The religion of Medes: The Reassessment

It is now commonly accepted that so called “Median empire” was not the predecessor of the Achaemenid Persia, and the term “empire” for the polity build by Medes is inadequate. Most probably, they were semi-nomadic people, who formed a kind of loose confederation, what is especially evidenced on the basis of cuneiform sources. These opinions, which are generally effect of recent studies on the subject, did not found reflections in the studies on the religion of this ethnic group. In the secondary literature, the old opinion that Medes were Zoroastrians and through their mediation, Persians became followers of this religion, remained unchallenged. Present paper will show that this opinion is obviously out of date, and there is no evidence for serious Median influences on Persian religion.
On the other hand, it seems that Median culture was in a large degree dependant of contacts with Iranian nomadic peoples, like Scythians. In addition, the beliefs of these two ethnic groups appear to be closely related. Certainly, the available sources do not allow for attributing Zoroastrianism to Medes, and even the use of more general term of Mazdaism, that is the cult of Ahura Mazda, should be very cautious. It seems that the beliefs of the Medes were more closely linked to Old Iranian roots. In present paper, the evidence for such a character of Median religion will be presented, and the old theories will be evaluated.