Verethragna
Also known as: Bahram, Wahram, Vahagn (Armenian)
Mythological Narrative
The yazata of victory, 'best-armed of the heavenly gods', who comes to Zarathushtra in ten shapes, from a strong wind and a golden-horned bull to a boar and a raven-like bird, and who gives his name to the highest grade of sacred fire.
Scholarly Commentary & Evolution
## Ten incarnations
Yasht 14 answers Zarathushtra's question, 'Who is the best-armed of the heavenly gods?', with Verethragna, and describes him coming in ten successive forms: a strong, beautiful wind; a bull with yellow ears and golden horns; a white horse with a golden caparison; a burden-bearing camel; a sharp-toothed boar; a youth of fifteen; the swift bird Varaghna; a wild ram; a fighting buck; and a man holding a golden sword. Each bears the Glory made by Mazda. His feather, the hymn says, protects the one who carries it, a motif that recurs in the Shahnameh with the Simurgh's feather.
## Companion of Mithra
In the Mihr Yasht Verethragna runs before Mithra's chariot in the form of a fierce boar. Kings and warriors invoked him for victory; several Sasanian kings bore his name as Bahram (Wahram), and the Kushan kings of Central Asia put him on their coins as Orlagno.
## The victorious fire
The highest grade of Zoroastrian sacred fire is the Atash Behram, the 'victorious fire' or 'fire of Verethragna', consecrated from sixteen kinds of fire. The name Vrtrahan ('slayer of Vrtra') is an epithet of the Vedic Indra, and the Iranian and Indian words derive from the same Indo-Iranian root.
Cross-Pantheon Parallels & Archetypes
Academic Discussion & Critique
Exchange peer-reviewed hypotheses, comparative Indo-European etymologies, and archaeological field interpretations regarding Verethragna.
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