in the administration of the universe by legions of beings, who are all
subject to him.*

* Darius styles Ahura-mazdâ, _mathishta bagânâm_, the
greatest of the gods, and Xerxes invokes the protection of
Ahura-mazdâ along with that of the gods. The classical
writers also mention gods alongside of Ahura-mazdâ as
recognised not only among the Achæmenian Persians, but also
among the Parthians. Darmesteter considers that the earliest
Achæmenids worshipped Ahura-mazdâ alone, "placing the other
gods together in a subordinate and anonymous group: May
Ahura-mazdâ and the other gods protect me."

[Illustration: 014.jpg AHURA-MAZDÂ BESTOWING THE TOKENS OF ROYALTY ON AN
IRANIAN KING]

Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Dieulafoy.

The most powerful among his ministers were originally nature-gods, such
as the sun, the moon, the earth, the winds, and the waters. The sunny
plains of Persia and Media afforded abundant witnesses of their power,
as did the snow-clad peaks, the deep gorges through which rushed roaring
torrents, and the mountain ranges of Ararat or Taurus, where the
force of the subterranean fires was manifested by so many startling
exhibitions of spontaneous conflagration.* The same spiritualising
tendency which had already considerably modified the essential concept
of Ahura-mazdâ, affected also that of the inferior deities, and tended
to tone down in them the grosser traits of their character. It had
already placed at their head six genii of a superior order, six
ever-active energies, who, after assisting their master at the creation