat/Amurdad/Mordad and are under her protection. The Iranian civil calendar
Iranian calendar
The Iranian calendars or sometimes called Persian calendars are a succession of calendars invented or used for over two millennia in Greater Iran...
of 1925 follows Zoroastrian month-naming conventions and hence also has Mordad as the fifth month of the year.
In other religions
Haurvatat-Ameretat (Pahlavi hrwdʼd ʼmwrdʼd) appears in Sogdian languageSogdian language
The Sogdian language is a Middle Iranian language that was spoken in Sogdiana , located in modern day Uzbekistan and Tajikistan ....
texts as hrwwt mrwwt. A relationship to Armenian
Armenian language
The Armenian language is an Indo-European language spoken by the Armenian people. It is the official language of the Republic of Armenia as well as in the region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The language is also widely spoken by Armenian communities in the Armenian diaspora...
hawrot mawrot has been suggested but is not confirmed. According to Georges Vajda (Encyclopedia of Islam, 2.III:236-237), the angels Hārūt and Mārūt of Qur'an
Qur'an
The Quran , also transliterated Qur'an, Koran, Alcoran, Qur’ān, Coran, Kuran, and al-Qur’ān, is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God . It is regarded widely as the finest piece of literature in the Arabic language...
2:96 derive their names from those of the Amesha Spentas.