Yazata

Yazata () is the Avestan word for a Zoroastrian concept with a wide range of meanings but generally signifying (or used as an epithet of) a divinity. The term literally means "worthy of worship or veneration", and is thus, in this more general sense, also applied to certain healing plants, primordial creatures, the fravashis of the dead, and to certain prayers that are themselves considered holy. The yazatas collectively are "the good powers under Ahura Mazda", who is "the greatest of the yazatas".

== Etymology == Yazata is an Avestan-language passive adjectival participle derived from yaz-; "to worship, to honor, to venerate", from Proto-Indo-European *yeh₂ǵ- (“to worship, revere, sacrifice”). The word yasna or yagna– "worship, sacrifice, oblation, prayer" – comes from the same root. A yaza+ ta is accordingly "a being worthy of worship", "an object of worship" or "a holy being".