Compare And Contrast Achaemenid Persian Empire

Andrea Mendez

HST 210

Second Paper

9-20-2015

Title

The Achaemenid Persian Empire is known as one of the greatest and most powerful empires throughout history. However, what is not usually known is the fact that the Persian Empire became so powerful partly because it absorbed another relatively powerful territory that once was its own empire: The Egyptian. The Achaemenid Persian Empire was a multi-cultural and a multi-ethnic empire because it owned or governed many lands from modern territories such as, Iran, Jordan, Palestine to all the main cities of Ancient Egypt, to Central Asia, Pakistan, and many more. However, while the Persian Empire became very powerful, it differed from the Egyptian empire that came before it. The Achaemenid Persian

The approach to religion was different. For the Achaemenid Persian Empire during early years they followed a specific God named Marduk who was the one that inspired and made Cyrus the Great the first emperor, owner and governor of the Achaemenid Persian Empire. Therefore, the Achaemenid Persian Empire was a multi-religious and multi-cultural empire because they owned many territories such as Egypt, Palestine, Jordan and so on. In addition, Jews were free to follow their own traditions and “as the biblical books of Ezra and Nehemiah record, the Persian king allowed the Jews to return to Israel, where they then rebuilt their temple” (102). However, when Darius was in charge of the Achaemenid Persian Empire, the religion changed. Zoroastrianism was implemented as the new faith whose god was Ahura- Mazda. Therefore, the new faith presented two different paths, the good one known as Arta and the bad one know as Drauga whose god was Ahriman. In comparison, the Egyptian Empire followed one god named Horus. Therefore, Horus was the living pharaoh but the previous pharaoh would be called Osiris. In addition, the pharaoh believes in many rituals and traditions such as immortality, which played a huge part during the after life. The immortality was divided by a vital self named Ka, an individual self named Ba, and a transcendent spirit which was the only independent part of the body named Akh. Mummification was also an important ritual for the Egyptians in terms of religion and rituals. There were three ways to make mummification successful and it depended on your social class. Therefore, while both empires were heavily invested in religion, the Egyptian Empire was more strict because everyone was required to follow one religion, whereas in the Persian Empire different religious groups were allowed to worship their own gods and participate in their own rituals