Daeva

A daeva (Avestan: 𐬛𐬀𐬉𐬎𐬎𐬀 daēuua) is a Zoroastrian supernatural entity with disagreeable characteristics. In the Gathas, the oldest texts of the Zoroastrian canon, the daevas are "gods that are (to be) rejected". This meaning is – subject to interpretation – perhaps also evident in the Old Persian "daiva inscription" of the 5th century BCE. In the Younger Avesta, the daevas are divinities that promote chaos and disorder. In later tradition and folklore, the dēws (Zoroastrian Middle Persian; New Persian divs) are personifications of every imaginable evil. Over time, the Daeva myth as Div became integrated to Islam.

Daeva, the Iranian language term, shares the same origin of "Deva" of Hinduism, which is a cognate with Latin deus ("god") and Greek Zeus. While the word for the Vedic spirits and the word for the Zoroastrian entities are etymologically related, their function and thematic development is altogether different. Originally, the term was used to denote beings of cultural folklore which predate use in scripture.

Equivalents for Avestan daeva in Iranian languages include Pashto, Balochi, Kurdish dêw, Persian dīv/deev.^[1] The Iranian word was borrowed by Old Armenian as dew, Georgian as devi, Urdu as deo, and Turkish as dev ^[2] with the same negative associations in those languages. In English, the word appears as daeva, div, deev, and in the 18th century fantasy novels of William Thomas Beckford as dive.

It has been speculated that the concept of the daevas as a malevolent force may have been inspired from the Scythian gods.^[3]

^ Yves Bonnefoy Asian Mythologies University of Chicago Press 1993 ISBN 978-0-226-06456-7 p. 322
^ "Dev".
^ Mary Boyce, A History of Zoroastrianism: Volume II: Under the Achaemenians, BRILL, 1982

[1] Yves Bonnefoy Asian Mythologies University of Chicago Press 1993 ISBN 978-0-226-06456-7 p. 322

[2] "Dev".

[3] Mary Boyce, A History of Zoroastrianism: Volume II: Under the Achaemenians, BRILL, 1982

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