Myths, Religions & Legends Power Ranking TOP100
I wrote a book ranking the most powerful gods, monsters, and heroes from world mythology, religion, and legend in order of strength! Of course, the rankings reflect a great deal of my own subjective judgment, but the reasoning behind each placement is grounded in the lore and episodes of each mythology, so I think it’s a book that will feel reasonably convincing.
This time I’d like to introduce some of the characters featured in the book’s ranking. Of course, many more characters appear in the ranking beyond those introduced here, so I think anyone interested in mythology, religion, and legend will enjoy it!
Rank 53: Verethragna (Zoroastrianism)
Overview
Verethragna is regarded as a divine warrior and hero god in Zoroastrianism, and is also said to be a deity who personifies “Victory” itself.
His defining power is the “Ten Transformations” — he can take on ten different forms: a 15-year-old youth, an armed warrior, a strong wind, a bull, a white horse, a camel, a boar, a phoenix, a ram, and a mountain goat.
Among these, he is most often depicted in the form of a boar guiding the contract deity Mithra.
Verethragna is ranked among the highest of the “Yazata” (lesser divine beings) of Zoroastrianism — alongside Mithra — but Zoroastrianism itself has almost no depictions of the gods fighting, and about all we can gather regarding Verethragna is that he, along with Mithra and the “Amesha Spenta” (higher divine beings), fought against Angra Mainyu and Azi Dahaka and drove them back.
Reason for This Ranking
Verethragna is the highest-ranking war god in Zoroastrianism, and his “Ten Transformations” are so iconic that they have been compared to the avatars of Vishnu in Indian mythology.
On the other hand, there are almost no episodes in the mythology in which he actually demonstrates his power — and since he is also one of the Yazata, who are ranked below the Amesha Spenta, he does feel somewhat lower in rank compared to the supreme gods of other mythologies.
Well, the Amesha Spenta are almost like fragments of the omniscient, omnipotent god Ahura Mazda, so being ranked below them may be unavoidable.
There are no clear scenes in the mythology showing his power, and much about the extent of the Ten Transformations remains uncertain — making his ranking position very difficult to determine. But considering his standing as the supreme war god of Zoroastrianism and his authority over Victory itself, he should be formidably strong in ordinary combat.
However, the evil dragon Azi Dahaka within the same mythology is described as a being not even the gods can destroy, which means Verethragna does not have the power to defeat Azi Dahaka single-handedly — taking this into account as well, I judged this position in the ranking to be appropriate.
