In the lands of ancient Armenia, Anatolia, and the Fertile Crescent, there was a pre-Islamic religion called Zoroastrianism. The supreme god of that religion, Ahura Mazda, is believed to be the very essence of fire itself. On one miraculous day when fires raged across the land, it is said that he made himself incarnate into a man named Atar. In one different offshoot of the religion, his name is instead Adar. This divine man brought the tradition of fire worship to these ancient lands when volcanoes and wildfires raged. Still today, adherents conduct rituals in where the sacrificial fire is lit and they dance around it in seven circuits, very much like the modern Hindu wedding ceremony of saptapadi intended to honor their fire-priest god Agni. One often overlooked aspect of Atar is the very nature of his incarnation. This very old account of a god being made manifest in a human body should remind us of the Abrahamic tradition of how God created Adam in its own image, and the Norse account of how Odin breathed his holy breath into Askr. And yet, here we are faced with the startling fact that the Zoroastrian account, by academic consensus, is older than these two accounts - but the possibility of it being far older cannot be ruled out. The sagas still sung of Atar today tell of his heroic deed in battling the demonic fire dragon named Aži Dahāka, and killed it. Later accounts say that he bound it, chained it up, and banished it deep within the earth. Today in Armenia, there is an extinct volcano named Azhdahak that has been named after this dragon. But in yet another account in Iran today, it is instead said that he was imprisoned in Mount Damāvand where he shall remain until the end of the world comes, and shall break free again. By then, Atar will return to vanquish him once more.
