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Vanant
Vanant is the Avestan language name of a minor Zoroastrian divinity. The name literally means "conqueror", but in Zoroastrian tradition Vanant is the hypostasis of the "star of the west", variously identified with Altair, Fomalhaut, Vega, Sargas or Kappa Scorpii/Girtab. Vanant may have its origins in the Sumero-Akkadian Vanand, perhaps incorporated in the Zoroastrian pantheon as a consequence of the close relations between Iran and Babylon during the late Achaemenid era. Vanant has no calendrical dedication (see Zoroastrian calendar), but is invoked together with the other astral divinities on the second and third days of the month. From amongst the hymns invoking divinities, ''Yasht'' 21 is dedicated to Vanant. The divinity is also invoked in the hymn dedicated to Tishtrya, another star ''yazata Yazata ( ae, 𐬫𐬀𐬰𐬀𐬙𐬀) is the Avestan word for a Zoroastrian concept with a wide range of meanings but generally signifying (or used as an epithet of) a divinity. The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yasht
The Yashts are a collection of twenty-one hymns in the Younger Avestan language. Each of these hymns invokes a specific Zoroastrian divinity or concept. ''Yasht'' chapter and verse pointers are traditionally abbreviated as ''Yt.'' Overview The word ''yasht'' derives from Middle Persian 𐭩𐭱𐭲 yašt (“prayer, worship”) probably from Avestan ''𐬫𐬀𐬱𐬙𐬀'' (yašta, “honored”), from ''𐬫𐬀𐬰'' (yaz, “to worship, honor”), from Proto-Indo-European ''*yeh₂ǵ-'' or ''*Hyaǵ-'', and several hymns of the ''Yasna'' liturgy that "venerate by praise" are—in tradition—also nominally called ''yasht''s. These "hidden" Yashts are: the '' Barsom Yasht'' (''Yasna'' 2), another '' Hom Yasht'' in ''Yasna'' 9–11, the ''Bhagan Yasht'' of ''Yasna'' 19–21, a hymn to Ashi in ''Yasna'' 52, another Sarosh ''Yasht'' in ''Yasna'' 57, the praise of the (hypostasis of) "prayer" in ''Yasna'' 58, and a hymn to the Ahurani in ''Yasna'' 68. Since these are a part of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vega
Vega is the brightest star in the northern constellation of Lyra. It has the Bayer designation α Lyrae, which is Latinised to Alpha Lyrae and abbreviated Alpha Lyr or α Lyr. This star is relatively close at only from the Sun, and one of the most luminous stars in the Sun's neighborhood. It is the fifth-brightest star in the night sky, and the second-brightest star in the northern celestial hemisphere, after Arcturus. Vega has been extensively studied by astronomers, leading it to be termed "arguably the next most important star in the sky after the Sun". Vega was the northern pole star around 12,000 BCE and will be so again around the year 13,727, when its declination will be . Vega was the first star other than the Sun to have its image and spectrum photographed. It was one of the first stars whose distance was estimated through parallax measurements. Vega has functioned as the baseline for calibrating the photometric brightness scale and was one of the st ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Avestan Language
Avestan (), or historically Zend, is an umbrella term for two Old Iranian languages: Old Avestan (spoken in the 2nd millennium BCE) and Younger Avestan (spoken in the 1st millennium BCE). They are known only from their conjoined use as the scriptural language of Zoroastrianism, and the Avesta likewise serves as their namesake. Both are early Eastern Iranian languages within the Indo-Iranian language branch of the Indo-European language family. Its immediate ancestor was the Proto-Iranian language, a sister language to the Proto-Indo-Aryan language, with both having developed from the earlier Proto-Indo-Iranian language; as such, Old Avestan is quite close in both grammar and lexicon to Vedic Sanskrit, the oldest preserved Indo-Aryan language. The Avestan text corpus was composed in the ancient Iranian satrapies of Arachosia, Aria, Bactria, and Margiana, corresponding to the entirety of present-day Afghanistan as well as parts of Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The Y ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zoroastrianism
