As psychopomps, they were the same as Valkyries or Hindu apsaras, the HEAVENLY NYMPHS nymphs who became peris, "faeries", in Middle-Eastern countries where the Old Religion was also maintained as a sub-current in patriarchal culture
http://www.angelfire.com/realm2/pixiesplayground/legends.htm

The belief in a race of supernatural beings, midway between man and the Supreme God, beautiful and beneficent, a race that had never known the weight of human life, was also part of the creed of the Iranian people. They called them Peris, or Ferouers (fairies); and they have some pretty legends concerning the beautiful Dukhtari Shah Perian, the "Daughter of the King of the Fairies," for a sight of whose beauty men pine away in vain desire, but if it is granted to them once to behold her, they die. Every nation believes in the existence of these mysterious spirits, with mystic and powerful influence over human life and actions, but each nation represents them differently, according to national habits and national surroundings
http://www.angelfire.com/realm2/pixiesplayground/legends.htm