Side by sideParallel across traditions
At Nemrut Dağ in Commagene (1st century BCE) Antiochus I honored a combined Artagnes-Heracles-Ares, a Hellenistic equation of Verethragna with Greek gods of strength and war.
| Ares | Verethragna | |
|---|---|---|
| Tradition | Greek Pantheon | Persian (Iranian) Tradition |
| Domains | war, violence, bloodshed | victory, strength, protection in battle |
| Symbols | sword, spear, shield, helmet, vulture | the boar, the raven-like bird Varaghna, ten incarnations |
| Also called | Mars | Bahram, Wahram, Vahagn (Armenian) |
The atlas records no domain or symbol that Ares and Verethragna share.
They are compared for the part each plays in their own tradition rather than for any attribute in common.
Associated with war, violence, and bloodshed.
Associated with victory, strength, and protection in battle.
Athens gave him little love and less architecture. Sparta and Thebes treated the war god as a fact. Dogs and night sacrifices appear in some rites. He is battlefield panic, not a patriotic mascot.
Invoked for victory and protection; the Bahram Yasht is recited for protection, and the twentieth day of each Zoroastrian month is dedicated to him.
Greek Pantheon
God of war, violence, and bloodshed. Son of Zeus and Hera, representing the brutal and chaotic aspects of warfare.
Ares embodies the physical valor and untamed violence of war. While Athena represents strategy, Ares is the chaotic frenzy of battle. He was not well-liked by the Greeks, who found him dangerous and overwhelming.
Persian (Iranian) Tradition
The yazata of victory, 'best-armed of the heavenly gods', who comes to Zarathushtra in ten shapes, from a strong wind and a golden-horned bull to a boar and a raven-like bird, and who gives his name to the highest grade of sacred fire.
A being 'made by Ahura' (Yasht 14.1); no birth narrative is told.
Yasht 14 answers Zarathushtra's question, 'Who is the best-armed of the heavenly gods?', with Verethragna, and describes him coming in ten successive forms: a strong, beautiful wind; a bull with yellow ears and golden horns; a white horse with a golden caparison; a burden-bearing camel; a sharp-toothed boar; a youth of fifteen; the swift bird Varaghna; a wild ram; a fighting buck; and a man holding a golden sword. Each bears the Glory made by Mazda. His feather, the hymn says, protects the one who carries it, a motif that recurs in the Shahnameh with the Simurgh's feather.
Comparisons pair figures that play a similar role across traditions, or that the myths connect within one. A shared role does not, by itself, establish a shared origin.