Posters

The Elamites' relationship with the city-states to the west included the sharing of deities and religious ideas. In this case, Elamite armies stole a stele from a Sumerian temple and later adopted its imagery to represent their own gods.

The Zoroastrian conception of creation emphasized the universal order bestowed by the high god Ahura Mazda. The hymns in the Avestan scriptures give special place to the goodness of the created world, including waters, plants, the sun, moon, and stars.

The Achaemenids, while honoring Ahura Mazda above all, tolerated and even promoted other religious traditions within their empire. In this famous cylinder found at Babylon, King Cyrus boasted of having restored temples throughout Mesopotamia, a policy designed to cultivate the support of his new subjects.

King Cyrus' religious policy also permitted Jewish deportees in Babylon to return to Judea and begin rebuilding the Temple of Jerusalem. Some books of the Hebrew Bible heap praise on Cyrus as an instrument of Yahweh, even giving him the title of "anointed one" or Messiah.

Zoroastrian priests under the Sasanian dynasty attributed the lack of an early Zoroastrian written tradition to Alexander of Macedon, "the accursed," whom they allege destroyed their holy texts when he burned Persepolis to the ground.

When the local Jewish population of Dura Europos on the Euphrates decorated its synagogue, they drew upon the town's Parthian cultural and social traditions. The synagogue's frescoes often present Biblical characters in Parthian dress.

The Mesopotamian prophet Mani's charismatic teaching launched a new religious community in the Sasanian Empire. Though Mani was executed in 276 CE by Zoroastrian authorities, his followers quickly spread his doctrines widely beyond Iran's borders.

Buddhism gained considerable traction in Ancient Iran's Indic borderlands. Large complexes like the monastery of Mes Aynak in Afghanistan attest to the wealth and influence of late antique Buddhist communities in the eastern Iranian world.

Adherents of all religions in Sasanian Mesopotamia were fearful of their homes and loved ones being possessed by demons. Many people made or bought bowls marked with incantations designed to "divorce" demons from their lives.

As Christianity gained more followers in the Sasanian Empire, the invocation of Jesus also became more common in popular "magical" practices. This amulet, bearing a Middle Persian inscription, calls on Jesus to protect a Persian woman against demons.

Zoroastrian practice prohibits burying the dead in order to protect the sacred element of the earth. Instead, the deceased were taken to designated areas and left to decompose in the open and eaten by vultures.

The Achaemenid kings framed their rulership as a gift from or partnership with the gods. As Zoroastrians, they believed that Ahura Mazda had entrusted them with the duty of overseeing creation as part of their mandate.

Zoroastrian tradition taught that human souls, upon reaching the afterlife, were met by a personal spirit called a daena. The daena would then guide the soul towards either eternal punishment or reward.

Zoroastrian tradition attributes the origin of evil to Ahura Mazda's rival, Ahriman. In some stories, Ahriman's daughter, the prostitute Jeh, also plays a central role in allowing evil to corrupt the material world.