the evil god of the ancient Persians. According to the doctrine of the magi, there are two supreme principles—a good and an evil; the first the author of all good, and the other of all evil: the former represented by light, and the latter by darkness, as their truest symbols. The good principle they named Yezad or Yezdan, and Ormuzd or Hormizda, which the Greeks wrote Oromasdes; and the evil demon they called Ahriaman, and the Greeks Arimanus. Some of the magians held both these principles to have existed from all eternity; but this sect was reputed heterodox, the original doctrine being that the good principle only was eternal, and the other created.