Zoroastrianism is an Iranian religions, Iranian religion and one of the world's History of religion, oldest organized faiths, based on the teachings of the Iranian peoples, Iranian-speaking prophet Zoroaster. It has a Dualism in cosmology, dualistic cosmology of good and evil within the framework of a Monotheism, monotheistic ontology and an eschatology which predicts the ultimate conquest of evil by good. Zoroastrianism exalts an uncreated and benevolent deity of wisdom known as ''Ahura Mazda'' () as its supreme being. Historically, the unique features of Zoroastrianism, such as its monotheism, messianism, belief in Free will in theology, free will and Judgement (afterlife), judgement after death, conception of heaven, hell, Angel, angels, and Demon, demons, among other concepts, may have influenced other religious and philosophical systems, including the Abrahamic religions and Gnosticism, Southern, Eastern and Northern Buddhism, Northern Buddhism, and Ancient Greek philosoph ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Altair
Altair is the brightest star in the constellation of Aquila and the twelfth-brightest star in the night sky. It has the Bayer designation Alpha Aquilae, which is Latinised from α Aquilae and abbreviated Alpha Aql or α Aql. Altair is an A-type main-sequence star with an apparent visual magnitude of 0.77 and is one of the vertices of the Summer Triangle asterism; the other two vertices are marked by Deneb and Vega. It is located at a distance of from the Sun. Altair is currently in the G-cloud—a nearby interstellar cloud, an accumulation of gas and dust. Altair rotates rapidly, with a velocity at the equator of approximately 286 km/s.From values of ''v'' sin ''i'' and ''i'' in the second column of Table 1, Monnier et al. 2007. This is a significant fraction of the star's estimated breakup speed of 400 km/s. A study with the Palomar Testbed Interferometer revealed that Altair is not spherical, but is flattened at the poles due to i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fomalhaut
Fomalhaut is the brightest star in the southern constellation of Piscis Austrinus, the "Southern Fish", and one of the brightest stars in the night sky. It has the Bayer designation Alpha Piscis Austrini, which is Latinized from α Piscis Austrini, and is abbreviated Alpha PsA or α PsA. This is a class A star on the main sequence approximately from the Sun as measured by the Hipparcos astrometry satellite. Since 1943, the spectrum of this star has served as one of the stable anchor points by which other stars are classified. It is classified as a Vega-like star that emits excess infrared radiation, indicating it is surrounded by a circumstellar disk. Fomalhaut, K-type main-sequence star TW Piscis Austrini, and M-type, red dwarf star LP 876-10 constitute a triple system, even though the companions are separated by approximately 8 degrees. Fomalhaut was the first stellar system with an extrasolar planet candidate (designated Fomalhaut b, later ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sargas
Theta Scorpii (θ Scorpii, abbreviated Theta Sco, θ Sco) is a binary star in the southern zodiac constellation of Scorpius. The apparent visual magnitude of this star is +1.87, making it readily visible to the naked eye and one of the brightest stars in the night sky. It is sufficiently near that the distance can be measured directly using the parallax technique and such measurements obtained during the ''Hipparcos'' mission yield an estimate of approximately from the Sun. The two components are designated θ Scorpii A (officially named Sargas , the traditional name for the system) and B. Nomenclature ''θ Scorpii'' ( Latinised to ''Theta Scorpii'') is the system's Bayer designation. The designations of the two components as ''Theta Scorpii A'' and ''B'' derive from the convention used by the Washington Multiplicity Catalog (WMC) for multiple star systems, and adopted by the International Astronomical Union (IAU). It bore the traditional name ''Sargas'', of Sumerian orig ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kappa Scorpii
Kappa Scorpii, Latinized from κ Scorpii, is a binary star system in the southern constellation of Scorpius. With an apparent visual magnitude of 2.4, this star system is readily visible to the naked eye. Parallax measurements place it at an estimated distance of roughly from the Earth. Properties This is a spectroscopic binary, which is a type of binary star system in which the two stars are so close together that they have not been individually resolved with a telescope. The pair orbit each other with a period of about 196 days and an eccentricity of nearly 0.5. The combined spectrum of this pair matches a star with a stellar classification of B1.5 III. The 'III' luminosity class indicates the presence of a giant star that has exhausted the supply of hydrogen at its core and is in a late evolutionary stage. The primary component of the pair, κ Sco A, is a variable star of Beta Cephei type. It is undergoing radial pulsations with a dominant frequency of 4.9992 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Babylonia
