The iconography of Verethraghna (1)

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The great diffusion of imagery of Verethraghna, the Zoroastrian god of victory, is due - after the Macedonian conquest to the early Sasanian era - to a mixture between Iranian, Mesopotamian and Greek influences. There are influences from the iconography of Heracles because he was an immensely popular figure to the Greeks, and a divine ancestor of Alexander; and his cult was pursued by the Seleucids, along with their own ancestral Apollo. Secondly, there are influences from the iconography of Zoroaster as the lion-killer - the lion being an Ahrimanian creature and hypostasis of Evil. Third, the iconography of Verethraghna recalled the archaic lion strangler motive of the ancient Near Eastern royal palaces and elsewhere, where the monster slayer Ninurta was depicted in battle with a lion.

Bibliography

Andrea Piras

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