Jahi

Jahi is the Avestan language name of Zoroastrianism's demoness of "lasciviousness." As a hypostatic entity, Jahi is variously interpreted as "hussy," "rake," "libertine," "courtesan" and "one who leads a licentious life." Her standard epithet is "the Whore." In Zoroastrian tradition, Jahi appears as Middle Persian Jeh (Jēh, J̌ēh), characterized as the consort of Ahriman and the cause of the menstrual cycle. In the hymn to Haoma, the devotee rejects the temptations of the "polluting whore" who "sits down devouring Haoma's sacrificial offering". In the hymn to Asha, the Holy term (manthra spenta) is an effective remedy against Jahi and other noxious creatures. In the hymn to Ashi (not to be confused with Asha), "Fortune" wails about how shamed she is by Jahi's improper actions. Jahi is characterized in the Vendidad as causing Ahura Mazda "the most grief". "Her gaze takes the colors away from a third of [world]". It also contains an oblique reference to Jahi's cosmological role as the killer of Gav-aevo.data (MP: Gawi ewdad), the primordial creature from whose seed all animal creation originates. In the Sudgar Nask fire is sickened by the stench and filth of Jahi and by the irritant "owing to the hussy who, dropping her knee on to the fire-stand, arranged her curls; the falling of damp and moisture from her head, with the hair and filth therefrom". In the Bundahishn, a Zoroastrian account of creation finished in the 11th or 12th century CE, Ohrmazd and Ahriman already co-exist at the beginning of time, but Ahriman is not immediately aware of Ohrmazd. During the first 3000 years (the first cosmic age), Ahriman espied the light of Ormuzd but "seeing valor and supremacy superior to his own, he fled back to the darkness and fashioned many demons — a creation destructive and ready for battle". Ohrmazd, being omniscient, knows of the inevitability of the attack and creates fire (Adur) "with his thought", with which the universe would subsequently be suffused with goodness (life).