Zurvan

TRADITION-KEY NOTE, raised rather than resolved. The corpus already holds a record keyed `sogdian_zurvan`. This record is not a duplicate of it and is not merged with it, on a precedent the corpus itself sets: it holds `zoroastrian_mithra` and `roman_mithraic_mysteries_mithras` as two records, because a divine name inside two religious systems is two figures for a registry that indexes traditions. Zurvan in Sasanian Zurvanism and Zurvan in Sogdian religion stand in the same relation. Whether that precedent is the right general rule is a question for the owner and it is now raised for the seventh lane running; what this record does not do is decide it by quietly merging, which would be destructive and irreversible. Weight is medium because Zurvanism is known largely through hostile Armenian, Syriac and Greek reports rather than through its own surviving literature.

Domains

• time

Relations

• progenitor of in zurvanite doctrine: Ahura Mazda
• progenitor of in zurvanite doctrine: Angra Mainyu

Sources

• Reference treatments of Zurvan, of Zurvanism and of the Gayomarthiya.