Zairicha- Persian DemonDemon"Demon of Poison"
Also known as: Zairi, Zairich, and Zarich
Titles & Epithets
Domains
Description
Angra Mainyu created Zairicha to poison what Ameretat would preserve. Where healing plants grow, Zairicha sends blight and toxin. Where bodies should endure, he brings disease and aging. The Vendidad names the venomous creatures of the earth as his instruments.
Mythology & Lore
Venom and Decay
Angra Mainyu created Zairicha alongside Taurvi to assault human vitality from opposite directions. Taurvi brings hunger and thirst. Zairicha introduces poison, disease, and the processes of aging into the body. The Bundahishn pairs them against Haurvatat and Ameretat, the Amesha Spentas of wholeness and immortality who guard water and plants. Zairicha's work is to corrupt what Ameretat preserves: the plants that carry the essence of undying life wither under his touch, and what should sustain the body becomes what destroys it.
Gayomard, the first human, would have lived forever had evil not entered creation. Every venom and every sign of aging is the continuing work of demons like Zairicha against what Ahura Mazda made whole.
The Vendidad names venomous animals, snakes and scorpions and other khrafstra, as Angra Mainyu's creations and instruments of Zairicha's corruption. Killing them is meritorious. The physician who cures disease and the farmer who cultivates healing plants fight the same war.
Destruction
At the Frashokereti, Zairicha and Taurvi will be destroyed. Poison will lose its power. Aging will cease. The resurrected dead will possess imperishable bodies, and what Angra Mainyu corrupted will be made permanently whole.