Ahura Mazda vs Zurvan

The Wise Lord, uncreated creator of the good world in Zoroastrianism, addressed by Zarathushtra in the Gathas and credited by the Achaemenid kings with their rule; opposed by the Hostile Spirit, Angra Mainyu.

Uncreated in orthodox Zoroastrianism. In the Sasanian-era Zurvanite current, known mainly from Christian and Armenian polemic, Ohrmazd and Ahriman are twin sons of Zurvan, Infinite Time.

Zarathushtra's hymns address Ahura Mazda as the creator who established the earth below and held up the sky, who ordered the paths of sun and stars, and who is the father of the good powers: Truth (*Asha*), Good Mind (*Vohu Manah*), and Devotion (*Armaiti*), whom one hymn calls his daughter. The Gathas are hymns of questioning and devotion rather than narratives; they present a world in which every being must choose between truth and the lie, and in which the Wise Lord will judge by that choice.

Infinite Time, whom a Sasanian-era current of Zoroastrian thought made the father of both Ohrmazd and Ahriman, born as twins from his sacrifice and his doubt; known mainly from hostile Christian and Armenian writers, and rejected by later orthodoxy.

Uncreated, the first being in the Zurvanite myth.

The fullest account comes not from a Zoroastrian text but from the fifth-century Armenian Christian Eznik of Kolb, in his *Refutation of the Sects*, with parallels in Syriac Christian sources. Before anything existed, Zurvan offered sacrifice for a thousand years in order to have a son who would create heaven and earth. Then he doubted whether his sacrifice would bear fruit, and from his doubt Ahriman was conceived, while from the sacrifice Ohrmazd was conceived. Zurvan vowed that whichever son reached him first would be king. Ohrmazd, knowing this, told his brother; Ahriman tore open the womb and presented himself, and Zurvan, bound by his vow, gave him rule for nine thousand years, after which Ohrmazd would reign.