. Modified c. 1926, as many medieval pieces were to make them more attractive. In the
Avesta, the collection of religious texts of
Zoroastrianism,
Aži Dahāka is the most significant and long-lasting of the
ažis. He is described as a monster with three mouths, six eyes, and
three heads, cunning, strong, and demonic. In other respects Aži Dahāka has human qualities, and is never a mere animal. Aži Dahāka appears in several of the Avestan myths and is mentioned parenthetically in many more places in Zoroastrian literature. In a post-Avestan Zoroastrian text, the
Dēnkard, Aži Dahāka is possessed of all possible sins and evil counsels, the opposite of the good king
Jam (or
Jamshid). The name Dahāg (Dahāka) is punningly interpreted as meaning "having ten (
dah) sins". His mother is Wadag (or Ōdag), herself described as a great sinner, who committed incest with her son. In the Avesta, Aži Dahāka is said to have lived in the inaccessible fortress of Kuuirinta in the land of Baβri, where he worshipped the yazatas Arədvī Sūrā (
Anāhitā), divinity of the rivers, and
Vayu divinity of the storm-wind. Based on the similarity between Baβri and
Old Persian Bābiru (
Babylon), later Zoroastrians localized Aži Dahāka in Mesopotamia, though the identification is open to doubt. Aži Dahāka asked these two yazatas for power to depopulate the world. Being representatives of the Good, they refused. In one Avestan text, Aži Dahāka has a brother named Spitiyura. Together they attack the hero Yima (
Jamshid) and cut him in half with a saw, but are then beaten back by the
yazata Ātar, the divine spirit of fire. According to the post-Avestan texts, following the death of Jam ī Xšēd (
Jamshid), Dahāg gained kingly rule. Another late Zoroastrian text, the
Mēnog ī xrad, says this was ultimately good, because if Dahāg had not become king, the rule would have been taken by the immortal demon Xešm (
Aēšma), and so evil would have ruled upon the earth until the end of the world. Dahāg is said to have ruled for a thousand years, starting from 100 years after Jam lost his
Khvarenah, his royal glory (see
Jamshid). He is described as a sorcerer who ruled with the aid of demons, the
daevas (divs). The Avesta identifies the person who finally disposed of Aži Dahāka as
Θraētaona son of
Aθβiya, in Middle Persian called Frēdōn. The Avesta has little to say about the nature of Θraētaona's defeat of Aži Dahāka, other than that it enabled him to liberate Arənavāci and Savaŋhavāci, the two most beautiful women in the world. Later sources, especially the
Dēnkard, provide more detail. Feyredon is said to have been endowed with the divine radiance of kings (
Khvarenah, New Persian
farr) for life, and was able to defeat Dahāg, striking him with a mace. However, when he did so, vermin (snakes, insects and the like) emerged from the wounds, and the god
Ormazd told him not to kill Dahāg, lest the world become infected with these creatures. Instead, Frēdōn chained Dahāg up and imprisoned him on the mythical Mt. Damāvand (later identified with
Damāvand). The Middle Persian sources also prophesy that at the end of the world, Dahāg will at last burst his bonds and ravage the world, consuming one in three humans and livestock.
Kirsāsp, the ancient hero who had killed the Az ī Srūwar, returns to life to kill Dahāg. In the Denkard, Zahhak is said to be the originator of
Judaism ==Zahhak in the Shahname==