Jawnomicon

Pairika

Also called Peri, Parīk.

In pre-Islamic Persian (Zoroastrian) folklore, the Pairika is a female demon of seductive beauty and shapeshifting deceit, later softened by Islamic-era Persian literature into the benevolent Peri.

At a glance

Tradition
Persian mythology
Region
Persia (place of origin)
Trait family
The Impervious

Near this figure

Traits

Read from the figure's description, which a model wrote. Open "why" for the sentence a trait came from.

Form

  • Mouthless being subsists on scent
    why

    By contrast, the later Peri of Persian and wider Islamicate literature (including its passage into Arabic and Ottoman Turkish storytelling) is typically imagined as a winged, radiantly beautiful being who subsists on perfume or scent rather than food, dwells in hidden gardens or the mythical land of Peristan, and is often at war with the malevolent jinn or div, reversing the Pairika's original allegiance with the forces of darkness.

Behaviour

  • Vanishes-like a falling star
    why

    In some tellings she flies through the air as a shooting star or meteor, her fall to earth a visible sign of her demonic nature being driven off by holy words or by the arrows of a righteous archer.

Utility powers

  • Illusion crafting
    why

    The Pairika's powers in Zoroastrian sources center on seduction and illusion: she can assume a beautiful female form to tempt the virtuous, and some Avestan passages associate her with disrupting the heavenly bodies and bringing about eclipses or failed harvests.

  • Flight
    why

    In some tellings she flies through the air as a shooting star or meteor, her fall to earth a visible sign of her demonic nature being driven off by holy words or by the arrows of a righteous archer.

Roles

Judged from the works' own entries, not from the description. Carries: the figure holds the role. Meets: the role is in its stories, held by something it meets.