Zurvan

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Zurvan is the Avestan language word for "time," with the same range of meaning as in the English language.

Zurvan is a creator deity - characterized by passionlessness, aloofness and unimpeachability - in several different religious systems:

• in Zurvanism (Zurvanite Zoroastrianism), a 4th century BCE development with a primordial deity of time, space and fate. Zurvanism probably developed out of close contacts with Babylonia and was strongly influenced by Chaldean astrology. Zurvanism is not attested after the 10th century CE.
• in Manichaeism, as the 3rd century CE Manichean Middle Persian name used to signify Mani's "Father of Greatness", the primordial deity of light. Although Manichaeism was highly critical of Zoroastrianism, names from Zoroastrian religion were often used to designate Manichaean religious figures when rendered in Persian or Parthian translation.
• in Sogdian Buddhism, Zurvan appears as zrwʼ, signifying the Buddhist version of the deity Brahmā. This East-Iranian form of Buddhism flourished during the Arsacid and Sassanid period. Zoroastrian-Buddhist syncretism resulted in a number of compound divinities, which - under the early Sassanids - led to persecution of Buddhists as heretics. The Sogdian name is perpetuated under the form Esrua in Mongolian Buddhism, where it also signifies Brahmā, testifying to early contacts between the Sogdians, Uigurs, and Mongols.
• in the Theosophical syncretism of Helena Blavatsky, Zurvan is considered part of the original teachings of Zoroaster. This notion is rejected by present-day Zoroastrians who consider Zurvanism an apostasy.

Zurvan is also a character in popular cuture:

• in Palladium Books, Zurvan is an alien intelligence that sometimes creats gods as an experiment. He is a member of a powerful extradimensional species beyond human understanding.
• as the name adopted by the Vizier in Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones.
• as the name of "the sea of dreams" during the closing credits of Chrono Cross
• In Grant Morrison's The Filth, on of the members of the group called Status Quorum is a winged superhero called Zur-vann, who has the head of a lion and is described in the official website as the "sole survivor of a tribe of ancient man-gods".

Zurvan was additionally

• called Chronos (Χρόνος, "time") in Greek historiographic accounts of Zoroastrianism.
• the name given by Franz Cumont to a lion-headed figure (the Leontocephaline) found in some Roman mithraea. This interpretation has since been discarded.