1.Zoroastrianism is one of the oldest living religions in the world and it began to flourish in ancient Iran, which was known as Persia. Zoroastrianism began in the fifth or fourth century due to the influence of the Persian Empire.
2.Zoroastrianism spread beyond the Persian Empire thanks to them being conquered by Alexander the Great and caused all aspects of Persian culture to spread.
3.An angel called Good Thought brought him as a disembodied soul before Ahura Mazda, the wise lord. Zarathustra recognized Ahura Mazda as the one true God. He went around preaching the radical message of monotheism to his polytheistic society.
4.The sacred text of Zoroastrianism is called the Avesta. The oldest part of this text is the Gathas which are seventeen hymns written by Zarathustra.
5.Ahura Mazda is eternal and universal goodness, controlling the cosmos and the destiny of humans. Ahura is the creator of everything.
6.Ethical Dualism is the belief in universal forces of good and evil.
7.The lie is an evil cosmic force that opposes Ahura who is good.
8.Humans must choose between the truth (good) and the lie (evil).
9.Zarathustra doctrine on human destiny discusses resurrection and judgment of the dead and that a human either goes to heaven or hell depending on the choices they made.
10.The general ethical demands of traditional Zoroastrian life are caring for livestock and fields.
11.The Parsis are the followers of Zoroastrianism and the majority of them live in India today.
12.The Iliad and the Odyssey are commonly regarded as being the Bible for ancient Greeks.
13.The sentence saying the gods of Olympus are anthropomorphic means they had human attributes such as talents and limitations.
14.Aeshylus’ main contribution to the understanding of the gods was that he introduced the concept of divine justice. An example would be in the play Agamemnon he writes that suffering is a necessary part of the divine plan of Zeus.
15.An oracle is a sanctuary at which revelations of a god are received. The most famous oracle in ancient Greece is Delphi and she was consulted because Greeks sought the wisdom of Apollo through her.
16.The three basic aspects of the mystery religions are that individuals went through an initiation ceremony, the initiates experienced an encounter with a deity, and the initiates gained a spiritual renewal, which will help them in the afterlife.
17.The mystery religion that honored Demeter and Persephone was Eleusinian religion.
18.Dionysus is mainly associated as the god of fertility and is usually depicted with wine and grapes.
19.The goal of the ascetic practices of the Orphics was to lead a pure life.
20.Plato’s theory of knowledge is that we know things in this life specifically because we have experienced them in our past life.
21.Platonic dualism says that the truth of the world is independent from any bodily or material ideas in reality. Truth lies within oneself that can only be found through wisdom.
22.Jesus seemed to have much in common with ancient Asclepius because they were both revered as saviors who had a strong relationship with their followers.
23.The Numina were supernatural beings that were in charge of specific functions such as populating towns. They were able to inhabit streams, fields, and doorways.
24.The most powerful Roman deity was Jupiter.
25.The six planets of our solar system that are named after Roman deities are Neptune, Mercury, Jupiter, Saturn, Venus, and Mars.
26.The Roman state considered it essential to maintain official worshiping practices so that ways they would never anger the gods and they would always be at peace.
27.The mystery religions that were the main rivals of Christianity in the later Roman Empire were Mithraism and the Cult of Iris.
28.Osiris was killed and hacked to pieces by his evil brother. His wife Iris found the pieces and mummified them, causing him to come back to life.
29.Augustus told his worshipers to worship the Roman state and his guardian spirit.
30.Christian and Roman rulers argued over emperor worship because Romans believed the main focus of worship should be the state while Catholics believed it should be God and the Romans views contradicted their religion.
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