Atar

It was once thought to be etymologically related to the Avestan āθrauuan / aθaurun (Vedic atharvan), a type of priest, but that is now considered unlikely (Boyce, 2002:16).

An individual who has passed the fiery test, has attained physical and spiritual strength, wisdom, truth and love with serenity (30.7).

(Boyce, 2002:1) Also in the early texts, tangential to its role in establishing guilt, atar is the light of revelation through which Zoroaster is selected by Ahura Mazda, the Zarathushtra Mainyu Athra (Yasna 31.3), radiated by Ahura Mazda (43.9), bearing the conviction of "Good Purpose" (Vohu Manah, 43.4; see also Amesha Spenta), and enlightening one's inner-self (46.7).

Within this framework of the concept of divine illumination, atar radiates the "other lights" (31.7), the essence (of Ahura Mazda) from which insight and wisdom permeate the universe.

So also Zoroaster's injunction to always pray in the presence of atar—either towards the sun, or towards their own hearths—so as to better concentrate their devotions on asha, righteousness, and the virtue that should be striven for (Yasna 43.9, see also Boyce, 1975:455).

The Gathic role of atar as the medium for detecting guilt is not directly evident in the later texts of the Avesta, but reappears in modified form as an allegory of burning and annihilating the Angra Mainyu through righteousness, "where Asha Vahishta is identified at times with the household fire on the hearth."

There, "identification in the realms of matter and of spirit serves only to bring more into prominence the main tenets of Zoroaster's teachings in regard to Asha" (Dhalla, 1938:170).

The Zend translation/commentary on this passage translates "blazing" as "having brimstone and sulphur", and notes that innocence or guilt was established by the consumption of this "guilt-detecting liquid".

So also in their roles as protectors, for "when the Evil Spirit assailed the creation of Good Truth, Good Thought and Fire intervened" (Yasht 13.77) It is in the later texts that Atar is personified as "the son" of Ahura Mazda (standard appellation, Yasna 25.7 et al.) and is addressed as "full of glory and full of healing remedies" (Nyash 5.6).

In that position, Adar aids Asha Vahishta (Avestan, Middle Persian: Ardvahisht), the Amesha Spenta responsible for the luminaries.

The temple cult is an even later development: From Herodotus it is known that in the mid-5th century BCE the Zoroastrians worshipped to the open sky, ascending mounds to light their fires (The Histories, i.131).

Strabo confirms this, noting that in the 6th century, the sanctuary at Zela in Cappadocia was an artificial mound, walled in, but open to the sky (Geographica XI.8.4.512).

While the fires themselves had special names, the structures did not, and it has been suggested that "the prosaic nature of the middle Persian names (kadag, man, and xanag are all words for an ordinary house) perhaps reflect a desire on the part of those who fostered the temple-cult [...] to keep it as close as possible in character to the age-old cult of the hearth-fire, and to discourage elaboration" (Boyce, 2002:9).

During the Sassanid era (226–650 CE), the symbol of Fire plays much the same role that the winged sun Faravahar did during the Achaemenid period (648–330 BCE).

The legend introduced under Ardeshir yields to a mint mark and year of issue under Peroz (r. 457–484), a feature evident in all the coins of the remaining dynasty.