The Scythians in the plains of Northern Asia, the most dangerous neighbors of Persia, worshipped their highest deity under the symbol of a serpent, and it was natural that the snake Afrasiâb, 2 the god of the enemy, became identified with the archfiend Ahriman. Zoroaster not only degraded the old nature-gods, the daêvas, into demons,īut also regarded them as representatives of a fiendish power which he called Angrô Mainyush, or Ahriman, which means "the evil spirit," and Druj, 1 i. Zoroaster appears in the Gathas as a priest of the highest rank who became the leader of the Ahura party. There were two religious parties in the days of Zoroaster: the worshippers of the daêvas or nature-gods, and the worshippers of Ahura, the Lord. "That any forgery is present in the Gathas, any desire to palm off doctrines upon the sacred community in the name of the great prophet, as in the Vendidad and later Yasna, is quite out of the question. ![]() "Their doctrines and exhortations concern an actual religious movement taking place contemporaneously with their composition and that movement was exceptionally pure and most earnest. The Gathas profess to be written by Zoroaster who appears in them not as a demigod but as a struggling and suffering man, sometimes elated by the grandeur of his aspirations, firmly convinced of his prophetic mission, and then again dejected and full of doubt as to the final success of the movement to which he devoted all his energies. ![]() The Gathas are hymns they are a product of the fifth and sixth centuries before Christ, the authenticity of which is sufficiently proved not only by the later Persian literature, the Pahlavi books, but also by Greek authors, especially by passages quoted in Plutarch and Diogenes Laertes from Theopompus, who wrote at the end of the fourth century before Christ. The spiritual spark of regeneration lingered among the embers and was destined soon to burst into the flame of Persian power that swept over decaying Media and formed the beacon-torch that lighted up the land of Iran in early history." Although tradition tells us the sad story that the fire of the sacred altar was quenched in the blood of the priests when Turan stormed Balkh, this momentary defeat was but the gatheringįorce of victory triumph was at hand. This was that same savage race in history at whose door the death of victorious Cyrus is laid. A fierce religious war, which in a way was fatal to Bactria, seems to have ensued with Turan. Allusions to this crusade are not uncommon in Zoroastrian literature. Born, as I believe, in Atropatene, to the west of Media, this prophet without honor in his own country met with a congenial soil for the seeds of his teaching in eastern Iran His ringing voice of reform and of a nobler faith found an answering echo in the heart of the Bactrian king Vishtaspa, whose strong arm gave necessary support to the crusade that spread the new faith west and east throughout the land of Iran. "The kingdom of Bactria was the scene of Zoroaster's zealous ministry, as I presume. This proves that the kings of the Achæmenian dynasty were Zoroastrians. West 2 points out that the calendar reform, in which the old Persian names of the months were supplanted by Zoroastrian names, was introduced in the year 505 B. Williams Jackson in an essay "On the Date of Zoroaster" 1 arrives at the conclusion that he lived between the latter half of the seventh and the middle of the sixth century, and Dr. Have the documentary evidence in the "Gathas" that he was a real historical personality. ![]() Nevertheless, and although we know little of Zoroaster's life, we ![]() Zoroaster is in all later writings represented as a demigod, a fact which suggested to Professor Darmesteter the idea that he was a mythical figure. The field was ripe for the harvest when he appeared, and others must have prepared the way for his movement. Zoroaster, the great prophet of Mazdaism (the belief in Mazda, the Omniscient One), it is rightly assumed, was not so much the founder of a new era as the concluding link in a long chain of aspiring prophets before him. The founder of Persian dualism was Zarathustra, or, as the Greeks called him, "Zoroaster"-a name which in its literal translation means "golden splendor." HE TRANSITION from Devil-worship to God-worship marks the origin of civilisation and among the nations of antiquity the Persians seem to have been the first who took this step with conscious deliberation, for they most earnestly insisted upon the contrast that obtains between good and evil, so much so that their religion is even to-day regarded as the most consistent form of dualism. History of the Devil, by Paul Carus,, at
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