How Indian Zoroastrians helped shape modern Iran

Re:How Indian Zoroastrians helped shape modern Iran by triceratops on Tuesday June 15, 2021 @08:46PM (#27523558)

The average person's knowledge of ancient Greece and Persia doesn't extend far beyond 300 and other sword and sandal type epics. They think of Greek deities as ancient history. Worship of the Greek pantheon isn't a mainstream thing. They probably don't give any thought to the ancient Persians' religion. Certainly I don't imagine most people know it's still around.

EDIT: Were the Achaemenid Persians (the "bad" guys in 300) even Zoroastrian? Or did Zoroastrianism come later?

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Re:How Indian Zoroastrians helped shape modern Iran by yazaddaruvala on Saturday June 19, 2021 @03:56PM (#27563876)

The story of 300 depicts the Persians in a very negative way lol. They don’t seem at all Zoroastrian in the movie (multiple idols, and weird rituals, no likeness of anything Zoroastrian shows up). It’s a great movie tho!

In reality those Persians were Zoroastrian, at least in name. I say “in name” because the Battle of Thermopylae (i.e. 300) would have been 500-2000 years after the creation of the Zoroastrian religion[0], I’m sure more than a little was altered/forgotten.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achaemenid_Empire

[0] We don’t have much recorded history that dates back that far and it’s a matter of academic debate when exactly the religion started.

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Re:How Indian Zoroastrians helped shape modern Iran by triceratops on Tuesday June 22, 2021 @11:58PM (#27600634)

> The story of 300 depicts the Persians in a very negative way lol

For sure. The movie's framing device is a Spartan soldier recounting a glorified version of the Battle of Thermopylae, and building up Leonidas as a heroic figure, as a way to fire up the troops for the next battle against the Persians. That's why I put "bad" in quotes - it's Spartan propaganda.

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