Subcategories
Adversaries
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Figures cast as the opponent, filed with the tradition that casts them. The heading records a role, not a nature, and the role is not the same in each case. Angra Mainyu is a genuine counter principle in Zoroastrian thought. The satan of the Hebrew Bible is an accuser within the divine court rather than an enemy of God. Mara tempts the Buddha but remains subject to the same conditions as any other being, and Iblis in the Quran is a jinn who refuses to bow. Set was worshipped as an Egyptian god long before later readers made him a villain.
Facts
Status
Standing as a Comparative CategoryUsed, but its validity as a comparative category is disputed. Reading Angra Mainyu, Satan, Iblis and Mara as one role flattens genuinely different accounts: in Zoroastrianism the hostile spirit is a counter-principle coeval with the good creator, which is exactly what the adversary of the monotheisms is not. 3 Overview
What Defines This GroupingA comparative heading rather than a category any one tradition uses: figures cast as the opponent of a tradition's central figures or of the moral order. 2 Learn More
The adversaries
This group gathers adversaries, the figures who oppose the heroes, gods or faithful of a tradition: tempters, enemies and embodiments of resistance to the divine or moral order. The adversary is a recurring role across mythologies.
The browser will find the opposing figures the atlas classes here. The entries describe each within their narrative, noting how different traditions frame the source and meaning of opposition to the good.
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