Table of Contents
In Zoroastrian mythology Gayomart, also written Gayomard or Gayōmart, is the first mortal human being. In the Pahlavi books he stands for mankind among the first creations, as the primeval ox stands for the animals.
Creation and Significance
Ahura Mazda, the supreme god of Zoroastrianism, created Gayomart as the first man and the ancestor of the human race. He is often pictured as a perfect, radiant being. In the Bundahishn, Ahura Mazda forms from his sweat “the youthful body of a man of fifteen years, radiant and tall.”
The Bundahishn gives Gayomart three thousand years in the world.
Time was for twelve thousand years; and it says in revelation, that three thousand years was the duration of the spiritual state, where the creatures were unthinking, unmoving, and intangible; and three thousand years was the duration of Gâyômard, with the ox, in the world.
Bundahishn 34:1, tr. E. W. West, Pahlavi Texts, Part I (Sacred Books of the East 5, 1880), p. 149
His life marks the start of the struggle between good, led by Ahura Mazda, and evil, led by Angra Mainyu or Ahriman, the destructive spirit. When the evil spirit broke into the world, the same chapter says, Gayomart had only thirty more years.
After the adversary came, he lived thirty years.
As this was six thousand years the series of millennium reigns of Cancer, Leo, and Virgo had elapsed, because it was six thousand years when the millennium reign came to Libra, the adversary rushed in, and Gâyômard lived thirty years in tribulation.
Bundahishn 34:2, tr. E. W. West, Pahlavi Texts, Part I (1880), p. 149
Death and Legacy
From Gayomart’s death came the first human couple, Mashya and Mashyana (West: Mashyôi), from whom all people descend. His seed was purified by the light of the sun and kept in the earth.
The Bundahishn tells how his seed was purified by the sun.
On the nature of men it says in revelation, that Gâyômard, in passing away, gave forth seed; that seed was thoroughly purified by the motion of the light of the sun…
Bundahishn 15:1, tr. E. W. West, Pahlavi Texts, Part I (1880), pp. 52 to 53
His bones, or in the Zâd-sparam his “various members”, turned into metals.
Zâd-sparam lists the eight metals that came from his body.
And when he (Gâyômard) passed away eight kinds of mineral of a metallic character arose from his various members; they are gold, silver, iron, brass, tin, lead, quicksilver (âvgînakô), and adamant; and on account of the perfection of gold it is produced from the life and seed.
Selections of Zâd-sparam 10:2, tr. E. W. West, Pahlavi Texts, Part I (1880), p. 183
Cosmic Battle
In the Bundahishn the evil spirit’s attack on Gayomart is one step in its assault on the whole creation.
Cultural Impact
The figure of Gayomart passed into later Persian myth and literature. In Ferdowsi’s 11th-century Shahnameh, as Keyumars, he is the first shah of the world, who reigned for thirty years and left his throne to Hushang. For the god who made him see Ahura Mazda, and for the biblical first man, Adam.
The Elements
In Zoroastrian myth Gayomart is linked with the elements, the Earth and plants. These links tie the first man into one ordered creation.
Association with Elements
In Zoroastrian cosmology, the material world is composed of the seven creations: sky, water, earth, plants, animals, humans, and fire. In the Bundahishn the evil spirit attacks them in that order, ending with Gayomart and then fire. As the first human, Gayomart is bound up with all of them.
Connection with Earth
In the Bundahishn his body is radiant and tall.
His bones turned into precious metals and minerals after his death.
Association with Plants
After Gayomart's death the sun purified his seed. Some say the first plants grew from it (unchecked); in the Bundahishn and Zâd-sparam his gold lay forty years in the earth before a Rivâs plant came up.
From that plant, the first human couple, Mashya and Mashyana, came up joined to one another, of like stature.
