Gayomart
Zoroastrian · mortal · primordial · Recorded classification
The Persian epic tradition carries him forward as Keyumars, the first king, which is a different office from the one the Bundahishn gives him; both names are on this record and the difference is noted rather than merged away. The 'first man killed by the adversary, whose body becomes the world and whose seed becomes humanity' pattern is one of the most widely paralleled in Indo-Iranian material, and the registry held neither this instance of it nor the Iranian creation at all.
Children
Domains
- first man and progenitor
- metals and minerals
Relations
- slain by: Angra MainyuNon-symmetric, so nothing is written onto the pre-existing Angra Mainyu record. The registry held the destroyer and not the thing destroyed, which is this programme's recurring finding in its exact canonical form.Reference treatment: his mere existence immobilized Ahriman, and after 30 years of attacks Ahriman destroyed Gayomart. (secondary)
- companion: GavaevodataReciprocated in-batch. The two are made together, hold the same fire-seed, wait out the same three thousand years and are killed by the same enemy; they are the pair on which the animal and human worlds both start.Reference treatment: Gayomart's spirit, with that of the primeval ox, lived for 3,000 years during the spiritual creation, and in the Avesta Gayomart is often accompanied by the sole-created Ox. (secondary)
Sources
- Gayomart is the first man of the Zoroastrian creation, made shining and white by Ahura Mazda, killed by Ahriman after thirty years, whose body became the metals of the earth and whose seed produced the first human couple.: Reference treatments of Gayomart, of the Bundahishn creation account and of Keyumars in the Persian tradition. (secondary)