It is a usual prayer to ask for the protection of Ormazd, together with that of these lesser powers (_hada bagaibish_).

Sometimes the phrase is varied, and the petition is for the special protection of a certain class of Deities--the _Dii familiares_--or "deities who guard the house." The worship of Mithra, or the Sun, does not appear in the inscriptions until the reign of Artaxerxes Mnemon, the victor of Cunaxa.

It is, however, impossible to doubt that it was a portion of the Persian religion, at least as early as the date of Herodotus.

Probably it belongs, in a certain sense, to primitive Zoroastrianism, but was kept in the background during the early period, when a less materialistic worship prevailed than suited the temper of later times.
Nor can it be doubted that the Persians held during this early period that Dualistic belief which has been the distinguishing feature of Zoroastrianism from a time long anterior to the commencement of the Median Empire down to the present day.

It was not to be expected that this belief would show itself in the inscriptions, unless in the faintest manner; and it can therefore excite no surprise that they are silent, or all but silent, on the point in question.