Table of Contents

  • APĄM NAPĀT

    M. Boyce

    (Son of the Waters), Zoroastrian divinity of mysterious character whose true identity, like that of his Vedic counterpart, Apām Napāt, has been much debated.

  • APAMA

    A. Sh. Shahbazi

    name of several noble women of the Achaemenid and Hellenistic periods, probably related to the Av. apama- “the latest,” hence “the youngest [child], nestling.”

  • APARIMITĀYUḤ-SŪTRA

    R. E. Emmerick

    a Buddhist text belonging to the Mahāyāna tradition. It is concerned with the merit obtained by recalling the Buddha called Aparimitāyurjñānasuviniścitarāja.

  • APARNA

    P. Lecoq

    (Gk. Aparnoi/Parnoi, Lat. Aparni or Parni), an east Iranian tribe established on the Ochos (modern Taǰen, Teǰend) and one of the three tribes in the confederation of the Dahae.

  • APASIACAE

    R. Schmitt

    name of a nomadic tribe belonging to the Scythian Massagetae, not attested in Iranian sources.

  • APHORISM

    P. Sprachman

    “short sentences drawn from long experience” to Cervantes, “the wisdom of many, the wit of one” to Lord Russell, the terms proverb, aphorism, maxim have evaded strict definition and demarcation.

  • APOCALYPTIC

    M. Boyce, I. K. Poonawala

    (that which has been revealed). The use of the term apocalyptic to define a particular type of prophetic utterance is a development of Judaeo-Christian studies, in which a need was felt to mark a distinction between the ancient prophets and the pseudonymous ones who flourished mainly in the intertestamental period.

  • APOLLODORUS OF ARTIMITA

    M. L. Chaumont

    historian of the 1st century B.C. or later, author of a Parthian History.

  • APOPHTHEGMATA PATRUM

    N. Sims-Williams

    (Maxims of the fathers), Graeco-Latin name customarily used to refer to a species of Christian literature consisting of sayings and edifying anecdotes of the monks and solitary ascetics who inhabited the deserts of Egypt during the early centuries of the Christian era.

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  • APŌŠ

    C. J. Brunner

    Middle Persian for Av. Apaoša, the demon of drought.