e anti-gods ([Greek:
antitheoi]),[36] under the command of the powers of darkness[37] and
arrayed against the celestial spirits, messengers or "angels"[38] of
divinity. They were Ahriman's _devas_ struggling with the Yazatas of
Ormuzd.

A curious passage in Porphyry[39] shows that the earliest neo-Platonists
had already admitted Persian demonology into their system. Below the
incorporeal and indivisible supreme being, below the stars and the planets,
there were countless spirits.[40] Some of them, the gods of cities and
nations, received special names: {153} the others comprised a nameless
multitude. They were divided into two groups. The first were the benevolent
spirits that gave fecundity to plants and animals, serenity to nature, and
knowledge to men. They acted as intermediaries between gods and men,
bearing up to heaven the homage and prayers of the faithful, and down from
heaven portents and warnings. The others were wicked spirits inhabiting
regions close to the earth and there was no evil that they did not exert
every effort to cause.[41] At the same time both violent and cunning,
impetuous and crafty, they were the authors of all the calamities that
befell the world, such as pestilence, famine, tempests and earthquakes.
They kindled evil passions and illicit desires in the hearts of men and
provoked war and sedition. They were clever deceivers rejoicing in lies and
impostures. They encouraged the phantasmagoria and mystification of the
sorcerers[42] and gloated over the bloody sacrifices which magicians
offered to them all, but especially to their chief.

Doctrines very similar to these were certainly taught in the mysteries of
Mithra; homage was paid to Ahriman (Arimanius) lord of the somber
underworld, and master of the infernal spirits.[43] This cult has continued
in the Orient to the present day among the Yezidis, or devil worshipers.

In his treatise against the magi, Theodore of Mopsuestia[44] speaks of
Ahriman as Satan ([Greek: Satanas]). At first sight there really is a
surprising resemblance between the two. Both are heads of a numerous army
of demons; both are spirits of error and falsehood, princes of darkness,
{154} tempters and corrupters. An almost identical picture of the pair
could be drawn, and in fact they are practically the same figure under
different names. It is generally admitted that Judaism took the notion of
an adversary of God[45] from the Mazdeans along with portions of their
dual