Mashyana- Persian FigureMortal"The First Mortal Woman"
Also known as: Mashyane and Mashyanag
Description
Twin of Mashya and first mortal woman, Mashyana grew intertwined with her brother in a single rhubarb plant, so closely joined that no observer could tell male from female. Together they fell to Angra Mainyu's first lie and became the ancestors of all humanity.
Mythology & Lore
Intertwined Stems
Forty years after Gayomard's death at the hands of Angra Mainyu, a rhubarb plant grew from where the primordial man's seed had fallen to earth. It bore two intertwined stems so closely joined that observers could not distinguish male from female. When the stems transformed into human form, Mashya and Mashyana emerged still joined at the waist before finally separating into two distinct beings. Their names both mean "mortal."
Equal in the Fall
Angra Mainyu approached the pair and deceived them both into accepting the Lie: that the Destructive Spirit, not Ahura Mazda, had created the world. Neither resisted more than the other. Both fell together.
After the fall, the Bundahishn describes a troubled period of estrangement. Their first children were so beautiful that the parents devoured them in their corrupted state. Only after fifty years did surviving offspring emerge: seven pairs of twins who dispersed across the earth and founded the various peoples of the world. At the Frashokereti, the first couple's original error will finally be corrected: Mashya and Mashyana resurrected and purified in the perfected creation.