ColossiansOne

Side by side, from the sources

Satan vs Angra Mainyu

One of these is descended from the other: the later figure inherits the earlier one's name, and usually very little else. Structural rather than lexical: the organised adversary with an army and a final judgment.

Demonic · Infernal Court · c. 400 BCE

Satan

also called ha-Satan, The Adversary, Shaitan, The Devil, Satanas, Shaytan, Sam Hill, Lord of This World

Not originally a name but an office — 'the accuser'. In Job he is a member of the divine court doing his job; only later does he become the enemy.

Alignment
Fallen
Rank
Adversary
First attested
Hebrew Bible & Deuterocanon · c. 900–100 BCE
Named there as
ha-Satan
Texts naming it
5
Powers attributed
5
97attestedChristianJewishIslamic

Deity · Persian · c. 1000 BCE

Angra Mainyu

also called Ahriman, The Destructive Spirit, Arimanius, 𐬀𐬢𐬭𐬀⸱𐬨𐬀𐬌𐬥𐬌𐬌𐬎

The hostile principle, with his own army of daevas — the first fully developed adversary in the record, and the likely structural template for Satan.

Alignment
Infernal
Rank
The Destructive Spirit
First attested
The Avesta · c. 1000-400 BCE
Named there as
Angra Mainyu
Texts naming it
3
Powers attributed
4
66attestedZoroastrian

Where do they actually overlap?

Texts naming both

None. The two never appear in the same text in this corpus, which is worth knowing before accepting any confident claim that they are one figure.

Powers credited to both

Commands LegionsCauses SicknessDeceives & Tempts

Common questions

Are Satan and Angra Mainyu the same figure?

One of these is descended from the other: the later figure inherits the earlier one's name, and usually very little else. Structural rather than lexical: the organised adversary with an army and a final judgment. ColossiansOne records the link rather than asserting the identity: where texts disagree about whether two names denote one figure, the disagreement is what gets shown.

Which is older, Satan or Angra Mainyu?

Angra Mainyu is the older name: first attested around c. 1000 BCE, against c. 400 BCE for Satan. Where the two dates are far apart, that gap is the whole reason the pair is worth comparing.

Do any texts name both Satan and Angra Mainyu?

No text in this corpus names both. That is not proof they were considered the same figure, but it is why the identification has to be traced through the scholarship rather than read off a page.
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