Yima

Angra-Mainyu grew jealous of Yima's success and of humankind's happiness. In Persian Mythology, he secretly planned three successive winters of devastating cold. Ahura-Mazda knew what was coming and hurried to warn Yima. He told Yima to construct a vara, a cave-like shelter for selected people and animals.

The vara had to be two miles long on every side of its square, four square miles in total. Ahura-Mazda ordered Yima to bring inside the seeds of sheep and oxen, people, dogs, birds and other species. Yima had to establish dwelling places for those gathered there. Ahura-Mazda described fierce and deadly frost, with snow falling thickly and deeply on the highest mountain tops. Before the cold arrived, Yima gathered the selected people and animals inside the enclosure. The warning came before the three winters began.

Outside, the winter became so severe that those who remained there froze to death. The awful arctic blasts ended, and warmth returned to the world. Yima then stepped out of the vara, followed by the people and animals he had saved. They proceeded to replenish the barren lands.