Ahura Mazda

== Plutarch ==
According to [[Plutarch]],<ref>Plutarch (1936). Isis and Osiris. Translated by Thayer, Bill. Loeb Classical Library. pp. 46–47; available online: Plutarch (1936). Isis and Osiris. LacusCurtius. Translated by Thayer, Bill. University of Chicago. pp. 46–47.</ref> [[Zoroaster]] named "[[Arimanius]]" as one of the two rivals who were the artificers of good and evil. In terms of sense perception, Oromazes was to be compared to light, and Arimanius to darkness and ignorance; between these was [[Mithra]]s the Mediator. Arimanius received offerings that pertained to [[Apotropaic magic|warding off evil]] and [[mourning]].

In describing a ritual to Arimanius, Plutarch says the god was invoked as [[Hades]]<ref>{{cite book |last=Reinach |first=S. |year=1909 |translator-last=Simmonds |translator-first=F. |title=Orpheus: A general history of religions |place=London, UK |publisher=Heinemann}}</ref>{{rp|page= 68}} gives the identification as [[Pluto (mythology)|Pluto]], the name of the Greek ruler of the underworld used most commonly in texts and inscriptions pertaining to the [[Greco-Roman mysteries|mystery religions]], and in Greek dramatists and philosophers of Athens in the [[Classical Greece|Classical period]]. Turcan<ref name=Turcan1992>{{cite book |last=Turcan |first=Robert |orig-year=1992 |year=2001 |title=The Cults of the Roman Empire |publisher=Blackwell |language=en}} originally published 1989 in French.</ref>{{rp|page= 232}} notes that Plutarch makes of Arimanius "a sort of [[wikt:tenebrous|tenebrous]] Pluto". Plutarch, however, names the Greek god as ''[[Hades]]'', not the name ''[[Hades|Plouton]]'' used in the [[Eleusinian Mysteries|Eleusinian tradition]]{{efn|For distinctions in usage between the two names, see [[Pluto (mythology)#Mysteries and cult|Pluto in the mysteries and cult]] and [[Pluto (mythology)#In Greek literature and philosophy|Pluto in Greek literature and philosophy]].}} ("The Hidden One") and darkness.{{efn|In Greek religion, [[Hades]] was the ruler of the dead or shades, but not an evil god [[wikt:per se|''per se'']], except in the sense that death might be considered a bad thing – [[Wikt:κακόν|{{math|κακόν}}]], ''kakon''.}}

The Arimanius ritual required an otherwise-unknown plant that Plutarch calls "''[[Haoma|omomi]]''" ([[Haoma]] or [[Soma (drink)|Soma]]), which was to be pounded in a mortar and mixed with the blood of a sacrificed wolf. The substance was then carried to a place "''where the sun never shines''" and cast therein. He adds that "water-rats" belong to this god, and therefore proficient rat-killers are fortunate men.

Plutarch then gives a [[cosmogony|cosmogonical]] myth:
<blockquote>
Oromazes, born from the purest light, and Areimanius, born from darkness, are constantly at war with each other; and Oromazes created six gods, the first of Good Thought, the second of Truth, the third of Order, and, of the rest, one of Wisdom, one of Wealth, and one the Artificer of Pleasure in what is Honourable. But Areimanius created rivals, as it were, equal to these in number. Then Oromazes enlarged himself to thrice his former size, and removed himself as far distant from the Sun as the Sun is distant from the Earth, and adorned the heavens with stars. One star he set there before all others as a guardian and watchman, the [[Sirius|Dog-star]]. Twenty-four other gods he created and placed in [[world egg|an egg]]. But those created by Areimanius, who were equal in number to the others, pierced through the egg and made their way inside; hence evils are now combined with good. But a destined time shall come when it is decreed that Areimanius, engaged in bringing on pestilence and famine, shall by these be utterly annihilated and shall disappear; and then shall the earth become a level plain, and there shall be one manner of life and one form of government for a blessed people who shall all speak one tongue. — Plutarch<ref>{{cite book |author=[[Plutarch]] |title=Moralia |article=Isis and Osiris |at= |publisher=[[University of Chicago]] |article-url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/H/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Moralia/Isis_and_Osiris*/C.html |via=Penelope.UChicago.edu}}</ref><ref name=PlutarchIsis>{{cite book |author=Plutarch |author-link=Plutarch |translator-first=Bill |translator-last=Thayer |title=Isis and Osiris |year=1936 |pages=46–47 |publisher=Loeb Classical Library |postscript=;}} available online: {{cite book |author=Plutarch |author-link=Plutarch |translator-first=Bill |translator-last=Thayer |year=1936 |title=Isis and Osiris |pages=46–47 |via=[[LacusCurtius]] |publisher=University of Chicago |url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Moralia/Isis_and_Osiris*/C.html#46}}</ref>{{rp|at= 47}}
</blockquote>

Scholar [[Mary Boyce]] asserted that the passage shows a "fairly accurate" knowledge of basic Zoroastrianism.<ref>{{cite book |author1-link=Mary Boyce |last1=Boyce |first1=M. |last2=Grenet |first2=F. |name-list-style=amp |year=1991 |title=A History of Zoroastrianism: Zoroastrianism under Macedonian and Roman rule |pages=458–459 |publisher=Brill}}</ref>

In his ''Life of Themistocles'', Plutarch has the Persian king invoke Arimanius by name, asking the god to cause the king's enemies to behave in such a way as to drive away their own best men; de&nbsp;Jong (1997)<ref name=deJong1997>{{cite book |last=de&nbsp;Jong |first=A. |year=1997 |title=Traditions of the Magi: Zoroastrianism in Greek and Latin literature |publisher=Brill}}</ref>{{rp|page= 313}} doubted that a Persian king would pray to his own national religion's god of evil, particularly in public.

According to Plutarch, the king then made a sacrifice and got drunk<!-- Irrelevant citation follows: The topic is Christian polemic on habitual drunkenness; if you can figure out its pertinence to this article, go ahead and explain it first and un-comment it second. -- <ref>{{cite web |url=https://biblehub.com/text/1_corinthians/11-25.htm |title=11–25 |series=First Corinthians |website=biblehub.com}}</ref> --> – essentially a [[running gag]] on Persian kings in Plutarch's writing,{{efn|
[[Plutarch]] wrote in the second century BCE{{citation needed|date=July 2021}} when the Roman Empire was deep in the middle of an ongoing, ultimately futile war of acquisition in Persia – the "Roman [[Vietnam War|Vietnam]]".{{citation needed|date=July 2021}} Denigrating the enemy Persian government in popular writing would have been a show of loyalty to the Empire’s shaky aspirations to repeat [[Alexander the Great|Alexander’s]] conquest ~600&nbsp;years earlier.{{citation needed|date=July 2021}}
}} and thus dubious evidence for actual behavior.<ref name=deJong1997/>{{rp|page= 314}}
[[File:Leontocephaline at Ostia Antica by Franz Cumont.jpg|thumb|upright=.8|right|Drawing of the [[Mithraism#Lion headed figure|"leontocephaline figure"]] found at the mithraeum of C.&nbsp;Valerius Heracles and sons, dedicated 190&nbsp;[[Common Era|CE]] at [[Ostia Antica]], Italy (CIMRM 312)]]