Religion and beliefs of Iranian at the time of the Achaemenid

Religion and beliefs of Iranian at the time of the Achaemenid
Thinking about official religion or the religion of the majority of the Achaemenid is a very deep and difficult work, because there is no evidence of a regular system of religious belief during the Achaemenid Empire. But, still this is not a reason for the lack of Zoroastrian belief in Achaemenid Persia; because there are a lot of evidence of living Zoroastrians during the Achaemenid Darius onwards in Iran.
General beliefs about the religion of the Achaemenid Empire are two kinds. One: A belief that the religion of the Achaemenid Empire was Zoroastrianism, two: the Achaemenids had the same faith of the ancient Aryans.
The fundamental field of the Achaemenid religion is the ancient ritual of Aryan. One of its features is that no prophet spirit in each way that the concept of the prophet can be imagined could not affect this religion. This religion is a political religion which is created by great kings and for great kings. The fundamental concepts of this religion are known in the open form that Ahura Mazda the sky God has power over all things and he is wise and creates sky and earth. God is only one and he is superior to all other gods. King is the representative of Ahura Mazda on earth. This religion had its own special magic and prediction and necromancy but there was not any sports in the form of ecstasy modes. Unusual irritation and mental flight that the human does not take his hand from it by interest was searched in a simple existence.
General state of the Achaemenid religion
What can be said certainty is that Achaemenid Empire were smoothly and purely familiar with this religion at the beginning of Zoroastrianism. The Zoroastrian method was completely out of its original shape and its structure was not changed by beliefs and religions in other nations and tribes who dealt with the Iranians. However, there is little evidence in the reconstruction of the early religion of the Achaemenid era that if we decide to reconstruct completely by these little evidence, we would not have a good end.
But what we achieve at the beginning is a type of refined and smooth monolithic that at that time seemed very strange. The attention devoted to monotheism, or one way of monotheism in which the previous polytheistic ways still recognize themselves with it is necessary to emergence in an ethnic or leakage of the people think that have too much scientific view and consciousness. Because we know that it is only the science that whatever progresses, polytheists and multi-believing highly goes toward monotheism and sometimes multiple gods and such an approach would undoubtedly arise among the people that its prophet be Zoroaster. Parsian never built any statues, altar or temple in their style of worship and they did not consider any value for those who perform these works and even they called them mad. He concludes that perhaps the origin of this issue is that the Persians do not consider human attributes for God like the Greeks.
For religious ceremonies and giving victims, the Achaemenids did not build any temple and never sacrifice. They did not decorate the victim with ornaments and tapes and also, they did not play music and nor respect many of the other formalities, but also, when a Parsi wanted to sacrifice for gods, he brought his victim to a clean place and put some oleander flowers on his helmet. At the time of sacrificing, he never wanted blessing and charity only for himself but also, he prayed for all Persians and since, he was also one of the Persians and he was shared in this blessing. After that he divided the victim into small pieces and after cooking, he put it on a bed of fresh green weeds, especially clover. At this ceremony, it is necessary that one of the Magi be present and when there was no Magi, the sacrifice ceremony cannot be held. Magi sings a song at this time and after singing the song, the person who sacrificed the victim brought the meat to his house and used it in any way that he wanted.
The important issue is related to the dead and the customs about them. What is famous is that they had to put their dead people next to dogs and predatory and carnivorous birds before burying to torn them. This was done about Magi because they did this in the public view. But the Persians mummified their dead before burying them. Magi have many differences ideas with Egyptian priests, because Egyptian priests avoid killing animals, except at the time of sacrificing. But in contrast the Magi, kill many of the animals with voracity except dogs and even they considered ants as one of the dangerous terrestrial animals and sky birds and they killed them mindlessly.
Achaemenid Temples
Persians had temples that three temples have been discovered since the Achaemenid: one of them is in Pasargad that better and clearer constructions are remained until now. This temple was built by Cyrus, because the tomb reliefs of Naqsh-e Rustam shows the king who did a ceremony in front of a praise, while Ahura Mazda can be seen with his famous shape and it can be found that the religious ceremony was performed in the open air. The other one is near the tomb of Darius and it may be ordered by Darius. Another one is found in Susa and the evidence shows that it belongs to the time of Artaxerxes II. These temples are very simple and consist of a room like a cube-shaped tower which enters to it by stairs. Magi kept the fire glowing there. But it should be noted that these were limited and simple temples because rituals were performed in the open air. There is this possibility that there was other purposes in building these constructions.