Zoroastrian Cosmogony

Several stories of creation exist in the Iranian tradition. One story tells how Yima (see Yima), the primal man, king of the Golden Age, and later a solar deity, pierced the Earth with a golden arrow, making it pregnant. Yima, who resembles the Indian Vedic god Yama (see Yama), had been created by the sun god Vivahant, a servant of Ahura Mazda (see Ahura Mazda). In the Avesta (see Avesta), there was only Light—an essential purity—in the beginning. In the Light was the Word and the power of Nature. It was the creator, usually seen as Ahura Mazda himself, who joined together the Word and Nature to make the world (see Zoroastrianism).