Mashya- Persian FigureMortal"The First Mortal Man"
Also known as: Mashi and Mashye
Description
Grown from a rhubarb plant that sprouted from Gayomard's seed, Mashya and his twin Mashyana were the first human couple, joined at the waist, later separated, and deceived by Angra Mainyu into accepting the first lie ever told.
Mythology & Lore
Born from the Earth
Forty years after the primordial man Gayomard died at the hands of Angra Mainyu, his seed fell to the earth. From it a rhubarb plant grew with two intertwined stems. When the time came, the plant transformed and the first human couple emerged: Mashya and Mashyana, initially joined at the waist. The Greater Bundahishn describes them growing from death itself, rooted in soil, their forms shifting from plant to flesh. Once they separated into distinct beings, they received souls and stood upright in a world made for them.
The First Lie
At first Mashya and Mashyana lived in innocence, recognizing Ahura Mazda as their creator. Then Angra Mainyu came to them with a lie: that the Destructive Spirit, not Ahura Mazda, had created the world. They accepted it. They were not compelled. They chose druj over asha, falsehood over truth, and further transgressions followed. The first humans were also the first to fail.
Ancestors of All Peoples
The path to parenthood was troubled. The Bundahishn describes lengthy periods before Mashya and Mashyana produced offspring, and when their first children finally arrived, so pleasing were they that the parents devoured them. Only later did children survive. Eventually seven pairs of twins were born and dispersed across the earth, founding the various peoples of the world. From these seven pairs came the fifteen nations known to the tradition, each lineage rooted in a different land.