Babylonia (; Akkadian: , ''māt Akkadī'') was an ancient Akkadian-speaking state and cultural area based in the city of Babylon in central-southern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq and parts of Syria). It emerged as an Amorite-ruled state c. 1894 BCE. During the reign of Hammurabi and afterwards, Babylonia was called "the country of Akkad" (''Māt Akkadī'' in Akkadian), a deliberate archaism in reference to the previous glory of the Akkadian Empire. It was often involved in rivalry with the older state of Assyria to the north and Elam to the east in Ancient Iran. Babylonia briefly became the major power in the region after Hammurabi ( fl. c. 1792–1752 BCE middle chronology, or c. 1696–1654 BCE, short chronology) created a short-lived empire, succeeding the earlier Akkadian Empire, Third Dynasty of Ur, and Old Assyrian Empire. The Babylonian Empire rapidly fell apart after the death of Hammurabi and reverted to a small kingdom. Like Assyria, the Babylonian state retained ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Achaemenid
The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire (; peo, wikt:𐎧𐏁𐏂𐎶, 𐎧𐏁𐏂, , ), also called the First Persian Empire, was an History of Iran#Classical antiquity, ancient Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great in 550 BC. Based in Western Asia, it was contemporarily the List of largest empires, largest empire in history, spanning a total of from the Balkans and ancient Egypt, Egypt in the west to Central Asia and the Indus River, Indus Valley in the east. Around the 7th century BC, the region of Persis in the southwestern portion of the Iranian plateau was settled by the Persians. From Persis, Cyrus rose and defeated the Medes, Median Empire as well as Lydia and the Neo-Babylonian Empire, marking the formal establishment of a new imperial polity under the Achaemenid dynasty. In the modern era, the Achaemenid Empire has been recognized for its imposition of a successful model of centralized, bureaucratic administration; its multicultural policy; building comp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zoroastrian Calendar
Adherents of Zoroastrianism use three distinct versions of traditional calendars for liturgical purposes, all derived from medieval Iranian calendars and ultimately based on the Babylonian calendar as used in the Achaemenid empire. ''Qadimi'' ("ancient") is a traditional reckoning introduced in 1006. ''Shahanshahi'' ("imperial") is a calendar reconstructed from the 10th century text ''Denkard''. ''Fasli'' is a term for a 1906 adaptation of the 11th century Jalali calendar following a proposal by Kharshedji Rustomji Cama made in the 1860s. A number of Calendar eras are in use: *A tradition of counting years from the birth of Zoroaster was reported from India in the 19th century. There was a dispute between factions variously preferring an era of 389 BCE, 538 BCE, or 637 BCE. *The "Yazdegerdi era" (also ''Yazdegirdi'') counts from the accession of the last Sassanid ruler, Yazdegerd III (16 June 632 CE). This convention was proposed by Cama in the 1860s but has since also been u ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tishtrya
Tishtrya ( ave, 𐬙𐬌𐬱𐬙𐬭𐬌𐬌𐬀, Tištrya, fa, تیر, Tir) or Roozahang is the Avestan language name of a Zoroastrian benevolent divinity associated with life-bringing rainfall and fertility. Tishtrya is Tir in Middle- and Modern Persian. As has been judged from the archaic context in which Tishtrya appears in the texts of the Avesta, the divinity/concept is almost certainly of Indo-Iranian origin. In a hymn of the Avesta (incorporated by Ferdowsi, with due acknowledgement, in the Shahnameh), Tishtrya is involved in a cosmic struggle against the drought-bringing demon Apaosha. According to the myth, in the form of a pure white horse the god did battle with the demon who, in contrast, had assumed the form of a terrifying black horse. Apaosa soon gained the upper hand over Tishtrya, who was weakened from the lack of sufficient prayers and sacrifices from humankind. The yazata proceeded to call upon the Creator Ahura Mazda, who himself then intervened by offerin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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