Mythology & Religion Power Ranking TOP100
I wrote a book ranking the most powerful gods, monsters, and heroes from world mythologies, religions, and legends in order of strength! Of course, the rankings reflect a fair amount of my personal opinion, but the reasoning behind each placement is grounded in the actual lore and episodes from each mythology, so I think it makes for a fairly convincing read.
In this series, I’d like to introduce some of the characters featured in the book’s ranking. There are plenty of other characters beyond the ones covered here, so I think anyone interested in mythology, religion, or legends will find it an enjoyable read!
Rank 9: Angra Mainyu (Zoroastrianism)
Overview
Angra Mainyu (also known as Ahriman) is the absolute embodiment of evil in Zoroastrianism — the sworn enemy of the good god Ahura Mazda. Angra Mainyu governs darkness and destruction, bringing every conceivable evil and calamity upon the world.
Zoroastrianism is a religion of “dualism” — the conflict between the omniscient and omnipotent good god “Ahura Mazda” and the absolute evil god “Angra Mainyu” is its central theme.
Whenever Ahura Mazda created the world of light and living beings, Angra Mainyu would spawn things like winter and disease to destroy it. Whenever Ahura Mazda created good divine beings (the Amesha Spentas and Yazatas) to protect the world, Angra Mainyu would bring forth evil deities (the Daevas) and the evil dragon Azi Dahaka to tear it apart.
In this way, Zoroastrianism holds that all good in the world was created by Ahura Mazda, while all evil was brought into existence by Angra Mainyu — this duality is the fundamental worldview of the religion.
Angra Mainyu is also immortal and cannot be completely destroyed. At the same time, he is unable to fully defeat Ahura Mazda either, and the two are fated to wage eternal war.
However, Zoroastrianism holds that the universe has a lifespan of 12,000 years, and at the end of the world (the Frashokereti), the savior Saoshyant will appear and, together with Ahura Mazda and the forces of good, destroy Angra Mainyu and all the evil he has created.
Ranking Reason
The fact that Angra Mainyu has fought Ahura Mazda — an omniscient and omnipotent god — for virtually all of eternity makes it undeniable that he is a being comparable to omnipotence itself.
However, in the battle before the universe began, he is said to have been cast into the abyss at some point, and it is foretold that he will ultimately be destroyed — which does make him subordinate to Ahura Mazda in terms of overall standing.
That said, the fact that he has created numerous beings — including Azi Dahaka — powerful enough to potentially destroy the world suggests that his power is far beyond what a mere “destroyer” classification would imply.
Furthermore, while he is an evil being, he is also a creator deity who brought into existence half the universe. Combined with the fact that he is completely immortal (until the very end of days, even Ahura Mazda cannot destroy him), I judged this ranking position to be appropriate.
