Saoshyant- Persian HeroHero"World Renovator"

Rising from the Lake

The Zamyad Yasht describes Astvat-ereta, "he who embodies righteousness," rising from Lake Kasaoya to wield a victorious weapon and drive evil from the world. He will make creation splendid, undecaying, and imperishable. In the Gathas, Zoroaster uses the word saoshyant for anyone who benefits the world through righteous deeds. Later Zoroastrian tradition narrowed it to a specific prophecy: a final savior born from the prophet's own seed.

The Three Saoshyants

The Greater Bundahishn expanded the single savior into a sequence of three, each appearing at thousand-year intervals in the final three millennia of cosmic history. Ukhshyat-ereta appears first, followed by Ukhshyat-nemah, and finally Astvat-ereta, the last. Each is miraculously conceived: Zoroaster's seed, preserved in Lake Kasaoya and guarded by yazatas, impregnates a virgin who bathes in the lake. Astvat-ereta's appearance signals the last battle, the universal resurrection, and the permanent defeat of Angra Mainyu.

The Frashokereti

The Saoshyant's supreme act is leading the Frashokereti, the "making wonderful" of all creation. Astvat-ereta will raise the dead, beginning with Gayomard and proceeding through all of humanity. The bull Hadayosh will be slain, and from its fat and the white Haoma a drink of immortality will be prepared for the resurrected.

A river of molten metal will flow across the earth. The righteous will experience it as warm milk; the wicked will be cleansed through its burning. Angra Mainyu and his demons will be destroyed or rendered permanently powerless. Creation will be restored to its original perfection, imperishable and luminous, under the eternal sovereignty of Ahura Mazda.