Editing Saoshyant (section)

==In tradition==
Already alluded to in scripture (e.g. ''Yasht'' 19.88-96, see above), but only properly developed in the 9th&ndash;12th century texts, is the role of the Saoshyant during the final renovation. In these [[Middle Persian]] texts, the name is contracted to ''Soshans'' or similar (''Sōshans'' in living Zoroastrianism).

Those medieval works of Zoroastrian tradition envision three future saviours, each of them a Soshans/Saoshyant, with one for the end of each thousand-year period that comprise the last 3,000 years of the world (these three millennia follow the "millennium of Zoroaster"). According to the tradition (found e.g. in the ''[[Jamasp Namag]]''), the first Saoshyant will be named (H)Ushedar, the second (H)Ushedarmah and the third will again be ''the'' Saoshyant, who will lead humanity in the final battle against evil. The medieval works also transmit a tradition in which the three future saviours are mythologised as born of maidens, conceived while their mothers bathed in a lake that miraculously preserved the seed of the prophet Zoroaster himself. 

The story of the Saoshyant's conception and early life are described in ''[[Denkard]]'' 7.10.15ff as follows: Thirty years before the decisive final battle<!-- 7.10.15-->, a maiden named Eredat-fedhri ("Victorious Helper") and whose nickname is "Body-maker"<!--.15--> will enter a lake (in Yasht 19.92, this is "Lake Kansava"). Sitting in the water, the girl, who has "not associated with men"<!--.18--> will receive "victorious knowledge."<!--actually ''Yasht'' 19.92--> Her son, when born, will not know nourishment from his mother, his body will be sun-like, and the "royal glory" of the [[Khvarenah]] will be with him. Then, for the next 57 years he will subsist on only vegetables (17 years), then only water (30 years) and then for the final 10 years only on "spiritual food."

The events of the final renovation are described in the ''[[Bundahishn]]'' (30.1ff): In the final battle with evil, the [[yazata]]s [[Airyaman]] and [[Atar]] will "melt the metal in the hills and mountains, and it will be upon the earth like a river" (''Bundahishn'' 34.18) but the righteous (i.e., the ''[[ashavan]]'') will not be harmed. Eventually, [[Ahura Mazda]] will triumph, and his agent Saoshyant will resurrect the dead, whose bodies will be restored to eternal perfection, and whose souls will be cleansed and reunited with God. Time will then end, and ''asha'' and immortality will thereafter be everlasting.