5 sections of this entry are open to everyone: the summary, the people, the symbols, the lineage and the sources. The other 9 (Name and epithets, In the ancient sources, The myths, Worship and archaeology, How the god was depicted, What scholars debate, After antiquity, Did you know?, Codex relic) are part of the full Codex: PRO opens the whole study of all 500 deities, and without a subscription you can read one full entry a day, just like in the app.
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
Tishtrya (Avestan: Tištrya; Middle Persian: Tištar; New Persian: Teštar or Tīr) is the preeminent astral yazata divinity of Zoroastrian religion who personifies the star Sirius (Alpha Canis Majoris) and governs the cosmic generation, release, and distribution of fertilizing rainfall across the physical universe. His worship, theology, and cosmological battles are detailed in the Tištar Yašt (Yasht 8 of the Khorda Avesta), an extensive hymn of 62 stanzas preserved in the Younger Avestan idiom. Within this liturgical scripture and in the later Sasanian cosmography codified in the Pahlavi treatise Bundahishn (chapter 7), Tishtrya is proclaimed by the Creator Ahura Mazda as being as worthy of sacrifice, prayer, and glorification as Ahura Mazda himself (Yasht 8.50). In Zoroastrian stellar theology, Tishtrya holds a supreme martial role: the Bundahishn designates him as the astral commander of the East (spāhbed ī xwarāsān), directing the fixed stars against the destabilizing intrusions of Angra Mainyu and the demonic planets. His central myth concerns his descent into the cosmic ocean Vourukasha to liberate the waters besieged by Apaosha (Apōš), the demon of drought and barrenness. In order to wage this primeval conflict, Tishtrya manifests across three successive ten-day avatars over a thirty-day cycle: first appearing as a vigorous fifteen-year-old youth, then as a white bull with golden horns, and finally as a radiant white stallion adorned with golden ears and caparison. In his initial clash against Apaosha—who assumes the horrific shape of a bald, black horse marked with terror—Tishtrya suffers a temporary setback because humanity had neglected to invoke him by his proper name in sacrifices. Upon receiving a personal yasna from Ahura Mazda, which infuses him with the strength of ten horses, ten camels, ten bulls, ten mountains, and ten navigable rivers, Tishtrya returns to Vourukasha at midday and shatters Apaosha. The victorious yazata plunges into the sea, causing the cosmic waters to surge and rise in dense vapours over Mount Us-hindu. Assisted by Satavaesa and propelled by the sacred wind Vayu, the rain clouds are distributed across the seven continental zones (karshvars). Tishtrya also defends the celestial sphere against the Pairikas (shooting stars) and the drought-witch Duzyairya ('Bad Harvest'), safeguarding the agrarian sustenance of the Aryan nations.
9 min read · Reviewed on September 30, 2026 · How we research
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Sacred symbols
The star Sirius, the white horse, the rain and the Vourukasha sea
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Family
Tishtrya
Unions
Tištryāeinī (stars associated with the constellation Canis Minor, invoked in Yasht 8.12 as female companions of Tishtrya)
Genealogy according to Avesta (Tištar Yašt / Yasht 8; Siroza 1.13 e 2.13; Yasna 1.11, 2.11); Textos Pálavi (Bundahishn 2.7, 7.1–17, 26.54; Anthologia de Zādspram 3.7–17; Dādestān ī Dēnīg 92–93; Šāyest nē-šāyest 22.3); Plutarco (De Iside et Osiride 47); Antonio Panaino (1990, 1995, 2005); Bernhard Forssman (1968); Mary Boyce (1975)
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Sources and further reading
Primary sources
Avestan Tradition & Darmesteter, James (Trans.), Khorda Avesta: 8. Tishtar Yasht (Hymn to the Star Sirius / Tishtrya). translation: Version by J. Darmesteter (1883/1898), transcribed on the digital archive Avesta.org by J. H. Peterson. read
Pahlavi Sasanian Tradition & West, E. W. (Trans.), Bundahishn ('Creation' / Knowledge of the Zand): Chapters 7 to 13 (The Battle with the Water). translation: Classic translation by E. W. West, SBE 5 (Oxford, 1897), digitally archived in the Avesta.org repository. read
Studies
Panaino, Antonio, Entry TIŠTRYA in Encyclopaedia Iranica. Encyclopædia Iranica Foundation, Edição Digital, 2005/2015. open
Hanaway, W. L. & Panaino, Antonio, Entry APŌŠ (The Demon of Drought) in Encyclopaedia Iranica. Encyclopædia Iranica Foundation, Edição Digital, 1987/2015. open
Panaino, Antonio, Entry DUŽYĀIRYA in Encyclopaedia Iranica. Encyclopædia Iranica Foundation, Edição Digital, 1996/2013. open
Wikipedia Contributors, Tishtar Yasht. Wikimedia Foundation, 2024. open
Wikipedia Contributors, Tishtrya. Wikimedia Foundation, 2024. open
Name and epithets
The Avestan theonym Tištrya descends from the Proto-Indo-Iranian ancestral form *ti-str-i-ya-, which philologists analyze as an adjectival derivation from Proto-Indo-European *tri-str-o-m ('constellation of three stars'…
In the ancient sources
Avesta (Tištar Yašt / Yasht 8), Younger Avesta (c. 6th–5th centuries BCE).. Primary scriptural text detailing Tishtrya's three avatars, his primeval combat against Apaosha in Vourukasha, and the distribution of life-giv…
The myths
The Cosmic Battle in the Sea Vourukasha Against the Demon Apaosha. According to the detailed account in Yasht 8.13–34 and Bundahishn chapter 7, Tishtrya descends into the primordial sea Vourukasha in the form of a white…
Worship and archaeology
Veneration of Tishtrya was deeply interwoven with the agricultural calendar and seasonal petitions for rain. In the traditional 365-day Zoroastrian calendar, the thirteenth day of each month is designated as Rōz Tīr, wh…
How the god was depicted
Scriptural texts describe Tishtrya through vivid anthropomorphic and zoomorphic avatars, portraying him successively as a graceful fifteen-year-old warrior, a golden-horned bull, and a radiant white horse with golden ea…
What scholars debate
Astronomical Identification of Sirius and the Archery Metaphor of Arash. A central scholarly discussion focuses on the precise astral mapping of Tishtrya and his literary comparison to the arrow of Ǝrəxša (Arash).
After antiquity
The veneration of Tishtrya as the divine conqueror of drought left an enduring legacy in Iranian and Near Eastern cultural memory.
Did you know?
The celestial speed of Tishtrya's flight across heaven is compared in Yasht 8.6 to the fastest arrow in Aryan lore, shot by the legendary archer Ǝrəxša (Arash) from Mount Khshaotha to Mount Hvanvant.
Codex relic
Mane of the White Horse. The luminous mane of the celestial stallion he becomes to gallop across the sky and bring the rains.
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