Herodotus And Persian Religion

Introduction
An important theme in Herodotus’ histories is that of Religion. The perception we get of Persian religion from Herodotus may be perceived as biased and not entirely truthful and so it is important to dig deeper and study the subject from both the Greek perspective and the non-Greek perspective. According to Herodotus, a possible religious motif might lie behind the reason for the Persian wars with the Greeks’ destruction of the sanctuary of Cybebe (Herodotus 5.101-102). Greek authors have since then created a perception of Persian luxury and decadence and although literature from Herodotus, Ctesias and Xenophon can be quite useful, one must be cautious of their interpretation as the bias in their sources are very evident. I will therefore take a deeper look into the question at hand by examining Persian religion, its origins and ideals, then moving onto the tolerance shown by the Persian kings, their destruction or construction of temples and integration into religions of other cultures. All this will be done whilst examining what Greek sources and non-Greek sources say about the matter.

Persian Religion: Zoroastrianism, Auramazda & the Magi
Persian religion, especially in the early days of the Achaemenid reign, seems to be a bit ambiguous and unclear. Some scholars believe that Persian religion consisted of a combination of deities and cults deriving from the Iranian and Elamite religions of the area. However, the majority of scholars seem to be convinced that Zoroastrianism was the main religion of the Achaemenid kings, and this seems to have been so since the time of Darius I. Although through Herodotus (1.131-2) we know that the Persians, unlike the Greeks did not personify their deities but rather sacrificed t...

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...interests. Persian interest in local cults does not seem to go beyond their safeguarding of power and administrative interests in the region.

Conclusion
Even if Greek sources often present us with a biased version of events, we cannot deny that in certain cases, especially in Greece, the Persian kings operated in a destructive manner towards Greek religion. However, when one takes a deeper look into the whole picture and studies also he non-Greek sources, a more tolerant and inclusive image of Achaemenid rulers comes out. It is evident that there are contrasts between the two sets of sources. However, in conclusion, we find some parallelism between these sources and can say that, Persian kings, ultimately, only demanded loyalty from both their Iranian and non-Iranian subjects. In return, these people were allowed to honour whichever gods they pleased without fear.