Talk:Homa (mythology)

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Also Iranian people say that in the past Persians used Homa to choose kings: the person who Homa set on him became king of Persia.

It's far from clear what this means -- can anyone explain? Flapdragon 13:39, 27 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Huma, Homa

Hi there, thanks for creating Huma but an earlier article already is under name Homa. We Shoulde merge them. Amir85 08:26, 1 June 2006 (UTC) See huma (mythology) Also see this image bird of paradise

I do note that the spellings seem to be about equally used. Anayat Kahn definitely uses the spelling "Huma" for the bird because he even talks about the derivation of the sounds in the article I listed there. Chris 11:25, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

I am looking into this matter as hard as I can given the resources I have. It seems that the Persian "homa" is not the same as the "bird of paradise" as it does not appear to be a bird, but a conglomoration of creatures. All I can find on a "homa bird" are references to the Vedas, a bird that falls when hatched, then catches wakes and, fearing the ground and death, starts to fly toward the sun. This does not sound the same as what I have read about the bird of paradise which is more like the phoenix myth. Do you have any good sources? All the references I can find to "the bird of paradise" use the "u" spelling. The creature on Iran Air looks like a griffin as described in the Homa article and not much like a bird. airline logo. Unless you have a good source that they are the same, let's try to get some other feedback on this. I am copying our discussion to the Homa discussion page. Chris 13:47, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

I'm currently out of decent sources (Unfortunately It's damn hard to find books about Persian mythology in India..) so I can't prove or disprove Huma = Homa, but will search for it. Amir85 18:28, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

Homa and Huma, at least with respect to the mythological entity, are indeed the same thing. The two articles each develop different aspects of the same underlying concept: MP: homa or huma (NP: hom or hum, Avestan: haoma),

• Hom/Hum/Haoma, the divinity, one of whose forms is that of a bird, and whose mythology is closely related to that of birds (cf. the story of Zoroaster's birth in the Shahnameh).
• Hom/Hum/Haoma, the plant (which the divinity is the essence of) is identified with eternal life (hence presumably the bird of paradise iconography).
• Hom/Haoma is also closely associated with the legendary hero-priest-kings Vivanghat, Jamshid, Abtin, Faridun, Thrita, Karshasp and Garshasp. Hom is also the proper name of one of the descendants of Faridun.
• Hom/Hum/Haoma, the muse, a source of enlightenment, not only because of the identification with birds - messengers in Zoroastrian tradition - but (presumably) also because fermented hom juice is an entheogen. (note also the cognateness between Perso-Arabic rukh "wine" and roc, the bird).
• Hom and Simurgh are very closely related, not only through the identification as birds (which is also evident for other entities such as Bahram and Adar) but also through their powers to heal, their associations of immortality, their mediatory roles between mortals and the divine, earth and sky, etc.
• Hom is the vehicle (cf. Denkard VII) of MP: khwarrah (NP: farrah, Avestan: kavaēm kharēno) "divine [royal] glory", the divine mandate that was the foundation of a king's authority. Khwarrah appears as a bird that rests on the shoulder of would-be kings, so indicating Ormuzd's acceptance of that individual as His divine representative on earth.

Given the iconographic similarity to Simurgh, I seriously doubt that the two headed lion-eagle griffon of the Persepolis complex is a representation of Huma/Homa.

-- Fullstop 11:38, 14 February 2007 (UTC)