AMESHA SPENTAS. In the Zoroastrian tradition, the Amesha Spentas (Av.; MPers., Amahraspandān), or "beneficent immortals,"are an important group of entities surrounding Ahura Mazdā and figuring significantly in the Gāthās. From one point of view, they are aspects of divinity; from another they are personifications of abstract concepts. They do not exist independently but find their raison d'être in a system of interrelations and correlations among themselves. Since the divine is mirrored in the corporeal world, they gradually assumed, in theological speculations, correspondences with material elements as well. This explains the later, Manichaean use of amahraspandān to refer to the five luminous elements: ether, wind, light, water, and fire. The collective name of the Amesha Spentas and their definiton as a set of six or seven immortals (if the two spirits Spenta Mainyu and Ahura Mazdā are included) is found in...