Sraosha

Sraosha is the Avestan language name of the Zoroastrian yazata of "Obedience" or "Observance", which is also the literal meaning of his name.

In the Middle Persian commentaries of the 9th-12th centuries, the divinity appears as S(a)rosh. This form appears in many variants in New Persian as well, for example Perso-Arabic سروش, Sorūsh. Unlike many of the other Yazatas (concepts that are "worthy of adoration").

Sraosha is also frequently referred to as the "Voice of Conscience", which overlaps with both "Obedience" and as his role as the "Teacher of Daena", Daena being the hypostasis of both "Conscience" and "Religion".

In scripture

In Zoroaster's revelation

Sraosha is already attested in the Gathas, the oldest texts of Zoroastrianism and believed to have been composed by Zoroaster himself. In these earliest texts, Sraosha is routinely associated with the Amesha Spentas, the six "Bounteous Immortals" through which Ahura Mazda realized ("created by His thought") creation.

In the Gathas, Sraosha's primary function is to propagate the religion of Ahura Mazda to humanity, as Sraosha himself learned it from Ahura Mazda. This is only obliquely alluded to in these old verses but is only properly developed in later texts (Yasna 57.24, Yasht 11.14 etc.). Directly evident in the Gathas is the description as the strongest, the sturdiest, the most active, the swiftest, and the most awe-inspiring of youths (Yasna 57.13), and as the figure that the poor look to for support (57.10).