Aeshma (Aēšma) is the Younger Avestan name of Zoroastrianism's demon of "wrath." As a hypostatic entity, Aeshma is variously interpreted as "wrath," "rage," and "fury." His standard epithet is "of the bloody mace."
Tri-syllabic aeshma is already attested in Gathic Avestan as aeshema (aēšəma), though not yet - at that early stage - as an entity. The word has an Indo-Iranian root. In the Zoroastrian texts of the 9th-12th centuries, aeshma appears as Middle Persian eshm or kheshm, continuing in Pazend and New Persian as kashm. Judaism's Asmodai (Talmudic ʼšmdʼy, Book of Tobit asmodios) derives from Avestan aeshma.daeva.[1]
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