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The Persian deities belong to Zoroastrianism, the faith of the ancient Persian Empire, founded on the teachings of Zarathustra. Centered on the cosmic struggle between good (Ahura Mazda) and evil (Angra Mainyu), it influenced Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. It is still practiced by Zoroastrian communities in Iran and India (the Parsis).
In the fire temples, priests keep sacred flames that have burned for centuries — the one in Yazd, Iran, for over 1,500 years. Nowruz, the Persian new year at the spring equinox, and Yalda night, at the winter solstice, celebrate the victory of light over darkness.
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At a glance
Sraosha (Avestan: Sraoša; Middle Persian: Srōš; Modern Persian: Sorūš or Surūsh) is one of the most central and venerated yazata divinities in Zoroastrian theology, personifying attentive hearing, reverent obedience to the divine word of Ahura Mazda, and ethical discipline. Derived from the Proto-Indo-Iranian linguistic heritage and already prominently attested in the archaic Gathas of Zarathustra (such as Yasna 33.5 and 43.12), Sraosha represents the spiritual hypostasis of compliance with cosmic Truth (Asha) and serves as the primary conduit of communion between humanity and the Creator. In Younger Avestan literature, his sacred stature is celebrated across two major hymns: the Srosh Yasht Vada (embedded as Yasna 57, liturgically recited during the night watch as the Srōš Yašt Sar-e Shab) and the Srosh Yasht Hadokht (Yasht 11 of the Khorda Avesta). In these scriptures, he is depicted as a tireless celestial warrior of graceful form and stalwart arms who wields a mighty Ahuric wooden mace (darši.dru) and has not slumbered since the two primordial Spirits brought forth creation, guarding the physical realm after sunset against the depredations of the daevas. His paramount martial duty is to confront and shatter Aēšma (the demon of bloody wrath, reckless fury, and destructive rage), his eternal demonic antithesis. In Zoroastrian daily life and pastoral practice, the domestic rooster (Parōdars) serves as Sraosha's earthly herald, crowing at dawn to summon mankind to prayer and righteous work while routing Bushyasta, the long-handed demon of sloth. In Zoroastrian eschatology, Sraosha fulfills an indispensable role: he shelters the soul during the perilous three-day vigil following physical demise, escorts the departed to the Chinvat Bridge on the fourth dawn, and sits alongside Mithra and Rashnu in the judicial triad that weighs every mortal action. In Sasanian Pahlavi theology (codified in the Bundahishn and Dadestan-i Denig), his temporal mandate is elevated to sovereign guardianship over the physical world (gētīg) by Ahura Mazda's decree. Following the Islamic conquest of Iran, his radiant persona was syncretized in mystical literature and folklore with the archangel Gabriel (Jibril), enduring as a profound symbol of heavenly inspiration and divine protection throughout classical Persian poetry.
9 min read · Reviewed on September 30, 2026 · How we research
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Sacred symbols
The mace, the rooster that announces the dawn, the prayer and the vigil
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Family
Siblings
Ashi (Aṣ̌i Vanghuhi, the noble hypostasis of holy Reward and Recompense; in Yasht 17.15–17 Sraosha is celebrated as Ashi's brother)RRashnu
Sraosha
Genealogy according to Avesta (Gathas: Yasna 33.5, 43.12, 44.16, 45.5; Yasna 57 / Srosh Yasht Vada; Yasht 11 / Srosh Yasht Hadokht; Vendidad 18.22–25, 19.37); Textos Pálavi (Bundahishn 26.46–55, 34.27; Menog-i Khrad 2.114–118, 8.13–14, 44.25; Dadestan-i Denig 13.2–3, 27.6; Pahlavi Rivayat 56.3; Arda Viraf Namag 5.1–4; Shayest ne-Shayest 17.3; Denkard Madan 585.14); William W. Malandra (2014); Philip G. Kreyenbroek (1985); Mary Boyce (1975, 1979); Émile Benveniste (1945); James Darmesteter (1883)
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Sources and further reading
Primary sources
Avestan Tradition & Darmesteter, James (Trans.), Khorda Avesta: 11. Srosh Yasht Hadokht (Srosh Yasht Hadhokht / Yasht 11). translation: The Zend-Avesta, Part II: The Sirozahs, Yasts, and Nyayis (Sacred Books of the East, Vol. 23, Oxford University Press, 1883). read
Avestan Tradition & Geldner, Karl F. (Ed.), Khorda Avesta: 11. Srosh Yasht Hadokht (Original Avestan Text). translation: Avesta: The Sacred Books of the Parsis (Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 1896). read
Avestan Tradition & Darmesteter, James (Trans.), Khorda Avesta: Srosh Baj (Canonical Prayer of Protection and Vigil). translation: The Zend-Avesta, Part II (Sacred Books of the East, Vol. 23, Oxford University Press, 1883). read
Studies
Malandra, William W., Entry SRAOŠA in Encyclopaedia Iranica. Encyclopædia Iranica Foundation, Edição Digital, 2014. open
Russell, James R. & Omidsalar, Mahmoud, Entry COCK (The Sacred Rooster Parōdars in Zoroastrianism) in Encyclopaedia Iranica. Encyclopædia Iranica Foundation, Vol. V, Fasc. 8, pp. 878-882, 1992/2013. open
Kreyenbroek, Philip G., Sraoša in the Zoroastrian Tradition. Leiden: E. J. Brill (Orientalia Rheno-Traiectina, Vol. 28), 1985. open
Boyce, Mary, A History of Zoroastrianism, Vol. I: The Early Period. Leiden & Köln: E. J. Brill (Handbuch der Orientalistik), 1975/1996. open
Name and epithets
The Avestan theonym Sraoša (also written phonetically as Səraoša) functions both as an abstract noun and as the proper name of the yazata divinity.
In the ancient sources
Avesta (Yasna 57 / Srosh Yasht Vada), Younger Avesta (c. 7th–6th centuries BCE).. Primary liturgical hymn dedicated to Sraosha, chanted during the night watch (Aiwisruthrima Gah), narrating his weapons, sleepless vigil,…
The myths
The Unslumbering Night Vigil and the Slaying of Aēšma. According to the sacred testimony of the Srosh Yasht Vada (Yasna 57.10–17), from the primeval epoch when the two Spirits established creation, Sraosha has never sur…
Worship and archaeology
Veneration of Sraosha formed an indispensable pillar of daily devotional life and mortuary liturgy across ancient and modern Zoroastrianism.
How the god was depicted
Iranian archaeological and sigillographic records attest to Sraosha's presence through theriomorphic emblems and anthropomorphic martial imagery.
What scholars debate
Ethical Personification versus Pre-Zoroastrian Yazata Origin. Scholars of Iranian religion, notably Émile Benveniste, Mary Boyce, and Philip Kreyenbroek, have extensively investigated whether Sraosha was an original abs…
After antiquity
Sraosha's noble archetype exercised a profound legacy across Iranian cultural history, maintaining extraordinary prestige long after the fall of the Sasanian dynasty.
Did you know?
On the seventeenth day of each month in the Zoroastrian calendar (Rōz Srōš), the liturgical cycle places Sraosha directly between Mihr (day 16) and Rashn (day 18), mirroring on the calendar the exact judicial triad that…
Codex relic
Mace of the Vigil. The weapon with which he keeps watch over the world of the living through the night, driving back the demons of darkness.
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