What is the name of the first human in Zoroastrian mythology?

Gayomard is the first human in Zoroastrian mythology.

His Avestan name, Gayō Marətan, is commonly understood as meaning “mortal life” or “living mortal.” In Zoroastrian creation traditions, Gayomard is a primordial human figure created by Ahura Mazda. Some accounts describe him as neither male nor female, emphasizing that he belongs to the earliest, mythic stage of creation rather than ordinary human genealogy.

The evil spirit Angra Mainyu eventually attacks and kills Gayomard. In later creation narratives, his transformed remains help generate the material world and the first human couple. The precise details vary across the Avesta, Middle Persian theological works, and later Persian literature, so the figure’s story developed over many centuries.

Gayomard is also known as Gayomart, Kayomars, or Keyumars. In Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh, he appears as Keyumars, the first king of the world and a culture-bearing ancestor. That literary version explains why readers may encounter a different name or a royal role. Tahmuras, Fereydun, and Jamshid are important legendary Iranian rulers, but they come later in the mythic sequence and are not the first human.