Deity · Persian · c. 1000 BCE
The Amesha Spentas
Also called Bounteous Immortals
Six emanations of Ahura Mazda, each paired against a specific demon — the earliest ranked, functionally-paired hierarchy of spirits anywhere.
Narrow source base
Vohu Manah (good mind), Asha Vahishta (truth), Khshathra Vairya (dominion), Spenta Armaiti (devotion), Haurvatat (wholeness) and Ameretat (immortality). What makes them structurally important is the pairing: each has a specific demonic opponent, so the two hierarchies are not merely opposed in general but matched rank for rank. Barrett's nine infernal orders, each set against a celestial choir, reproduce exactly this scheme twenty-eight centuries later.
Identity
Where does the name come from?
Where it was actually worshipped
None individually. They are invoked together in the Yasna and housed nowhere.
A figure with temples and a figure that only ever existed on a page are different kinds of thing, and the difference is easy to lose once both are entries in a list.
At a glance
Vitals
Vitals
Also known as
- First attested
- The Avesta · c. 1000-400 BCE
- Named there as
- Amesha Spentas
- Rank
- Six Great Emanations
- Pantheon
- Persian
- Order
- Persian pantheon
- Base of operations
- None individually. They are invoked together in the Yasna and housed nowhere.
- Era
- c. 1000 BCE
- Traditions
- Zoroastrian
- Placed in
- The Paired Orders
Traits
- Domain
- Good mind, truth, dominion, devotion, wholeness, immortality
- Traditional form
- Abstractions treated as persons
Stats
Known connections
Chain of command
Identified with
4 attributed
What is it said to do?
Where these powers cluster
The 4 offices attributed to The Amesha Spentas, grouped by kind. Segment width is the share of powers falling in each category.
A bar dominated by one colour means a specialist; an even spread means a figure the sources credit with almost anything.
- martial1
- social2
- material1
2 texts
Which texts say so, and where do they disagree?
When these texts were written
Each dot is one of the 2 texts that names The Amesha Spentas, placed at that text's approximate date.
A wide spread means the figure was carried across many centuries and traditions; a tight cluster means a single period produced the whole record.
2 texts spanning roughly 1,550 years
Where the texts differ
- Name: given as Amesha Spentas, The Amahraspands
Six emanations surrounding Ahura Mazda, each with a named demonic counterpart.
Each of the six given a portion of creation to hold and an opposing demon assigned against it, so the good order and the evil one are matched item for item. The corpus files them near the angelic choirs deliberately; this text is the clearest statement of what a rank in such a scheme is actually for.
Connections
What is it connected to?
Placement
Where does it sit in the hierarchies?
Answered from the sources
Common questions
Which texts mention The Amesha Spentas?
Is The Amesha Spentas the same as Seraphim?
What rank is The Amesha Spentas?
How else is The Amesha Spentas spelled?
What is The Amesha Spentas said to do?
How old is The Amesha Spentas?
Nearest in the corpus
If The Amesha Spentas is what you came for, these are next
Chosen by proximity rather than by popularity: the same pantheon first, then the same rank, then the same kind of figure.
Mithra
Lord of Covenant · Persian
God of the binding contract, worshipped from India to Roman Britain. No other deity in this compendium can be traced across three civilisations so cleanly.
Aeshma
Daeva of Wrath · Persian
The demon of wrath and of the bloody club. He also supplies the most defensible etymology for Asmodeus: *Aeshma-daeva* to *Ashmedai* to *Asmodeus*.
Ahura Mazda
The Wise Lord · Persian
The uncreated god of Zoroastrianism, opposed by Angra Mainyu — the pairing that probably gave Judaism and Christianity their two-sided cosmos.
Angra Mainyu
The Destructive Spirit · Persian
The hostile principle, with his own army of daevas — the first fully developed adversary in the record, and the likely structural template for Satan.
Sraosha
Yazata of Obedience · Persian
He guards the soul for three nights after death and stands directly opposed to Aeshma. It is an angel's job description, written before there were angels.
Zahhak
The Serpent King · Persian
The three-headed serpent of the Avesta, who becomes in the Shahnameh a tyrant with snakes on his shoulders fed on human brains, chained beneath a mountain until the end.
The books behind The Amesha Spentas
Every claim on this profile is attributed to one of these. They are public domain, listed oldest first, and each links to a full text where one is freely available.
The Avesta
Attributed to Zarathustra and later priests · c. 1000-400 BCE · Avestan
Read The Avesta in full ↗Cover: CC0 · Daderot · Wikimedia file page
Bundahishn
Anonymous Zoroastrian; tr. E. W. West · 9th c. CE, from older material · Middle Persian
Read Bundahishn in full ↗Cover: CC BY-SA 3.0 · The original uploader was Ploxhoi at English Wikipedia · Wikimedia file page
Corpus last revised 29 August 2026. A reference site’s credibility rests on being maintained, so this is the date the sourced records last changed — not the date the page was rebuilt.