Iran. A large silver plaque depicts Shapur II on horseback killing a deer, which in Zoroastrian belief represents the king who imposes divine order on demonic chaos. The universe, according to Zoroastrianism, is in fact a conflict between the rival forces of good and evil, and is not eternal. This idea of the conflict between good and evil also shaped parts of the Christian and Islamic religions, as well as pagan politics in the centuries that followed (think of the “Great Satan” cited by the ayatollahs or the Evil Empire cited by Ronald Reagan).
